Scientific & Political Change

Mary Douglas's cultural theory proposes that there "a limited set of alternative ways of perceiving and resolving the issues. These contending policy perspectives justify, represent and stem from four different ways of organizing social relations: hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism and fatalism" (or variants of these names depending on the author). Here cultural theory is applied to climate change science and policies.

Why are so many conservatives still skeptical that global warming is a real problem and threat? It may have to do with the willingness to read opposing view points. Talks about echo chamber effect of modern partisan politics. References alternative to cap-and-trade (carbon tax offset by a payroll tax cut).

Jeff -- by looking at the "other" side I've found that there is probably a discourse / ideological framing that would be more life affirming and oriented towards sustainable growth that would still address carbon reductions but orient it at a more local level. Interested in checking out the resource you mention.

It might also have to do with the fact that media tends to exaggerate and provide inaccurate information with the purpose of selling more (like advertising, twisting the facts a little bit just to sell more). In the 70's it wasn't about global warming, it was about global cooling. I wonder what happen to that.

Soil Erosion

Questions whether, even in the face of natural disaster, liberals will be more likely than conservatives to state that those in need should receive governmental assistance.

Richard Louv is a well renowned author, best known for his book "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder" In this page, Louv presents a field guide based on his more recent work, "The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age". The guide is meant for citizens to help apply his principle to their daily lives in areas such as "Resources and Ideas for Creating a Restorative Home & Garden", "Creat(ing) a Natural Health Care System for Your Family and Community" and "Know(ing) Who You Are by Knowing Where You Are".

UK govt. sacks head of scientific panel on drug policy for publicly stating relative risk of ecstasy & marijuana.

Commentators ask: Is genetics understood well enough? Even if yes, should this be acceptable defence?

Thanks for this Felecia - I have been continuing to follow news about bees and CCD too. Interesting that this news was first acknowledged in France and other European countries a year or more before the US would start sharing the "news". The first study had many "problems" with the validity of the data according to some sources. But I knew it would only be a matter of time...It's interesting to think about the complexities of why science does or does not get into mainstream knowledge.

Link to the Massachusetts Curriculum frameworks by subject. Download-able pdfs and word documents.

Richard Louv discusses "nature deficit disorder" in this 12 minute video

Kendra - I read his book a few years back and can really appreciate his approach to "intelligence."

An interview between host Terry Gross and journalist Jeff Goodell about the interess behind climate change. Goodell spoke of the efforts of coal and fossil fuel industries to slow the Obama administration's efforts to implement a "cap and trade" program. What is particularly interesting is that Goodell speaks about the strong support the administration has from Wall Street and the large financial firms. The Carbon Market is poised to be the largest futures and derivatives market and investment houses will exact huge profits from processing these market transactions. This is clearly a major interest in promoting carbon emissions and the direness of the climate change debate.

NASA's James Hansen has nothing good to say about cap & trade, and the current regime of carbon offset management: http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/james-hansen. Also, a NY Times op-ed by Berndt Heinrich on the impact of commercial afforestation for globally traded carbon offsets: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/opinion/20heinrich.html -- my comments at http://groups.google.com/group/uml-climate-network/browse_thread/thread/95ccf43784f34532, referring to our own New York - New England Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has a similar forest offset allowance, with the condition of "additionality" -- http://www.rggi.org/offsets, http://www.rggi.org/offsets/offset_requirements. Alex_Brown@uml.edu

Seeing this news item this morning reminded me that, whenever a topic is raised in a course, one then starts to "see" news about it. I put "see" in scare quotes because most likely the topic was in the news before, but now one notices it. On the substance of the news item, it does show that sometimes business picks up on the science even when it remains contested by politics. For example, nuclear power plants are not being built in most part because corporations with millions of dollars cannot see themselves making a profit and bearing the risk.

Peter - Thanks for posting this. It will be interesting to see what they disclose and to consider what thought process they used for preparing these reports.

Just trying out Diigo for the first time and linking to a book that I would like to follow up with.

From Peter the instructor: Thanks for trying out diigo. For future posts, provide an annotation that helps viewers decide whether or not to click on the link to read more.

See essay review of the book: Taylor, P.J. "Biology as Politics: The Direct and Indirect Effects of Lewontin and Levins," Science as Culture, 19(2): 241-253, 2010. Abstract: Lewontin and Levins's contributions are viewed from four angles: a more vigorous culture of science criticism; a visible college of Marxist scientists in the USA; inquiries into the diverse social influences shaping science; and motivating readers who want to pursue their science as a political project. Indirect contributions-influences on and appropriations by other actors in the wider realm of biology as politics-are discussed as well as the more direct effects.

This group presents on 4/24 from 7-9pm as part of the Cambridge Science Festival

Great link and they have podcasts too.

We spent two years working with lawyers to design a contract - learning from the best aspects of other pharmaceutical companies - to ensure that the Amazonian people benefit from a percentage of any profits with conservation and education initiatives. We are distributing the money through trusted, long-term local NGOs. So far we have created a beautiful medicine garden to conserve plants used for women's health. We also want to build a training centre to teach the community the medicine and remedy-making skills I learned, but which the new generation has lost.

Climate Central has some amazing visual aids on natural disasters, global warming, floods, etc. This video covers the timeframe 1880 to the present.

I placed this here in our group because I thought some of my classmates might find these useful after our discussions on Wednesday.

Doing good things better is Brian's latest book. He is prolific and in this book he describes the discipline of daily writing that he used to write this book (and previous work) -- and that he leads his students to use. The principles of daily writing are given in brief at http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/DailyWriting.html. Looking at Brian's website of writing, you will find material on activism, especially around developments in science and technology, but not only this.

So a couple of these annotated resources are seeming to point to the need for compelling and clear stories and communication. That would be interesting to follow up. And not just the dissemination of ideas, but the support for dialogue and deliberation.

Just found this too and wonder if there might be further work to look into. http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/marketing-communication/storytelling-and-social-change

On Point looks at rising water lines on the coasts - A big new prediction of coastal flooding and sea levels rise. We'll look at the moving edge of the water.

A group of sci­en­tists is call­ing for major fed­eral ac­tion in order to deal with the threat posed by Mon­santo's GMO crops, now pe­ti­tion­ing the EPA to ad­dress the issue head on.

Thanks Felicia - This supports what I had read about Monsanto corn during my CCD research. But I was not aware of the BT-rootworm issue, only the super-weeds mutating because of RoundUp resistance that has also been genetically modified in Monsanto corn. Honeybees do collect pollen from corn when they are desperate even though they are not needed for pollination of corn.

This article is by a leading member of the STEPS centre at the U. Sussex, which addresses sustainability, development & environmental change