[ECOLOG-L] Fwd: An Atlas for the End of the World

[Ashwani Vasishth]

<http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/index_0.html>

ATLAS /for the/ END /of the/ WORLD 
<http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/index_0.html>


<http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/index_0.html>

Coming almost 450 years after the world's first Atlas, this Atlas for 
the End of the World audits the status of land use and urbanization in 
the most critically endangered bioregions on Earth. It does so, firstly, 
by measuring the quantity of protected area across the world's 36 
biodiversity hotspots in comparison to United Nation's 2020 targets; and 
secondly, by identifying where future urban growth in these territories 
is on a collision course with endangered species.


By bringing urbanization and conservation together in the same study, 
the essays, maps, data, and artwork in this Atlas lay essential 
groundwork for the future planning and design of hotspot cities and 
regions as interdependent ecological and economic systems.


-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth vasis...@ramapo.edu  (201) 684-6616
http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~vasishth
   
  Associate Professor of Sustainability Planning
Director, Center for Sustainability
  http://ramapo.edu/sustainability

Ramapo College of New Jersey
  505 Ramapo Valley Road, SSHS, Mahwah, NJ 07430
  



 Forwarded Message 
Subject:An Atlas for the End of the World
Date:   Fri, 04 Aug 2017 12:28:33 -0400
From:   David Duthie 
Reply-To:   bioplan 
To: bioplan 



Dear BIOPLANNERS,

It is not often that I visit a website and come away with "elegant and 
informative" in my mind.


But the Atlas for the End of the World - 
http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/index_0.html 
<http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/index_0.html> did just that!


In just a few pages, the authors Richard Weller, the Martin and Margy 
Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and Professor and Chair of the Department of 
Landscape Architecture at The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). in 
collaboration with Claire Hoch and Chieh Huang, both recent graduates 
from the Department of Landscape Architecture at UPenn, now practicing 
landscape architecture in Australia and the United States, have compiled 
a new analysis of the status of the Norman Myers/Conservation 
International hotspots in the context of their contribution and progress 
towards the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 11, and 
the likely impact of a progressively urbanisign world population of 10 
billion (American-style) people. [/Apologies for the long sentence/!]


Here is the author's precis of their own work...

/Coming almost 450 years after the world's first Atlas, this Atlas for 
the End of the World audits the status of land use and urbanization in 
the most critically endangered bioregions on Earth. It does so, firstly, 
by measuring the quantity of protected area across the world's 36 
biodiversity hotspots in comparison to United Nation's 2020 targets; and 
secondly, by identifying where future urban growth in these territories 
is on a collision course with endangered species. By bringing 
urbanization and conservation together in the same study, the essays, 
maps, data, and artwork in this Atlas lay essential groundwork for the 
future planning and design of hotspot cities and regions as 
interdependent ecological and economic systems./


...and below my signature a Science News cover story

As many of you return from your annual vacations, a visit to this site 
will be a good reminder of the work still to do to help the other half.



Best wishes


David Duthie

***

Inspired by the first atlas — Abraham Ortelius’s 1570 /Theatrum Orbis 
Terrarum (The Theater of the World) 
<http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/precis.html>/ — researchers 
at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design made an /Atlas for 
the End of the World <http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/>. /Its 
bleak name announces its ecological cartography on climate change and 
biodiversity crises. Using infographics and maps, the /Atlas/ visualizes 
the world’s urbanization and need for conservation in cities expanding 
in biodiverse “hotspots.” 
<http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/precis.html>


Created by Penn professor Richard Weller in collaboration with recent 
landscape architecture graduates Claire Hoch and Chieh Huang, the /Atlas 
for the End of the World/ was launched alongside this year’s Earth 
Day. The researchers recently shared the self-funded 
<http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/acknowledgements.html> 
three-year research project on/Scientific American, / 
<https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/an-atlas-f

[ECOLOG-L] PhD programs focused on moth ecology and evolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Dear colleagues,

Where might one go to study the ecology and evolution of moths, please?

I would be psrticularly grateful if you would reply off-list to this 
address.  vasis...@ramapo.edu


Thank you,

--
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth vasis...@ramapo.edu  (201) 684-6616
http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~vasishth
   
  Associate Professor of Sustainability Planning
Director, Center for Sustainability
  http://ramapo.edu/sustainability

Ramapo College of New Jersey
  505 Ramapo Valley Road, SSHS, Mahwah, NJ 07430
  

[ECOLOG-L] Call for Applications: Master of Arts In Sustainability Studies, Ramapo College

[Ashwani Vasishth]

The Master of Arts in Sustainability Studies (MASS) at Ramapo College 
of New Jersey is now accepting applications for admission.


We are particularly interested in bridging between ecosystem ecology 
and sustainability planning.


This is a two year program, following a cohort-based model, with two 
courses offered each semester, in which all courses are taken in 
sequence.  All courses are offered in the evenings and will be held 
in the Sharp Sustainability Education Center.


Students graduating from the program will have gained competency in 
three key areas: sustainability literacy and communication; methods 
of sustainability research; and the practice of sustainability.


For more information, and to apply, please visit:
 http://www.ramapo.edu/masters-sustainability/

Or contact me directly.
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth vasis...@ramapo.edu  (201) 684-6616
http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~vasishth

  Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Director, Master of Arts In Sustainability Studies
   http://ramapo.edu/masters-sustainability

   Center for Sustainability Studies
 Ramapo College, SSHS
 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ 07430

[ECOLOG-L] Resource: News Groups

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Subscribable News Groups:

Environmental Ecology News:
News, reviews and informational items pertaining to environmental and 
ecological issues, as well as political ecology.


To subscribe or to access archives, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/

or send a blank e-mail to:
envecolnews-subscr...@yahoogroups.com


International Development News
News and informational items and resources pertaining to 
international development, global ecological carrying capacity and 
urbanization under globalization pressures.


To subscribe or to access archives, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intldevelopmentnews/

or send a blank e-mail to:
intldevelopmentnews-subscr...@yahoogroups.com

Planning News:
News items and information resources pertaining to urban and regional 
planning, land use, smart growth, transportation, urbanization, 
community development, housing, mapping and modeling tools.


To subscribe or to access archives, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planningnews/

or send a blank e-mail to:
planningnews-subscr...@yahoogroups.com


Sustainability Planning News:
News, articles, web resources and information pertaining to 
sustainability planning and sustainable development, especially 
energy issues and appropriate technology.


To subscribe or to access archives, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sustplan/

or send a blank e-mail to:
sustplan-subscr...@yahoogroups.com


Campus Sustainability Planning:
News items and information resources pertaining to campus 
sustainability planning.


To subscribe or to access archives, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/campussustplan/

or send a blank e-mail to:
campussustplan-subscr...@yahoogroups.com


Food Planning Newsgroup:
News items and information resources pertaining to food-related planning.

To subscribe or to access archives, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foodplanningnews/

or send a blank e-mail to:
foodplanningnews-subscr...@yahoogroups.com

[ECOLOG-L] World Environment Day, 2009

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.unep.org/wed/2009/english/

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Ecosystem function at the most basic level

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Well, if exchange processes are what allow flows of matter, energy and 
information, and since the degree of complexity of an ecosystem is a function 
of the relationships that embody it, then, although the meme of homeostasis is 
at least quaint, an evolutionary stability is made manifest by the 
countervailing forces of creation and destruction-a la Holling's "figure of 
eight" scheme.  Ergo, relationships are what enable systems to persist.

But then, I'm just a planner...
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishthvasis...@csun.edu  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.csun.edu/sustainability



On 6/4/09 9:48 PM, "Wayne Tyson"  wrote:

Ashwani et al:

Perhaps. Would you elaborate a little?

WT

- Original Message -
From: "Ashwani Vasishth" 
To: "Wayne Tyson" 
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Ecosystem function at the most basic level


Relationships?


On 6/4/09 8:06 PM, "Wayne Tyson"  wrote:

Ecolog:

In that complex ballet between organisms and their "hosts" or "prey" at
every level of life, just what is it that keeps the ecosystem from
collapsing?

WT







No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.53/2154 - Release Date: 06/04/09
05:53:00

[ECOLOG-L] Today is Endangered Species Day!!!

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.stopextinction.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_custom&cause_id=1704&page=day

[ECOLOG-L] Interview: Lubchenco, On Mitigating Climate Change

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00019&segmentID=1

Lubchenco's Climate Service
 NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco wants to start a National 
Climate Service to help farmers, fishermen and city planners better 
deal with the coming challenges from a changing climate. Host Jeff 
Young sat down with Lubchenco to get her thoughts on how science 
should guide our decisions on climate change.


Air Date: Week of May 8, 2009

Illustration Omitted:
 Marine biologist Jane Lubchenco at work. (Courtesy of Oregon 
State University)


[THEME]

CURWOOD: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley studios in Somerville, 
Massachusetts, this is Living on Earth. I'm Steve Curwood.


YOUNG: And I'm Jeff Young in Washington.

If Mark Twain were still with us he might say, "Everybody talks about 
the changing climate but nobody does anything about it."


Well, Jane Lubchenco does plan on doing something about it. She's the 
marine scientist President Obama chose to lead NOAA, the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lubchenco wants NOAA to start 
a National Climate Service-sort of like the National Weather Service, 
only this would forecast what climate change might mean for regions 
of the country over the coming decades.
I caught up with Lubchenco here on Capitol Hill just after a 
congressional hearing on that proposal. She says we can no longer 
rely solely on past experience to guide our decisions on basics like 
agriculture, water and land use.


LUBCHENCO: We have designed our cities, planted our crops, designed 
pretty much everything based on the expectation of some reasonable 
predictability in our climate system. We're seeing now that the 
climate is changing. It's getting warmer and more variable. We're 
seeing more extreme precipitation events, floods and droughts. We're 
seeing sea level rise, ice caps melting. And all of those are telling 
us that the climate is changing and changing in ways that are 
different from what it used to be.


Illustration Omitted:
 Jane Lubchenco. (Courtesy of NOAA)

YOUNG: Yeah, I'm guessing, if I'm say- someone who deals with a water 
district in California, and I'm hearing all this scary stuff about 
the snow pack being gone I'm probably on the phone saying, help me 
out here, what should we do?


LUBCHENCO: That's exactly right. And changes from snow pack to 
rainfall have huge implications for not only what the amount of water 
is throughout a year, but when it's available, and those kinds of 
fundamental changes in the availability of water are so basic to 
planning, not just for city managers, but for agricultural, for 
traffic on rivers, how to think about droughts, floods, fire, insect 
outbreaks - the ability to have an idea of what's down the road, even 
though it's not super precise, is immensely useful in planning. So 
there are lots and lots of requests now - by water managers, by city 
planners, and others - for information, and there's no one place they 
can go.


YOUNG: As I understand it, we have a pretty good grasp of what 
climate change might mean if you're talking about a really big chunk 
of land or ocean, and a really a long time scale. But if I'm a 
community planner, or an agricultural planner, a fisherman, what have 
you, that doesn't do me much good. How local can we get, and how 
useful can we make that information?


LUBCHENCO: It's relevant to take stock of how much our capacity to 
model has improved through time. It used to be the case that climate 
models were just the entire earth--the whole thing as a single unit. 
Well fast forward to the present and we have the ability to have 
models that are at the scale of a continent. And that is a very 
significant advance. We would like to push that envelope and to go as 
rapidly as we can to be able to deliver information at the regional 
scale for the twenty to fifty year time horizon, because that's the 
type information we need and it, in fact, we believe, is doable.


Illustration Omitted:
   Marine biologist Jane Lubchenco at work. (Courtesy of Oregon State 
University)


YOUNG: Jane Lubchenco was a natural choice for NOAA. She spent 
decades trying to further our understanding of how we're affecting 
our oceans and atmosphere.


She's among the country's most respected marine ecologists. Her work 
is regularly cited by other scientists and won her a Macarthur 
"genius" grant.


But she's no ivory tower academic. Lubchenco's also worked to make 
policy reflect the science. Of course that's a now a big part of her 
job at NOAA--advising the president and testifying before Congress. 
And she steps into that role just as Congress starts a high stakes 
fight over what to do about climate change.


LUBCHENCO: I think it's unrealistic to expect everybody is going to 
agree on everything, that's just not the way democracy works. The 
challenge for science is to communicate what is known by scientists 
in a way that is as accessible and user friendly and credible. And i

Re: [ECOLOG-L] ESA position statement economic growth

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Speaking as a planner, it seems to me that "position statements" are 
reifications of thought frozen in time.  What's needed is a policy process that 
integrates what we know about adaptive management and about organizational 
evolution, and that systematically begs revisitation.  Can we make this an 
on-going process, rather than a concrete document that then gets shelved in the 
musty recesses of our organizational mind?

I understand ecological economics, I think 
<http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/Vasishth-Ecological_Economics.ppt>, and agree 
that the ESA statement as it stands does indeed represent an anachronistic 
world view.  This is not state of the art thinking, by any means.  Of course, 
it is up to the collective to decide whether we want ESA to represent the best 
that is known about sustainability and sustainable development, or whether we 
simply want to take a categorical position on a politically ideological idea 
like "economic growth."

As an ecological planner, I would suggest that our time is better spent in 
figuring out how, given what we know about the world and how the world happens, 
we think development ought to proceed.  How do we make our cities, home to the 
majority, now, friendlier to nature, and begin the process started by Steward 
Pickett in taking "humans as components of ecosystems."

Robert Costanza is a solid source for information on ecological economics and 
sustainable development, in my opinion.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishthvasis...@csun.edu  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Director
   Institute for Sustainability
http://www.csun.edu/sustainability




On 4/22/09 6:11 AM, "Heather Reynolds"  wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

ESA members may have noticed that ESA is soliciting feedback from its
members on a draft position statement on economic growth. As ESA
notes, the draft was developed by 2 environmental economists and a
mathematical ecologist.

To date, only a handful of professional societies have issued these
sorts of statements (for a list, see 
http://www.steadystate.org/CASSEPositionOnEG.html)
.  ESA thus deserves a great deal of credit for taking on such a
complex issue.

The draft statement strongly reflects an environmental economist point
of view. There is another field of economics, called ecological
economics. There are fairly strong distinctions between environmental
vs. ecological economists, although there are certainly many areas of
agreement (e.g. the importance, where possible, of internalizing
environmental externalities).

Ecological economists are careful to distinguish economic growth from
economic development.  This Encyclopedia of Earth entry: 
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Steady_state_economy
  by recognized expert Brian Czech discusses the distinction between
economic growth and economic development.

Other well known ecological economists include Robert Constanza and
Herman Daly.

I hope that ESA will continue to work on this position statement and
will actively seek the input of ecological economists.

Heather Reynolds
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Jordan Hall 142
Indiana University
1001 E 3rd Street
Bloomington IN 47405

Ph: (812) 855-0792
Fax: (812) 855-6705
hlrey...@indiana.edu

Re: [ECOLOG-L] looking for municipalities with climate change plans

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.planning.org/research/energy/database/

Planners Energy and Climate Database

This database provides examples of communities that have taken steps to 
integrate energy and climate change issues into planning, states that have 
addressed climate change issues in plans or policies, and other relevant 
documents to help planners understand and address energy and climate change.

You can search this database by region, state, type of planning tool, topic, 
time frame, scale, or community size, using the search options in the left-hand 
column. Results are sorted according to relevance. If you have too many or too 
few results returned, try narrowing or broadening your search parameters. 
Resources are regularly being added to this database, so check back 
periodically to find new resources.

To suggest a case study or document for the database, or for questions about 
the database, e-mail ene...@planning.org.


On 4/4/09 7:38 AM, "Beth Olsen"  wrote:

I am interested in locating state/provincial or municipal comprehensive
plans recommending adaptive strategies for community-wide adjustments to
climate change.  If you know of a community that developed such a plan, I
would appreciate any info you can offer.
Thanks,
Beth Olsen

[ECOLOG-L] News: Report Calls for "Prosperity without Growth"

[Ashwani Vasishth]

[The report itself, Prosperity without Growth? - The transition to a 
sustainable economy, can be accessed from:

http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=914 ]

   * * *

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/30/g20-sustainable-development-commission

Ahead of G20 summit, report says: promote sustainability over growth

* Nick Fletcher
* The Guardian, Monday 30 March 2009

The pursuit of economic growth was one of the root causes of the 
financial crisis, and governments should respond to the recession by 
abandoning growth at all costs in favour of a more sustainable, 
greener system, says a report out today.


Before this week's G20 summit, the Sustainable Development 
Commission, an independent adviser to the government, says the 
developed world's reliance on debt to fuel its relentless growth has 
created an unstable system that has made individuals, families and 
communities vulnerable to cycles of boom and bust. The benefits of 
growth have also been delivered unequally, with a fifth of the 
world's population earning only 2% of global income. Increased 
consumption also has disastrous environmental consequences, including 
the degradation of some 60% of the world's ecosystems.


According to the SDC, the global economy is almost five times larger 
than it was 50 years ago, and if it continues to grow at the same 
rate it would be 80 times larger by the end of the century.


"Faced with the current recession, it is understandable that many 
leaders at the G20 summit will be anxious to restore business as 
usual," said Professor Tim Jackson, economics commissioner at the 
SDC. "But governments really need to take a long, hard look at the 
effects of our single-minded devotion to growth - effects which 
include the recession itself.


"It may seem inopportune to be questioning growth while we are faced 
with daily news of the effects of recession, but allegiance to growth 
is the most dominant feature of an economic and political system that 
has led us to the brink of disaster. Not to stand back now and 
question what has happened would be to compound failure with failure: 
failure of vision with failure of responsibility. Figuring out how to 
deliver prosperity without growth is more essential now than ever."


The report - called Prosperity without growth? - calls on governments 
to develop a sustainable economic system that does not rely on 
ever-increasing consumption.


The SDC's proposals to achieve this include: improving financial and 
fiscal prudence, as well as giving priority to investment in public 
assets and infrastructure over private affluence; allowing 
individuals to flourish by tackling inequality, sharing available 
work, improving work-life balance and reversing the culture of 
consumerism; and establishing ecological limits on economic activity.


The report concludes: "The clearest message from the financial crisis 
is that our current model of economic success is fundamentally 
flawed. For the advanced economies of the western world, prosperity 
without growth is no longer a utopian dream. It is a financial and 
ecological necessity."


   * * *

http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/redefining-prosperity.html

Redefining Prosperity

Road scene with sign, Please find alternative routeThe economy is 
geared, above all, to economic growth. Economic policy in the current 
recession is all about returning to growth - but an economic crisis 
can be an opportunity for some basic rethinking and restructuring.


Two objectives other than growth - sustainability and wellbeing - 
have moved up the political and policy-making agenda in recent years, 
challenging the overriding priority traditionally given to economic 
growth.


SDC's "Redefining Prosperity" project has looked into the connections 
and conflicts between sustainability, growth, and wellbeing.


As part of a two year programme of work, we commissioned thinkpieces, 
organised seminars, and invited feedback. This project has now 
resulted in a major SDC report: 'Prosperity without growth?: the 
transition to a sustainable economy' by Professor Tim Jackson, SDC's 
Economics Commissioner. Prosperity without growth? analyses the 
relationship between growth and the growing environmental crisis and 
'social recession'. In the last quarter of a century, while the 
global economy has doubled, the increased in resource consumption has 
degraded an estimated 60% of the world's ecosystems. The benefits of 
growth have been distributed very unequally, with a fifth of the 
world's population sharing just 2% of global income. Even in 
developed countries, huge gaps remain in wealth and well-being 
between rich and poor.


While modernising production and reducing the impact of certain goods 
and services have led to greater resource efficiency in recent 
decades, our report finds that current aspirations for 'decoupling' 
environmental impacts from economic growth are unrealistic. The 
report finds no evidence as y

Re: [ECOLOG-L] New Book for Nature Enthusiasts

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Besides, passion is endemic to any attentive pursuit of knowledge. 
(See, as merely one example, Evelyn Fox Keller's A Feeling for the 
Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock.)


Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishthvasis...@csun.edu  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://blogs.csun.edu/sustainability

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Overpopulation / Economics and Ecology

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Actually, I think this is a conversation that needs to happen here--both 
because ecologists need to be engaged in this discussion, and because a truly 
ecological perspective is sorely missing from the population debate.

May I submit that, from a process-function view, that population is not the big 
problem for planetary carrying capacity--rather we need to be watching 
consumption and pollution, and that includes GHG emissions.

Ehrlich and Holdren and Commoner gave us I=P*A*T.  As a life-long Third 
Worlder, I would suggest there are real reasons why population cannot be the 
wedge we use to get at carrying capacity.  But at least, read Kates, 
Population, Technology and the Human Environment: A Thread Through Time.

I'm sure we have a carrying capacity problem.  But a sustainability frame 
includes equity.  Making this about population puts the problem of carrying 
capacity on the shoulders of the Third World.  In effect, we externalize the 
problem onto "them," and can then sit back and enjoy the "fruits of Western 
Civilization" for ourselves.  Making this about consumption, and to some extent 
about pollution, puts the problem squarely where I believe it belongs, on us.

Think about it.  The world population is at 6.7 billion (and most likely to 
stabilize around nine billion).  America has a population of 300 million and is 
said to use 30% of the world's resources.  India and China have a population of 
over 2.5 billion, and they want what we got--mainly because we've spent decades 
telling them that what we got is what they ought to want.  Hollywood ensures 
that the American "way of life" be the ideal that all civilizations shoot for, 
in order to show that they too are modern.

Its roosting time, folks.  Anything we can possibly do about population will 
have a lag time of decades.  Anything we do about consumption and pollution can 
have immediate impacts.  The choice is ours.

And yes, innovation, though taken differently than Julian Simon meant it, is 
still the answer.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishthashw...@csun.edu  (818) 677-6137

Director
Institute for Sustainability
   http://blogs.csun.edu/sustainability

 Assistant Professor
  Department of Urban Studies and Planning
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/





At 9:29 AM -0500 12/18/08, Kevin Mueller wrote:
>I think some folks are still missing Jane's point about overpopulation.  While 
>I wouldn't disagree with Andy or Bill's responses regarding the validity of 
>borders to overpopulation in some contexts, both of these responses ignore 
>that 'overpopulation' at a sub-global scale can be alleviated by imports, etc. 
>(e.g. Canada as Andy describes).  Globalization is not going away soon, 
>regardless if some would rather see populations and economies be sustainable 
>at the local or regional level.  As long as the economy is global, I think the 
>most relevant scale to discuss overpopulation is at the global level (but not 
>the only, especially you you are living in the third world).
>
>I have not heard or read anything which convinces me that we can't sustain our 
>current growing population (globally or within the US for example) with some 
>wealth and food redistribution and reasonable technological advances.  For 
>example, how do we know we are not underestimating the contribution of 
>innovation as EhrIich did?  I am NOT suggesting that there aren't costs of 
>globalization (e.g. burning fossil fuel to import food to Canada), that there 
>aren't regions of overpopulation currently not 'saved' by globalization (e.g. 
>Africa), or that technology will save us all and we should continue business 
>as usual.  Anyone know of any good books or articles addressing the 
>sustainability of global populations?  I am especially looking for positions 
>with solid backing here rather than editorials, although I know there is lots 
>of gray there.
>
>Should we think about continuing this discussion in a new venue to spare those 
>not as interested and not dilute the job adverts, etc?  
>Perhaps a list-serve or other venue aimed explicitly at Ecology and Economics 
>would be more appropriate?
>
>Kevin

[ECOLOG-L] National Teach-In On Global Warming Solutions, Feb. 5, 2009

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.nationalteachin.org/national_teachin.php

Join us to build the biggest clean energy mobilization the US has 
ever seen: The National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions 
(<http://www.nationalteachin.org>http://www.nationalteachin.org). At 
the beginning of the critical first 100 days of the new 
administration, you can help engage millions of Americans to demand 
clean energy solutions to global warming. Participation in "The 
National-Teach-In On Global Warming Solutions"on February 5th, 2009 
can be easy. Pick and choose from the following components as befits 
your institution:


Teach-In: Work with the Teach-In model on the website, adaptable to 
your school or institution.
Webcast: Screen the half-hour, downloadable webcast "The First 100 
Days" featuring Hunter Lovins, David Orr, Ray Anderson and Billy 
Parish. The webcast will highlight the findings of the Presidential 
Climate Action Project (PCAP), a climate policy action plan.
Green Democracy: Engage young people with elected officials-US 
Senators and Representatives and other key decision-makers-in 
roundtable dialogue.
A clean energy future can revitalize our economy and 
communities. Sign up today 
(<http://www.nationalteachin.org/actionmap>http://www.nationalteachin.org/actionmap) 
and help ignite the grassroots movement demanding clean energy 
solutions to global warming! For information on organizing a Teach-In 
at your institution, contact The National Teach-In Director Professor 
Eban Goodstein and the National Teach-In staff at our offices at 
Lewis & Clark College. To find your regional coordinator, check out 
<http://www.nationalteachinn.org/contact.php>http://www.nationalteachinn.org/contact.php. 



Cheers,
-
 Ashwani
Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
   
   Director
   Institute for Sustainability
  http://blogs.csun.edu/sustainability

Assistant Professor
 Department of Urban Studies and Planning
   http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
   

[ECOLOG-L] 14 Questions on Science - Obama and McCain

[Ashwani Vasishth]

See:
 http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=42

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137

Director
Institute for Sustainability
   http://blogs.csun.edu/sustainability

 Assistant Professor
  Department of Urban Studies and Planning
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

[ECOLOG-L] Campus Sustainability Planning News Group

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Campus Sustainability Planning News Group:

Perhaps four or five messages per week, intended to be used to 
distribute campus sustainability-related news and resource items.


To subscribe to this list, go to:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/campussustplan/

or send a blank message to:
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137

 Assistant Professor
  Department of Urban Studies and Planning
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

 Director
Institute for Sustainability
   http://blogs.csun.edu/sustainability

   California State University, Northridge
 18111 Nordhoff Street, SH 208, Northridge, CA 91330-8259

[ECOLOG-L] Feature: Exploring A Sustainable Model of Growth

[Ashwani Vasishth]

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the envecolnews
group.

File : /Getting_to_Green_Growth.doc
Uploaded by : ashwanivasishth 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Description : New Scientist Special Report On Alternatives to 
Conventional Economic Growth


You can access this file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/files/Getting_to_Green_Growth.doc

Regards,

ashwanivasishth 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>



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To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
   [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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[ECOLOG-L] Feature: A Steady State Economic Perspective On the Global Financial Crisis

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/growth-economics-on-a-finite-planet/

October 13, 2008, 10:03 am

Growth Economics on a Finite Planet
By Andrew C. Revkin

Over the weekend, I asked Herman Daly, the specialist in "ecological 
economics" at the University of Maryland, about the recent financial 
turmoil. He pointed me to a short piece he wrote that was posted on 
the Oil Drum blog a few days ago and that he gave me permission to 
post below. It's mostly about economic theory, but does get at one of 
the keystone concepts explored here - which is how many people, 
consuming how much stuff, can one livable planet support?


To Dr. Daly, the implosion after the burst of trading and investment 
in high-concept paper offerings was inevitable, and simply a 
reorientation of the market toward the only real economy - the one 
grounded in actual assets. In the end, the only economy that can't be 
gamed is one that is grounded in the way the Earth works. That is 
where "real wealth," and real limits, lie, he says.


This relates to the climate challenge. The atmosphere is not an 
infinite dump, so if a trading system for carbon dioxide credits - 
like the recent financial bubble - doesn't actually lead to progress, 
we'll know it. But the consequences are likely to be less reversible 
than those from a credit crunch. Carbon dioxide, unlike the kinds of 
pollution wealthy countries dealt with in previous decades, is a 
persistent gas. It builds like unpaid credit card debt. The longer 
societies delay action, the bigger the climatic debt. Maybe it'll all 
work out and the greenhouse warming from the buildup will be on the 
low end. But maybe not. The world tried a big financial gamble in 
recent years and the consequences are clear now. How will the current 
climate bet play out?


Another piece on the financial breakdown that is relevant to Dot 
Earth is Joe Nocera's sobering "Talking Business" column on human 
nature and speculative bubbles. Are we doomed to irrationality in 
weighing risks and payoffs, whether financial or climatological? 
Isaac Newton got taken in by a bubble.


Below you'll find Professor Daly's short piece, The Crisis: Debt and 
Real Wealth:


The current financial debacle is really not a "liquidity" crisis as 
it is often euphemistically called. It is a crisis of overgrowth of 
financial assets relative to growth of real wealth - pretty much the 
opposite of too little liquidity. Financial assets have grown by a 
large multiple of the real economy - paper exchanging for paper is 
now 20 times greater than exchanges of paper for real commodities. It 
should be no surprise that the relative value of the vastly more 
abundant financial assets has fallen in terms of real assets. Real 
wealth is concrete; financial assets are abstractions - existing real 
wealth carries a lien on it in the amount of future debt.


The value of present real wealth is no longer sufficient to serve as 
a lien to guarantee the exploding debt. Consequently the debt is 
being devalued in terms of existing wealth. No one any longer is 
eager to trade real present wealth for debt even at high interest 
rates. This is because the debt is worth much less, not because there 
is not enough money or credit, or because "banks are not lending to 
each other" as commentators often say.


Can the economy grow fast enough in real terms to redeem the massive 
increase in debt? In a word, no. As Frederick Soddy (1926 Nobel 
Laureate chemist and underground economist) pointed out long ago, 
"you cannot permanently pit an absurd human convention, such as the 
spontaneous increment of debt [compound interest] against the natural 
law of the spontaneous decrement of wealth [entropy]."


The population of "negative pigs" (debt) can grow without limit since 
it is merely a number; the population of "positive pigs" (real 
wealth) faces severe physical constraints. The dawning realization 
that Soddy's common sense was right, even though no one publicly 
admits it, is what underlies the crisis. The problem is not too 
little liquidity, but too many negative pigs growing too fast 
relative to the limited number of positive pigs whose growth is 
constrained by their digestive tracts, their gestation period, and 
places to put pigpens. Also there are too many two-legged Wall Street 
pigs, but that is another matter.


Growth in U.S. real wealth is restrained by increasing scarcity of 
natural resources, both at the source end (oil depletion), and the 
sink end (absorptive capacity of the atmosphere for CO2). Further, 
spatial displacement of old stuff to make room for new stuff is 
increasingly costly as the world becomes more full, and increasing 
inequality of distribution of income prevents most people from buying 
much of the new stuff-except on credit (more debt). Marginal costs of 
growth now likely exceed marginal benefits, so that real physical 
growth makes us poorer, not richer (the cost of feeding and caring 
for the extra

[ECOLOG-L] Zero-growth and Steady State Economics

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Perhaps a minor point for most, but it seems to me important to read Daly's 
actual proposal for a Steady State Economy.  Its not so much "zero-growth" 
(although he uses the term no-growth as well) as it is a change from treating 
man-made capital as the limiting resource to treating natural capital as the 
limiting resource.  He makes a distinction between stocks and flows, and 
suggests depletion quotas as a way to manage to optimize the economic system 
for natural stock conservation.  The central point he makes, in my opinion, is 
that efforts should be focused on minimizing production and consumption rather 
than on maximizing them, as they currently are, and on substituting 
non-biophysical growth for biophysical growth where possible. 

He makes a clear distinction, in his early writing, between substitutability 
and complementarity, and argues that substitution is not always possible.  
Given this, it seems to me that growth, per se, is here to stay--at least until 
human populations actually begin to decline.  ("Stabilizing" human population 
is a very seductive idea, but we are pretty much locked into an increase from 
our present 6.3 billion to about 9-10 billion (+/- a billion or so).)  Then 
growth is ethically necessary.  The question is about particulars--where and 
what sort.

In my opinion, zero-growth is a great ideal to try to tend toward, but hardly a 
viable pragmatic objective, given the extent and magnitude of want in the 
world.  (By the way, and IMO, "First World" and "Third World" are not useful 
categories.  Rather we should speak of First World conditions and Third World 
conditions, each of which can be found in every country in the world.)

There have been a few stories recently, about Scandinavian success in applying 
taxes to curb environmentally undesirable behavior 
<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/message/7176>.  (One 
"complication" is that if governments expect to fund their operations through 
those sorts of taxes, the evident success of this approach means that 
governments would be looking at rapidly declining revenues--so other policy 
approaches would need to be synthesized with carbon and other green taxes.)

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 http://blogs.csun.edu/sustainability


At 09:14 AM -0700 9/28/08, joseph gathman wrote:
>namkwah breland wrote:
>>
>> It would be interesting to hear Dr. Czech comment on the
>> fact that current U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson is a former > 
>> head of The Nature Conservancy and Chairman of the Board of The Peregrine > 
>> Fund.  What is the philosophical  and scientific disconnect between any   > 
>> proponent of perpetual economic growth and nature conservation?
>
>This really is the main hurdle that Brian Czech and others face: that even 
>those who are avid environmentalists don't understand that economic growth is 
>incompatible with conservation, given the size of the human population at this 
>point in history.  Furthermore, they don't really want to understand it - so 
>it's easier to ignore the issue because taking a serious look at it leads to 
>an uncomfortable realization.
>
>Paulson's entire career has been based on the mainstream economic philosophy.  
>To ask him to change to a zero-growth point of view would be like asking a 
>fundamentalist Christian to switch to Buddhism.  He's an extreme case, but 
>most of our society sees growth as a necessary goal, even while most Americans 
>polled want more nature conservation.
>
>Joe Gathman
>
>
> 

[ECOLOG-L] Presidential Candidates' positions on science issues

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/science/16science.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

Presidential Candidates' Positions on Science Issues

By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: September 15, 2008

Both presidential candidates have now issued answers to a series of 
questions about science policy, Senator Barack Obama having done so 
in late August and Senator John McCain on Monday.


Their responses show clear areas of agreement on such apple-pie 
issues as ocean health, as well as sharp contrasts, as when Mr. Obama 
stresses the role of government and Mr. McCain that of business in 
addressing some of the nation's main challenges.


What follows is a digest of their answers, as posted by Science 
Debate 2008. The private group, in an effort endorsed by leading 
scientific organizations, has worked since November to get candidates 
to articulate positions on science policy. The full answers are at 
www.sciencedebate2008.com.


INNOVATION Mr. Obama calls for doubling federal budgets for basic 
research over a decade and supports broadband Internet connections 
"for all Americans." Mr. McCain stresses policies to provide "broad 
pools of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America," 
as well as the streamlining of "burdensome regulations." Mr. McCain 
also said Congress, "under my guiding hand," adopted wireless 
policies that "spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and WiFi 
technology."


CLIMATE CHANGE Both candidates talk of human activities' warming the 
planet, with Mr. McCain saying that they "threaten disastrous 
changes" and Mr. Obama that "they are influencing the global 
climate." In terms of 1990 levels of carbon emissions, Mr. McCain 
would ultimately have the nation's output drop by 60 percent and Mr. 
Obama by 80 percent.


ENERGY Mr. Obama would increase federal investment in clean energy by 
$150 billion over a decade, including research on alternative fuels 
and conservation. Mr. McCain would speed the building of 45 new 
reactors and make government "an ally but not an arbiter" in 
developing alternative energy sources.


EDUCATION Both candidates advocate policies to develop a highly 
skilled workforce, partly with cash incentives for teachers. Mr. 
McCain would put $250 million into a program to help states expand 
online education.


NATIONAL SECURITY Mr. Obama would put his administration "on a path" 
to doubling federal spending on basic defense research. Mr. McCain is 
much less specific, speaking of ensuring "that America retains the 
edge."


GENETICS RESEARCH Both laud the potential benefits and point out the 
social dangers, with Mr. Obama saying he backed the recently passed 
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Mr. McCain speaks of "a 
new green revolution" in food development.


STEM CELLS Both support federal financing for embryonic stem cell research.

SPACE Both candidates say they want to revitalize space exploration, 
with Mr. McCain calling for "new technologies to take Americans to 
the Moon, Mars and beyond." He also suggests possibly extending the 
space shuttle's life. Mr. Obama would re-establish a White House 
Space Council to coordinate all the nation's space efforts, including 
ones intended to aid understanding of climate change and expand "our 
reach into the heavens."


SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY Both implicitly fault President Bush, whom 
critics have assailed as weakening the federal advisory apparatus and 
politicizing scientific panels.


***   NOTICE:  In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this 
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational 
purposes only.   ***

[ECOLOG-L] Feature: Soil Is Not Dirt

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text

Published: September 2008

Good Earth
 The future rests on the soil beneath our feet.

By Charles C. Mann

[...]

..."With eight billion people, we're going to 
have to start getting interested in soil," he 
said. "We're simply not going to be able to keep 
treating it like dirt."



© 2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

***   NOTICE:  In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 
Section 107, this material is distributed, 
without profit, for research and educational 
purposes only.   ***






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 subscribe to this group, send an email to:
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[ECOLOG-L] News: Limited Comment Period on Proposed Gutting of the Endangered Species Act

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-ed-species14-2008aug14,0,4172592.story

EDITORIAL
An endangered act
 A new proposal would let all kinds of federal agencies make 
decisions about what species to protect.


August 14, 2008

The Bush administration has shown extraordinary disdain for the 
Endangered Species Act over the years, dragging its heels on listing 
some species (polar bear, sage grouse, wolverine) and removing vital 
protections for others (gray wolf, arroyo toad, red-legged frog, 
spotted owl). Time after time, it has been pulled into court for 
flouting the law, and most of the time it has lost and been ordered 
to do its job.


But regard for endangered species hit a low point this week, when 
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed a regulatory change that 
would undermine not just case-by-case decision-making but the law's 
basic procedures. According to the proposal (pdf) 
, 
federal agencies that wanted to start a new project -- a road, say, 
or a dam -- could decide on their own that it wouldn't harm an 
imperiled species, in which case they wouldn't have to consult with 
the wildlife biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or 
National Marine Fisheries Service who are the experts on these 
matters.


Other agencies not only lack such expertise, they have a built-in 
conflict of interest. We wouldn't think of letting an oil company 
decide whether a new offshore rig might harm the ocean; we wouldn't 
allow a pharmaceutical company to market a new medication on its 
say-so that the drug is safe. Why would we let the Department of 
Transportation build a new road through the habitat of the California 
gnatcatcher because its engineers claim that the project would do no 
harm?


Under Kempthorne's proposal, a project could be halted or scaled down 
only if it was "reasonably certain" to harm endangered species; 
currently, scientists must show that damage is "reasonably 
foreseeable." The proposal also would make it harder for scientists 
to consider the cumulative effects of various projects.


Because of a 30-day public comment period, instead of the usual 60 or 
90 days, the rule could be adopted and in place before the 
presidential election. Though it might well be overturned by 
Congress, the courts or perhaps a new administration, the process 
would take months, giving federal agencies the chance to push through 
their projects. That makes this proposal a particularly cynical move, 
designed for expediency, not good government.


To get involved: The public can comment, and view the comments of 
others, at regulations.gov.


***   NOTICE:  In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this 
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational 
purposes only.   ***

[ECOLOG-L] Fwd: NEW BOOK: The Ecosystem Approach

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:23:59 -0400
From: Nina-Marie Lister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: NEW BOOK: The Ecosystem Approach
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Dear Colleagues,

Together with Prof. David Waltner-Toews, and the late Prof. James 
Kay, I am pleased to announce the launch of our new book from 
Columbia University Press: The Ecosystem Approach - Complexity, 
Uncertainty and Managing for Sustainability.


"Best known for applying ecological theory to the engineering 
problems of everyday life, the late scholar James J. Kay was a 
leader in the study of social and ecological complexity and the 
thermodynamics of ecosystems. Drawing from his immensely important 
work, as well as the research of his students and colleagues, The 
Ecosystem Approach is a guide to the aspects of complex systems 
theories relevant to social-ecological management."


For more information or to order online, please visit: 
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13250-3/the-ecosystem-approach

Or click: The Ecosystem Approach

I'd be grateful if you would share this announcement with interested 
colleagues and your networks. Naturally we'd be delighted to have 
early adoptions for course texts, reviews and general promotion.


With thanks (and apologies for cross-postings),

Nina-Marie E. Lister
Associate Professor
School of Urban + Regional Planning
Ryerson University
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M5B 2K3

T 416.979.5000 x6769
F 416.979.5357
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.ryerson.ca/surp/


Dear Colleagues,

Together with Prof. David Waltner-Toews, and the late Prof. James 
Kay, I am pleased to announce the launch of our new book from 
Columbia University Press: The Ecosystem Approach - Complexity, 
Uncertainty and Managing for Sustainability.


"Best known for applying ecological theory to the engineering 
problems of everyday life, the late scholar James J. Kay was a 
leader in the study of social and ecological complexity and the 
thermodynamics of ecosystems. Drawing from his immensely important 
work, as well as the research of his students and colleagues, The 
Ecosystem Approach is a guide to the aspects of complex systems 
theories relevant to social-ecological management."


For more information or to order online, please 
visit: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13250-3/the-ecosystem-approach
Or 
click: The 
Ecosystem Approach


I'd be grateful if you would share this announcement with interested 
colleagues and your networks. Naturally we'd be delighted to have 
early adoptions for course texts, reviews and general promotion.


With thanks (and apologies for cross-postings),

Nina-Marie E. Lister
Associate Professor
School of Urban + Regional Planning
Ryerson University
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M5B 2K3

T 416.979.5000 x6769
F 416.979.5357
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.ryerson.ca/surp/

[ECOLOG-L] News: Europe Considers Saving Its Soils

[Yahoo Group (by way of Ashwani Vasishth)]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43274

EUROPE:  No Consensus on Saving the Soil
By David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Jul 22 (IPS) - Soil is one of the few major areas of 
environmental policy to remain largely outside the purview of 
European Union law. Humanity's survival might hinge on whether crops 
can continue to be grown in soil, yet just nine of the EU's 27 
countries have deemed soil protection a pressing enough issue to have 
introduced legislation on the subject at national level.


In 2006, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, stated 
that it wished to remedy this situation by proposing a legal 
directive that would apply across the Union. Among its objectives 
were to identify all areas at risk of such problems as erosion, 
landslides and salinity (the build-up of salt within the soil) over a 
five-year period and to compile an inventory of all contaminated 
sites over 25 years.


To the casual observer, such aims probably appear sensible and 
uncontroversial. But when the Union's environment ministers discussed 
them in December last, the proposal was struck down by five 
governments -- France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Austria. 
The five cited either the likely cost of implementing the initiative 
or a belief that soil protection is a topic better left to national 
legislation than to the Brussels bureaucracy.


Despite its opposition then, France has agreed to revive discussions 
on the dossier during its six months of holding the EU's presidency, 
which began just over three weeks ago. While green campaigners have 
welcomed the apparent French U-turn, they are perturbed by 
indications that the proposal could be diluted.


Among the suggested compromises that have emerged during recent 
discussions among EU diplomats are that compiling the inventories 
would no longer be compulsory and that they would not have to be made 
public. "France is going in the wrong direction," said John Hontolez, 
secretary-general of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), an 
alliance of 143 organisations. "It is seriously weakening the text."


Hontolez suggested that the political debate that has arisen as a 
result of the recent spike in global food prices underscored the 
necessity of effective legislation on soil.


"What we hear from most politicians in response to the food crisis is 
that we have to go back to the old policy of increasing the 
productivity of Europe's soils," he said. "This ignores the fact that 
productivity levels have come at a price. If you now focus 
productivity on loosening the use of agro-chemicals, increasing the 
use of fertilisers and ploughing up grasslands, I'm afraid you will 
be destroying the agricultural resource base in Europe even faster."


According to the Commission, soil degradation could be depriving the 
EU economy of some 38 billion euros (60 billion dollars) a year.


Shielding soil from further damage is considered vital if the worst 
possible consequences of climate change are to be averted. EU soil is 
estimated to contain some 70 billion tonnes of organic carbon. That 
is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of all carbon that has become 
accumulated in the atmosphere. Peatlands, in particular, could hold 
up to 60 percent of all the carbon stocked in European soils, and 
many ecologists regard it as essential that the carbon is kept in the 
ground rather than released.


Soil acts as what scientists call a 'carbon sink' -- it can absorb 
about 20 percent of all emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main 
gas triggering global warming that are attributed to human activity. 
Whereas organic agriculture can help ensure that soil continues 
playing a major role in diverting carbon from the atmosphere, 
degradation of the soil leads to large-scale releases of CO2. Each 
year British soil loses about 0.6 percent of its organic matter, and 
the resulting increase in CO2 emissions has been compared to putting 
an extra five million cars on the road.


"While science tells us how soil originated, the production process 
takes millions of years," said Ladislav Miko, a senior environment 
official in the European Commission. "It is effectively a 
non-renewable resource. We cannot afford to wait for new soil to be 
created as it simply takes too long."


Miko added: "We have seen quite scary figures (on the extent of soil 
degradation), and yet this is still not enough to get an overall 
agreement. The existing legal framework is clearly not sufficient."


Gerassimos Arapis, professor at the Agricultural University of 
Athens, said that 500,000 sites in the EU are known to be 
contaminated, but about 3.5 million could be contaminated. He said 
the proposed directive would give much leeway to national governments 
to decide how ambitious they should be in protecting the soil, and 
argued that greater clarity is required about how implementation of 
the law will be financed.


Ronan Uhel from the European Environmental Agency, an EU body based 
i

Re: [ECOLOG-L] News: Soil Declared A Natural Resource, By Senate Resolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Air and water are fundamentally different from soil, it seems to me, in that 
our use of the former causes pollution that can, in theory at least, be 
mitigated.  Soil, on the other hand, is transformed, not "polluted."  If we 
build on it, we compact it and destroy its structure.  If we pave it over, we 
destroy aerobic life forms and terminate biogeochemical processes.  If we farm 
it, we drastically transform its properties.

My point is, the policy response is different, at least.  What form could a 
Clean Soil Act take?  We need a different model all together, I think.  We CAN 
mitigate our impacts on the soil, but how do we specify a policy structure that 
does not have to proceed on a case by case basis?  The Endangered Species Act 
is so imperfect that it is not much help either, as I have argued elsewhere.

What we need, I would argue, is an Endangered Ecosystems Act.  Or better yet, 
an Ecosystem Management Act.  That gets us closest to where we want to go, 
ecologically speaking.  If the Ecological Society of America is willing to take 
this on, I'd love to participate.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/


>This is an important policy step.  Of course ecologists,soil
>scientists, and geologists (as well as farmers!) have long recognized
>that soil is a natural resource.
>
>We currently have a Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and many others.
>But what of a Clean Soil Act??  Wouldn't this be appropriate.
>Consider how much is dumped on soil without consideration.  Generally,
>if compounds are bound in the soil we consider them sequestered from
>harming water resources such as ground water.  Maybe I am forgetting
>legislation of this kind, but I believe most environmental legislation
>does not do for soil what the clean water act does for water.  There
>is an incredible ecosystem in the soil, and you can argue it is a
>primary driver of the planet's biosphere.  So, why not a clean soil
>act  Its no just dirt!
>
>Malcolm McCallum
>
>On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 4:25 AM, Ashwani Vasishth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Senate_Resolution_Shines_Spotlight_On_The_Importance_Of_Soils_999.html
>>
>> Senate Resolution Shines Spotlight On The Importance Of Soils
>>  The Resolution acknowledges the work of soil scientists and soil
>> professionals to continue to enrich the lives of all Americans by improving
>> stewardship of the soil, combating soil degradation, and ensuring the future
>> protection and sustainable use of our air, soil, and water resources.
>>
>> by Staff Writers
>> Washington DC (SPX) Jul 09, 2008
>>
>> The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) applauds the visionary action
>> taken by Senator Sherrod Brown and his colleagues in the Senate who helped
>> usher in legislation to recognize soils as an "essential" natural resource,
>> placing soil on par with water and air.
>>
>> On June 23, Senator Brown was joined by co-sponsoring Senators Kent Conrad
>> (D-ND), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom Harkin (D-IA),
>> Ken Salazar (D-CO) and George Voinovich (R-OH) to successfully pass Senate
>> Resolution 440, which also highlights the "critical role" soils
>> professionals play in managing our nation's soil resources.
>>
>> "This resolution comes at a time when soil is widely undervalued," says
>> Rattan Lal, Ohio State University, SSSA Past President. "Soil, and
>> specifically sound soil management, is essential in our continued quest to
>> increase the production of food, feed, fiber, and fuel while maintaining and
>> improving the environment, and mitigating the effects of climate change.
>>
>> Being the essence of all terrestrial life and ecosystem services, we cannot
>> take the soils for granted. Soil is the basis of survival for present and
>> future generations."
>>
>> The Senate resolution passed six months after the European Union's Soil
> > Protection Framework was tabled due to irreconcilable differences among
>> Parliament membership.
>>
>> "My years growing up working on our family farm taught me the value of hard
>> work and the importance of soil," says Senator Brown. "Often overlooked,
>> healthy soil is vital to maintaining our natural resources and feeding our
>> nation. This resolution is an important first step in cultivating awareness
>> of our nation's soil policies."
>>
>> The Resolution acknowledges the work of soil scientists and soil
>> professionals to continue to enrich the lives of all Americ

[ECOLOG-L] News: Soil Declared A Natural Resource, By Senate Resolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Senate_Resolution_Shines_Spotlight_On_The_Importance_Of_Soils_999.html

Senate Resolution Shines Spotlight On The Importance Of Soils
  The Resolution acknowledges the work of soil scientists and 
soil professionals to continue to enrich the lives of all Americans 
by improving stewardship of the soil, combating soil degradation, and 
ensuring the future protection and sustainable use of our air, soil, 
and water resources.


by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 09, 2008

The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) applauds the visionary 
action taken by Senator Sherrod Brown and his colleagues in the 
Senate who helped usher in legislation to recognize soils as an 
"essential" natural resource, placing soil on par with water and air.


On June 23, Senator Brown was joined by co-sponsoring Senators Kent 
Conrad (D-ND), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom 
Harkin (D-IA), Ken Salazar (D-CO) and George Voinovich (R-OH) to 
successfully pass Senate Resolution 440, which also highlights the 
"critical role" soils professionals play in managing our nation's 
soil resources.


"This resolution comes at a time when soil is widely undervalued," 
says Rattan Lal, Ohio State University, SSSA Past President. "Soil, 
and specifically sound soil management, is essential in our continued 
quest to increase the production of food, feed, fiber, and fuel while 
maintaining and improving the environment, and mitigating the effects 
of climate change.


Being the essence of all terrestrial life and ecosystem services, we 
cannot take the soils for granted. Soil is the basis of survival for 
present and future generations."


The Senate resolution passed six months after the European Union's 
Soil Protection Framework was tabled due to irreconcilable 
differences among Parliament membership.


"My years growing up working on our family farm taught me the value 
of hard work and the importance of soil," says Senator Brown. "Often 
overlooked, healthy soil is vital to maintaining our natural 
resources and feeding our nation. This resolution is an important 
first step in cultivating awareness of our nation's soil policies."


The Resolution acknowledges the work of soil scientists and soil 
professionals to continue to enrich the lives of all Americans by 
improving stewardship of the soil, combating soil degradation, and 
ensuring the future protection and sustainable use of our air, soil, 
and water resources.


The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is a progressive, 
international scientific society that fosters the transfer of 
knowledge and practices to sustain global soils. Based in Madison, 
WI, and founded in 1936, SSSA is the professional home for 6,000+ 
members dedicated to advancing the field of soil science.


It provides information about soils in relation to crop production, 
environmental quality, ecosystem sustainability, bioremediation, 
waste management, recycling, and wise land


***   NOTICE:  In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this 
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational 
purposes only.   ***


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[ECOLOG-L] Ecological Impacts of impervious surfaces on soil health

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I've started a bibliography at 
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/Soil_Ecology_Biblio.htm, and would 
appreciate any suggestions.


Specifically, I want to know what do we do to soils when we pave them 
over?  What would be the ecosystem effects of converting substantial 
portions of urban impervious surfaces to permeable and porous 
materials?  (I have enough on the ground water recharge and storm 
water runoff aspects of such a move, its the soil health component 
that I want to get at.)


Incidentally, I'd also be interested in any pointers to understanding 
the idea of soil diversity, and the argument that we are destroying 
it at a planetary level.


Thanks,
-
  Ashwani
     Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

[ECOLOG-L] Soil health and urban impervious surfaces

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I'm working on a paper that seeks to characterize ways in which we 
might more effectively ecologize urban and suburban agglomerations. 
As part of that effort, and given that one of the most significant 
impacts that urbanization has on the land is the laying of impervious 
surfaces, I'd like to better understand the idea of soil health.


Specifically, do we adversely impact soil health by laying impervious 
surfaces down upon the land?  And, if so, would the increased use of 
porous pavement and pervious materials actually improve soil ecology? 
What might I read to better understand this relationship, please?


Thanks,
-
  Ashwani
     Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

[ECOLOG-L] News: May 16, 2008 is Endangered Species Day In the US

[Yahoo Group (by way of Ashwani Vasishth)]

https://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?c=1704

Celebrate Endangered Species Day on May 16, 2008

Endangered Species Day is an opportunity for people young and old to 
learn about the importance of protecting endangered species and 
everyday actions that we can take to help protect our nation's 
disappearing wildlife and last remaining open space. This year, 
Endangered Species Day will be celebrated at more than 70 events in 
25 states.


   * * *

http://www.nwf.org/endangered/endangeredspeciesday.cfm

America Celebrates Endangered Species Day

On May 16, 2008, America will celebrate endangered species success 
stories, including the American bald eagle, peregrine falcon, gray 
wolf, grizzly bear, humpback whale and many others. This will be the 
third consecutive year for this national celebration of America's 
commitment to protecting and recovering our nation's endangered 
species. Events are held across the country to highlight endangered 
species stories.


This year, Endangered Species Day will raise awareness about the 
threats to endangered species - including global warming - and the 
success stories in species recovery. It will provide an opportunity 
for schools, libraries, museums, zoos, botanical gardens, agencies, 
businesses, community organizations and conservation organizations to 
educate the public about the importance of protecting endangered 
species. It is also an opportunity to highlight the everyday actions 
that individuals and groups can take to help protect our nation's 
wildlife, fish and plants. Because 2008 has been designated as The 
Year of the Frog by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a special 
focus will be on the threats faced by declining amphibian populations.


With more than 1,800 species now listed as threatened and endangered, 
and thousands more threatened with extinction unless they receive 
Endangered Species Act protections, all public education efforts are 
extremely valuable. Help celebrate Endangered Species Day by learning 
about endangered species in your area, providing habitat for wildlife 
in your backyard, joining Frogwatch, visiting your local zoo, 
aquarium or endangered species habitat.


***   NOTICE:  In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this 
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational 
purposes only.   ***




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[ECOLOG-L] Activism: Toward A 350 PPM Carbon Concentration for the Ecosphere

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 15:25:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: "350.org" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Help Us Launch Our Website

Friends,

Our goal for 350.org is simple. We want to bring together an 
unstoppable movement to spread the most important number on the 
planet. Scientists like James Hansen of NASA say that 350 parts per 
million carbon in our atmosphere is the very upper threshold of a 
safe human climate to avoid 'an entirely different planet.' That's a 
number the world needs to know - and we need your help spreading it.


Help us launch our website by taking action in your community with 
the number 350:


http://www.350.org

The heart and soul of 350.org will be actions taken by people like 
you all over the globe. In mid-June, we'll go live with a new 
website that will help people to do just that. We'll have plenty of 
text and materials to help people take action, but as they say, a 
picture is worth a thousand words. That's where we need your help.


We're going to need images of all kinds that convey what it means to 
'take action to spread 350' - strong images, fun images, with a few 
friends or a few hundred. Remember to get the number '350' into your 
photo in an interesting way, and then email the picture to us at 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Outside of that, it's totally up to you.  With photos of people in 
our cities and on our coastlines, building renewable energy 
projects, educating citizens, or hosting a gathering of friends - 
when we launch we want to show the world what we can do. Over the 
next month we'll collect your photographs and feature the most 
inspirational examples front and center on our homepage. These early 
action pictures will be catalysts for the rest of the world.


We're counting on you all to take action and help bring this 
movement to life, and in turn, you can count on us to help show the 
world the groundswell that is building for our climate, our friends, 
and our future. We'll keep you up to date as things move forward, 
and we look forward to creating something bold, powerful and 
wonderful with you all.


With excitement for things to come,

The 350.org team


Project 350 is an international grassroots campaign that aims to 
mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to 
action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a common 
vision for fair policy, we will ensure that the world will create 
bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an 
independent and not-for-profit project.



If you would not like to receive emails from 350.org, 
please Click 
here to unsubscribe




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[ECOLOG-L] Resource: Topical news groups with searchable archives

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I maintain a set of topical news groups out of Yahoo Groups, as 
below.  Each of these provides as well a searchable archive, that may 
prove to be a resource.  URLs to the web sites are at my home page, 
under Subscribable News Groups.


Environmental Ecology News
Environmental and ecosystem ecology, climate change, political ecology
To subscribe anonymously, send a blank e-mail to: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


International Development
International and urban development, global change processes
To subscribe anonymously, send a blank e-mail to: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Sustainability Planning News
Green design, alternative energy, sustainability indicators, green production
To subscribe anonymously, send a blank e-mail to: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Planning News
Smart growth, transportation planning, regional planning, disaster planning
To subscribe anonymously, send a blank e-mail to: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Multiethnic Planning
Race, racism, ethnicity, and the ways in which we categorize community
To subscribe anonymously, send a blank e-mail to 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Air Quality Planning News
To subscribe anonymously, send a blank e-mail to: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Food Planning News
To subscribe anonymously, send a blank e-mail to: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

 Assistant Professor
   Advisement Coordinator
  Department of Urban Studies and Planning
   California State University, Northridge
 18111 Nordhoff Street, SH 208, Northridge, CA 91330-8259

Re: [ECOLOG-L] McDonough - I don't think so

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Sure, but McDonough has always argued that the costs of disposal be a factor in 
any life cycle analysis.  Indeed that's the basis for his cradle-to-cradle 
approach.  The only evidence I can find on his own position regarding hybrid 
technology in automobiles is an attribution from 2005 in support of plug-in 
hybrid vehicles (which are substantially different from the Prius, IMO).  See:
 http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/148.html

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/



At 10:27 AM -0500 2/28/08, Amartya Saha wrote:
>Hi Jane,
>Robert's point was about the resources taken to manufacture a new car, hybrid 
>or whatever.. all the metal, glass, plastics, chemicals etc, mining those, 
>energy costs to manufacture them, pollution costs to the environment and so 
>on, When one discards an old car and goes for a hybrid, one has to add all the 
>above costs to the benefits of lower emissions per mile.  Its not just C 
>emissions that accompany the manufacture of a car, there is a bunch of other 
>externalities if one were to track.
>Of course, given the necessity of driving for most (In the US), one can't run 
>an old car forever, unless one is a mechanic, understanding and taking care of 
>every strut, wire and screw. Maybe the breakeven in terms of environmental 
>costs of continuing with the old car vs. a hybrid may happen in 10 years, I do 
>not know, and its very difficult to put $ costs anyway to damage to habitat 
>done by resource extraction (mining,drilling etc) and pollution. Thats the 
>emerging field of natural resource economics ( thats been emerging for at 
>least trhe past 10 years as i'm aware of)..
>cheers
>amartya
>
>
>
>Jane Shevtsov wrote:
>>Hi Bob,
>>
>>Can you please cite some numbers to back up your claim? 30 MPG is pretty
>>good (although old cars tend to be worse from the point of view of toxic
>>emissions), but every examination I've seen of the question of whether the
>>improved efficiency of a hybrid offsets the C emissions due to its
>>manufacture has concluded that the hybrid is better than keeping the old
>>car. (I guess that might not be true if you do very little driving.)
>>
>>Jane
>>
>>On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 10:08 PM, Robert Fireovid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>wrote:
>>
>> 
>>>McDonough is like the Toyota ads that would seduce me into trading in
>>>my 1994, 30 mpg Prism for a brand new Prius. Considering the
>>>quantities of non-renewable natural resources that are extracted,
>>>transported and transformed into a new car (and the amount of Nature
>>>that is destroyed in its wake), I would have to own the Prius for
>>>over 50 years to "pay back" that resource debt and generate any net
>>>improvement in my environmental footprint.
>>>
>>>Young people love (and have taught me the power of) You-Tube. Have
>>>them watch this short spot, "The Story of Stuff," to see what I
>>>mean... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqZMTY4V7Ts
>>>
>>>- Bob Fireovid
>>>
>>>
>>>   
>>>>W. McDonough and M. Braungart's Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we
>>>> 
>>>make
>>>   
>>>>things (2002) might be interesting for your summer reading list.  They
>>>>suggest a proactive approach to environmental issues that is refreshing,
>>>>maybe even hopeful.
>>>> 
>>
>>
>>
>> 

[ECOLOG-L] Ecology in Canada?

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Is there the equivalent of the ESA in Canada, would anyone know, 
please?  And any references for the history of ecology as it 
developed in Canada?


Thanks,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Ecological impacts of the war on drugs (in the Amazon?)

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I'm looking for research articles on the supply-side aspects of the 
US war on drugs--fumigation of crops, socio-ecological effects of 
drug crop suppression, impacts on local populations--in Colombia, and 
elsewhere.

Thanks,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Fwd: New journal: International Journal of Sustainable Society

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 17:25:22 -0800 (PST)
>From: Cecilia Ferreyra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [IntSci] New journal: International Journal of Sustainable Society
>
>Dear Colleagues & Friends:
>  
>  I’m pleased to invite you to share critical insights from your research 
> and/or praxis through the International Journal of Sustainable Society 
> (IJSSoc) (see link below).
>  
>  The IJSSoc “presents a forum to help policy makers, planners, researchers, 
> educators, students, citizens, and professionals exchange their innovative 
> ideas and thought-provoking opinions. It also creates a communication channel 
> between practitioners and academics to discuss problems, challenges and 
> opportunities in all aspects of our society.”
>  
>  This new journal bases its sustainability vision on eight "balances" as 
> follows:
>  
>   a balance between economic development and environmental protection  
>   a balance between real aggregate demand and aggregate supply  
>   a balance between human beings and nature  
>   a balance between consumption and preservation  
>   a balance between material and spiritual pleasures  
>   a balance between civil liberty and self-restraint  
>   a balance between hedonism and practicality  
>   a balance between science and society
>  
>  Research papers, innovative ideas, reviews, surveys, debates, reports, case 
> studies, position notes, practice comments, book reviews, commentaries, and 
> news are welcomed for publication in the IJSSoc.
>  
>  Policy-relevant, action-oriented research that goes beyond disciplinary 
> boundaries to develop an  interface between natural science and social 
> science is particularly encouraged.
>  
>  All papers are refereed through a double blind process. A guide for authors, 
> sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are 
> available on the “Submission of Papers” web-page.
>  
>  Cheers,
>  
>  Cecilia Ferreyra
>  Editorial Board Member, IJSSoc
>  
>  International Journal of Sustainable Society 
>  ISSN (Online): 1756-2546  -  ISSN (Print): 1756-2538
>  Link: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=297#content
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>
>
>  Cecilia Ferreyra, PhD
>  Environmental Planning & Partnerships Coordinator
>  Alberta Environment - Central Region
>  Suite #1, 250 Diamond Ave,
>  Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada T7X 4C7
>  Phone: (780) 960-8649
>  Fax: (780) 960-8605
>  Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  
>  Alberta Environment: www.environment.alberta.ca
>  Water for Life: www.waterforlife.gov.ab.ca
>
>
>  
>-
>Looking for last minute shopping deals?  Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.
>-- next part --
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News: Europe Attempts to Cut Carbon Emissions Without Cutting Growth

[Yahoo Group (by way of Ashwani Vasishth)]

Apropos the idea of a steady state economy.

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/


* * *

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0124/p01s05-woeu.html

January 24, 2008 edition

Can Europe cut carbon without cutting growth?
  Radical goals for 2020 boost renewable energy and cut emissions sharply.

By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

London

Europe unveiled a "road map" to a low-carbon future Wednesday - one 
of the most radical packages the European Union has ever produced - 
in an effort to position the bloc at the vanguard of global efforts 
on climate change.

A clump of legislative proposals and directives provided for steep 
increases in wind and solar power, improved energy efficiency, and 
higher costs for polluters to meet a challenge outlined last year and 
dubbed "triple 20."

The aim is to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent, boost 
renewable energy to 20 percent of supply, and improve energy 
efficiency by 20 percent - all by 2020.

[...]


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Kinds of economic growth

[Ashwani Vasishth]

With regard to the recent exchanges on economic growth and ecological 
economics, the following two chapters of the current State of the 
World report out of the World Watch Institute may prove informative. 
The first argues for innovation in how we think about economics, and 
the second elaborates on the idea of "genuine progress indicators" as 
an alternative to conventional economic metrics such as GDP.

Ecological economics has a solid foundation in ecology, and so this 
is an entirely appropriate policy arena for engagement by the ESA, in 
my opinion.

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/


* * *

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5561#toc

Chapter 1. Seeding the Sustainable Economy

Gary Gardner and Thomas Prugh, Worldwatch Institute
Environmental decline and persistent mass poverty suggest that the 
dominant model for economies worldwide is in crisis. But alternatives 
to business-as-usual can steer most economies onto sustainable paths. 
Underpinned by a handful of key Big Ideas, economic innovations might 
just remake our world.
Download Chapter 1 <http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/SOW08_chapter_1.pdf>


Chapter 2. A New Bottom Line for Progress

John Talberth, Redefining Progress
GDP tells an important, if one-dimensional, economic story. But it's 
not the only story or even the most vital one. Metrics that better 
measure the things people most value, and don't count pollution and 
other "bads" as assets, are explored in this chapter.
Download Chapter 2  <http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/SOW08_chapter_2.pdf>

Re: ESA and Economic Growth Statement

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Greg Davies wrote:
> but data such as these are stark & unambiguous, as are the principals we 
> derive from basic population dynamics.
>   
Garrett Hardin's work on the "tragedy of the commons" is derived from 
principles of "basic population dynamics," for instance, and is 
completely mistaken when applied to human society.  We ARE responsive to 
stimuli, and we DO react to feedback--however imperfectly and however 
ponderously.  Evolution is alive and well, and we are subject to its 
principles.
> But Dr Bryan, you can take immense solace from the fact that ecologists such 
> as yourself, Dr Shevstov, and Dr Vasishth, who view population growth as a 
> non-problem, appear to be in the ESA majority.
>   
Speaking for myself, this is simply untrue.  (Besides the fact that I'm 
in a minority) Its not so that population growth is a "non-problem."  
Nor is it that urgent action is not required to deal with its outcomes.  
Its that taking cost-free pot shots at the rest of the world while we so 
profoundly ignore our own sins is a luxury we cannot afford very much 
longer.  All I'm saying is, lets put our own house in order first, and 
then we can take on the challenges of the rest of the world.

Cheers,
-- 
Ashwani
   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth

Ontogeny, phylogeny, growth, development, and throughput growth

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Growth is a complicated word.  After all, we all know that we do grow.  
In many ways, and throughout our lives.  So growth is good too.  
(Personally, I hope ESA DOES grow--in many ways.  But not in others.)

The classic distinction in sustainability planning is between growth and 
development.  Growth bad, development good.  But even this does not do 
justice to the world as we know it.

Throughput growth, now that's another story.  There's a clear target. 

-- 
Ashwani
   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth

Re: Population, Consumption and Economic Growth

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Ganter, Philip F. wrote:
> I am always confused by the message in stating the inequality between 
> consumption between the developed and developing economies.  
>   
Whether one goes to Ehrlich & Commoner's I=P*A*T or to Robert Kates' 
"Population, Technology and the Human Environment: A Thread Through 
Time," I think the basic point of such stories is to emphasize that 
population is only a part (some of us would say a relatively small part) 
of the carrying capacity plot line.
 
As a Third Worlder, from India, whenever I hear the population drum 
being beaten, I flash to the idea of "there go those over-breeding 
heathen."  Thing is, I'm really, really glad the Ehrlichs wrote The 
Population Bomb.  If they proved wrong in their prognostications, its 
only because we live in an evolutionary, responsive world.  They poked 
at the world, and the world responded. 

I was in India.  I saw the massive family planning efforts in the 
1970s.  But I also saw the forced sterlization camps, and the men and 
women herded into "health clinics" to meet the quotas imposed on civil 
servants by a remote and removed central government.  Some things come 
with a high cost.  Or take China.  One child per family.  And what 
happens?  We come today to a world in which there are, what?, fifty 
million more men than women in China?  And Tibet then becomes the 
"seeding ground" for a new generation of Chinese, with massive, 
widespread impregnation of Tibetan women?  Who will take responsibility 
for these ignominies?

Over-population is a Third World problem.  Over-consumption is a First 
World problem.  Let the Third Worlders find a solution to their 
problem.  We should look to our own sins.  We don't.

I really do think Jared Diamond's basic point is, if we want to take a 
honest crack at "solving" carrying capacity issues, we need to be 
looking in our own homes first.  If that's true, I agree with him.

Cheers,
 Ashwani

Re: ESA, Economic Growth, better metrics, ESA leadership

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 04:42 PM -0500 1/18/08, Dan Fiscus wrote:
> a quote from the book, "A
>Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies", by Howard and
>Elizabeth Odum (2001)
>
There's an article as well, titled The Prosperous Way Down.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V2S-4CVRKBT-6&_user=521393&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C59568&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521393&md5=bdebd5ab3c2d51916e87bf39b6239159

Energy
Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 21-32
The Second Biennial International Workshop "Advances in Energy Studies"

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2004.05.012  
Copyright © 2004 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

The prosperous way down
Howard T. Odum and Elisabeth C. Oduma, , 
aSanta Fe Community College, 3000 NW 83rd Street, Gainesville, FL 32606, USA

Available online 14 July 2004.

Abstract
Principles that appear to govern all systems including human societies were 
used to consider the time of economic descent ahead. These include the energy 
laws, the emergy concept, the maximum empower principle, the universal energy 
hierarchy, the conservation and hierarchical distribution of materials, the 
spatial organization of centers, and the pulsing paradigm. Population and 
cities, energy consumption and climate change, agriculture and environment, 
information and electric power, capitalism and economic policies, structures 
and materials, human life and standard of living are dealt with in this paper 
as interconnected aspects of the same problem, i.e. the necessary descent phase 
of human economies, due to decreasing resource base. We expect much of the 
resource use, culture and public policy appropriate for the growth period to be 
replaced with a new set of ethics and policies affecting each scale of time and 
space during descent. Decisive changes in attitudes and pract!
 ices can divert a destructive collapse, leading instead to a prosperous way 
down.

News: Biofuels May Not Provide Expected Cuts In CO2 Emissions

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>To: Environmental Ecology News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: Yahoo Group <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:23:55 -0800
>Subject: News: Biofuels May Not Proves Expected Cuts In CO2 Emissions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jan/14/biofuels.energy

Biofuels may not deliver CO2 cuts, scientists warn

* Jessica Aldred
* guardian.co.uk,
* Monday January 14 2008

Illustration Omitted:
Palm oil kernels. Photograph: AFP

Biofuels have a limited ability to replace fossil fuels and should 
not be regarded as a "silver bullet" solution to reducing transport 
emissions, British scientists warned today.

The report, Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges, from the 
Royal Society, found that climate change mitigation, energy security, 
rising oil prices and economic objectives are encouraging "strong 
interest" in the development of biofuels for the transport sector.

Biofuels - derived from food crops including corn, sugar cane, palm 
oil and oilseed rape - are one of the few technologies with the 
potential to displace oil as a fuel for transport and are seen as a 
way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost energy security.

But the report warned that biofuels risk failing to deliver 
significant reductions in transport emissions and could even be 
environmentally damaging unless the government implements the right 
policies.

It said directives such as the UK's Renewable Transport Fuel 
Obligation (RTFO), the UK's implementation of the EU biofuels 
directive which comes into force in April 2008, does not necessarily 
encourage the use of the types of biofuels with the best greenhouse 
gas savings.

Although the policy requires fuel suppliers to ensure that 5% of all 
UK fuels sold are from a renewable source by 2010, it does not 
contain a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the 
report says, it will do more for economic development and energy 
security than combating climate change.

"Biofuels could play an important role in cutting greenhouse gas 
emissions from transport both here and globally," said Professor John 
Pickett, who chaired the study. "Cars, lorries and domestic air 
travel are responsible for a massive 25% of all the UK's greenhouse 
gas emissions and this figure is growing faster than for any other 
sector."

"The government must ensure that the RTFO promotes fuels with the 
lowest emissions by, for example, setting a greenhouse gas reduction 
target. This will help encourage the improvement of existing fuels 
and accelerate the development of new ones. Without a target we risk 
missing important opportunities to stimulate exciting innovations 
that will help us cut our spiralling transport emissions."

The impact of biofuels

Biofuels have a number of benefits, which include being carbon 
neutral (that is, the carbon they emit in the atmosphere when burned 
is offset by the carbon that plants absorb from the atmosphere while 
growing), renewable (fresh supplies can be grown as needed), secure 
in their supply and able to be cultivated in many different 
environments.

But they have been increasingly criticised recently for their 
environmental impacts, food security and land use implications.

A report published in the journal Science earlier this month warned 
that biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and soy could have a greater 
environmental impact than burning fossil fuels.

And earlier today, the European commission's environment minister, 
Stavros Dimas, announced that the EU would re-examine its policy on 
biofuels after admitting that the environmental and social impact of 
producing the crops may be greater than originally thought.

The Royal Society said that given biofuels were already in the 
market, it was "vital that policies that promote biofuel development 
also address the environmental, economic and social impacts."

Assessing the benefits

The authors concluded that while biofuels are potentially an 
important part of the future, any assessment of their merits must be 
weighed against a number of factors.

"A coherent biofuels policy must address and balance all these 
factors if biofuels are the make a sustainable contribution to 
reducing climate change and improving energy security," the report 
concluded.

Firstly, each biofuel must be assessed on its own merits. The term 
biofuel covers a wide variety of products with many different 
characteristics and a wide range of potential savings in terms of 
greenhouse gas emissions, the report said.

Secondly, each assessment must address the environmental and economic 
aspects of the complete cycle - from the growth of the plant to its 
end use and potential for pollution. Such assessments would help to 
determine the extent to which different biofuels are carbon neutral, 
the report said.

The widespread deployment of biofuels has major implications for land 
use, and the associated environmental, social and economic impacts 
must in turn be assessed, the report's authors warned

Fwd: Survey - major challenges to biodiversity

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>From: Cathryn Wild <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:43:52 +
>Subject: [NA] Keystone Center national listening project - survey of major
>  challenges to biodiversity, opportuniti
>
>Message posted on behalf of Ed Moreno of the Keystone Center
>
>Dear Friends and Colleagues
>
>The Keystone Center is conducting a national listening project, 
>under a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, on the 
>following question:
>
>"What are the major challenges to biodiversity conservation over the 
>next 5 to 10 years and beyond,
>and what might be the most significant opportunities for 
>philanthropic impact?"
>
>Your participation will have a direct impact on future philanthropic 
>investments in biodiversity and wildlife habitat protection. As part 
>of the project, an online survey and a discussion have been prepared 
>for interested people to contribute their voice to the discussion.
>
>When you click on the link below, you will have access to a 
>10-minute survey that will gather your input on the question in a 
>simple electronic format. You will also have access to a discussion 
>forum, in which key topics are available for commentary. Once you 
>complete the survey, you will be able to access the rolling results 
>and return to the forum page.
>
>http://keystone.org/spp/env_DDCF.html
>
>We would ask, after completing the survey, that you forward the 
>survey and discussion link to others in your network or 
>organization, and post it on websites you have access to, or refer 
>the program staff (below) to your web content administrator.
>
>If you are interested in knowing more about the project or 
>participating in others ways (interviews, regional meetings), don't 
>hesitate to contact Ed Moreno, of the project staff, whose contact 
>information is listed below.
>
>Thank you for your interest.
>
>Ed Moreno
>The Keystone Center - Southwest
>7 Conchas Court
>Santa Fe NM 87508
>505-466-2006
>[EMAIL 
>PROTECTED]
>
>Peter Adler
>970-513-5841
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>www.keystone.org
>
>
>
>
>Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play Chicktionary! 
>Check 
>it out!
>
>___
>NA mailing list
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>http://list.conbio.org/mailman/listinfo/na

Activism: Focus the Nation - Hold A Teach-in On Climate Change

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Focus the Nation:  Humanity needs your leadership / Learn more on
>  Weds Call
>Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:33:17 -0800
>

Dear Friends,

Scientists announced last week that=20
within=20
five years, the Arctic might be ice-free =96 a=20
strange new open ocean where bears and other=20
beautiful creatures will no longer live. These=20
are the effects of just over 1 degree F of=20
warming, and we are facing three to ten times=20
more than that within the lifetimes of today=92s=20
students.

In this time of desperate crisis, the world needs=20
your leadership. Over the next few weeks, you can=20
build the grassroots movement for sane policies=20
that can stop the heating of this earth. We have=20
the solutions to hold global warming to the low=20
end, and create a safe and prosperous future.

Help us Focus the=20
WHOLE Nation. Please reach out to everyone you=20
know=97at high schools and grade schools, churches,=20
synagogues, mosques, rotary clubs, local=20
businesses, book clubs, Sierra Club chapters,=20
museums, bike clubs, environmental centers--  and=20
get them to commit=20
to=20
holding an educational event on January 31st.  Do=20
not take no for an answer. Time is too short.

Which side are you on?  The side of our children=20
and their future? Or the side of those who say we=20
can=92t stop this challenge to human civilization--=20
because it will cost too much? It is time to=20
decide.

Thank you to the tens of thousands of volunteers=20
across the country who are building Focus the=20
Nation events. And thank you to the many groups=20
helping make Focus the temporary center of the=20
national movement to stop global warming: the=20
Student=20
PIRG=92s; the Sierra Student=20
Coalition; our partners at the=20
National=20
Wildlife Federation and the=20
Earth Day Network; all=20
the young leaders who headed back to their=20
campuses after=20
Powershift; the=20
folks at LiveEarth,=20
Interfaith=20
Power and Light, at=20
Hillel, the College=20
President=92s=20
Climate Commitment, at=20
Stop Global=20
Warming, at 1-Sky, and at=20
Clif Bar,=20
Stonyfield Farm,=20
Nike,=20
Re:Vision,=20
SightSpeed, and the=20
rest of our business partners and sponsors.

This is the start of the kind of movement that,=20
again and again, has changed . Your leadership=20
now is critical.

On a recent call, one of our organizers asked,=20
=93What else do you need from Focus the Nation?=94 He=20
received this reply: =93Give us hope=94.

Your leadership gives us hope. Help Focus the=20
Nation bring us all together, and change the=20
future.

  Join us Wednesday, 12/17=9712 noon, eastern=20
for our organizing call. Call in to=20
1-218-339-7800, passcode 1312008. Thanks for the=20
work you are doing.

Eban Goodstein, Project Director
Chungin Chung, Communications Director

=46OCUS PHONE-IN Join us for the next half-an-hour=20
conference call to share information and respond=20
to questions. Wednesday, December 17th, at noon=20
Eastern, 9 Pacific Time. Calls will be every=20
Wednesday at that time, so mark your calendars!=20
Call in to 1-218-339-7800, passcode 1312008.

=46ocus News:

*Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and Voice=20
Yourself join Focus as a Sponsor! We are glad to=20
welcome=20
Green=20
Mountain, a pioneer in producing sustainable and=20
fair trade coffee. At Voice Yourself, Woody=20
Harrelson and Laura Louie=92s=20
on-line initiative=20
inspires individual action to create global=20
momentum towards simple organic living and to=20
restore balance and harmony to our planet.
*National Campus Energy Challenge. Join schools=20
across the country and see what=20
you can save in=20
=46ebruary!
*Send Updates and Endorsements=20
Let us know=20
what=92s going on!!  
* Forty Percent of Car Trips are within two miles=20
of your home: Take Clif Bar=92s Two-Mile Challenge=20
and ride or walk instead!=20
Check it out.
*Donate to Focus=97Stop Your Junk Mail!=20
Sign up with 41 Pounds,=20
and a portion of the income is donated directly=20
to us here at Focus the Nation.
*Re:Vision the world.=20
Share your passion=20
for sustainable design
*Missed Greenbuild? Check out=20

Supporting efforts to promote the use of native plants

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 08:28 PM -0500 12/15/07, Carrie DeJaco wrote:
>I recently bought a house with a decent sized yard that I am trying to convert 
>from grass to native plants.  It is very difficult to find nurseries that 1) 
>have native plants, and 2) have employees who actually know which plants are 
>native.  I feel like I need to take my plant books with me every time I go!
>
>Carrie DeJaco
>
May I suggest finding, participating in and supporting your state and local 
native plant societies, and your local tree-planting and urban forestry groups? 
 They're always great places from which to get involved with activist change 
efforts.  (Home Depot can be quite receptive to organized calls for native 
vegetation-savvy staff at specific locations, and certainly to offers of 
training initiatives that would make their staff more systematically 
knowledgeable on this issue.  Offer to run a workshop, for instance.)  And I 
have found that there is a whole hidden (if microcosmic) world of activist 
effort and dedicated commitment in many parts of the country--folks that would 
dearly welcome the additional participation of those savvy in ecology.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

Exponential growth in human populations

[Ashwani Vasishth]

On the issue of exponential growth, in the case of human populations, see:

Kates, Robert.  1996.  "Population, Technology and the Human 
Environment: A Thread Through Time,"  Daedalus,
  http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/Kates-Pop+Tech+Env.pdf

See also the literature on the Kuznets Curve.  Exponential growth in 
human populations is an artifact of scale, it seems to me.

  Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth


>"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our
>inability to understand the exponential function."
>
>Albert A. Bartlett, emeritus Professor of Physics,
>University of Colorado at Boulder,
>
>
>Time will tell...
>
>
> 
>
>Looking for last minute shopping deals? 
>Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. 
>http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

Re: ecological "footprint", 3rd world vs. 1st world

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 11:57 AM -0800 12/4/07, Kelly Stettner wrote:
>even though 1st worlders can lay claim to the highest material consumerism, we 
>can also lay claim to the highest rate of governmental beauracracy (sp?) when 
>it comes to pollution caps, environmental controls, waste water treatment 
>facilities, and the skills, education and abilities to take care of our 
>resources.  We don't have villages where people defacate in the streams.  We 
>are cutting down on everything from fertilizer-use to driveway car-washing, 
>improving our agricultural practices (no more cows wading in streams, etc.) 
>and our stream bank care.  1st worlders lead the way in research and 
>technologies that improve our ability to care for the natural world -- each of 
>you posting from a 1st world country is living proof of that.
>  
>  Respectfully,
>  Kelly Stettner
>
Wealth buys privileges, and great wealth buys great privileges.  The West leads 
because it can afford to.  (I won't even touch the question of where that 
wealth comes from.)  It Third Worlders defecate in the streets, its not because 
they are genetically inclined to do so.  And if America's environment is 
cleaning up, it is at least in some large part because we have exported much of 
our polluting manufacturing processes to Third World countries.  We're claiming 
for ourselves the privilege of goods priced at a fraction of what they would 
have cost to make in the US, and the benefits of a cleaner environment to boot. 
 We're giving them the privilege of dying on our behalf.

Back in 1991, Dr. Lawrence Summers, while Chief Economist at the World Bank, 
signed off on an internal memo that asserted that the economically efficient 
way to deal with toxic waste was to export it to countries with the lowest life 
expectancy.  Shock and outrage followed the leaking of the memo to the press, 
Dr. Summers apologized for the "ironic statement," was promoted upward and the 
world returned to normal.  Except that Dr. Summers was perhaps prescient.  Its 
just that instead of merely exporting our toxic wastes (which we do by the 
megaton, by the way), we exported the whole of the activity that generates much 
of that toxic waste as well.

There's a lot to be said for human civilization.  But to claim the fruits of 
civilization as being born out of the innate abilities of First Worlders--many 
of whom have come from the Third World, mind (what does it mean to be American, 
any way?)--is perhaps at least unfair.

Boundaries and scales are relevant here as well.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

Re: Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock

[Ashwani Vasishth]

For the past few years, I have set aside about two hours a day to scanning and 
processing environmental news.  It seems to me, on that basis, that there is an 
increasing attention being paid to global change issues.  Whether because they 
think it good PR, or because they are actually beginning to see the dotted 
lines connecting their companies well being to planetary change processes, it 
also seems to me that corporations are increasingly putting carbon tracking or 
management programs into effect.  Most of this is likely to be lip service, but 
I made a wish a while back that we had some way of measuring the consequences 
of our actions, with regard to climate change.  A dashboard-mounted speedometer 
sort of thing.  It looks like we're on our way to getting that, at least.

Does this all add up to change in behavior?  Will it make enough of a 
difference, if there is in fact a trend and that trend continues to build?  I 
don't know.  But there is at least a clear opportunity to turn the status quo, 
if we can all agree on some basics. 

If I had only the one intervention to make, I'd choose to implement a globally 
managed carbon tax in lieu of an income tax.  (We can deal with the inequitable 
impacts on the poor quite easily, I'm sure.)  If I were given one more, I'd 
choose to move us toward a full-cost accounting, one that internalizes the 
costs and the consequences of actions that are presently externalized onto 
society or onto others.  Freedom to choose is precious, but works only if we 
pay the full cost of our choices.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth


>Ashwani,
>
>I hope that you are correct, and that people will soon change their
>behavior (albeit begrudgingly) so that we get something closer to
>Ecotopia than Mad Max (thanks for the link to the Costanza article!).  I
>came across an interesting article in PNAS recently, though, that says
>that "Gaia" is losing her capacity to deal with our lack of discipline.
>It specifically talks about the declining capacity of carbon sinks to
>buffer anthropogenic carbon dioxide.  Here is the article:
>
>Josep G. Canadell, Corinne Le Quere, Michael R. Raupach, Christopher B. Field, 
>Erik T. Buitenhuis, Philippe Ciais, Thomas J. Conway, Nathan P. Gillett, R. A. 
>Houghton, and Gregg Marland. "Contributions to accelerating atmospheric CO2 
>growth from economic activity, carbon intensity, and efficiency of natural 
>sinks" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , October 2007.
>
>It is an open access article that can be accessed here:
>
>http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0702737104v1
>
>Best,
>
>Tim Meehan.
>
>_
>Tim Meehan
>Department of Entomology
>University of Wisconsin
>1630 Linden Drive
>Madison, WI 53706 USA
>608-262-4319
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>http://entomology.wisc.edu/~tdmeehan/

Re: Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock

[Ashwani Vasishth]

IMO, Lovelock's piece should be read more as a commentary on his opinions about 
human choice making than as a commentary on his expectations of climate change. 

In a world driven by evolutionary processes, most "predictions" either state or 
assume some specific choice sets.  When someone says "x will happen," that's 
just shorthand for "if we do (or don't do) y, x will happen," with the first 
part being left unspoken.  I think Lovelock is saying, "if we proceed as we 
are, we should expect about 6 billion people to die, by the end of this 
century."

If you recall Costanza's article on the four potential future scenarios ("Four 
Visions of the Century Ahead: Will It Be Star Trek, Ecotopia, Big Government, 
or Mad Max?"), then Lovelock's "projection" is not absurd--as commentary on our 
present course!!!

It might be that we are sure humans will react differently to the mounting 
evidence of global change, and so are sure that the status quo will not long 
endure, and we will yet end up acting to change the "sorry state of things 
entire."  If that is the case, then Lovelock will prove to be wrong.  (And he 
will probably be glad to have been wrong.)

But I suspect that he is in a better place to judge human nature (in the 
context of change pressures) than many of us who have not yet tried to push a 
radical transformation in world view upon the world, and found the world less 
than interested.  Surely, the powerful insights in his "Gaia hypothesis" (and I 
am personally sure they are powerful, even transformative, insights) ought to 
have been enough to transform how humans approach the ecosphere!  (But then 
again, so should Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", or Stan Rowe's "What On Earth 
is Environment?" or Holling and Goldberg's "Ecological planning"...and a few 
dozen other such works.)  But no such luck, ne?

The wheels of change, driven most by the gears of habit, are designed to resist 
movement.  So Lovelock's "prediction" is at least one informed speculation on 
potential planetary futures.  (Personally, I think he will be "proven" wrong, 
but at least he will be deeply wrong, rather than merely wrong.}

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth



At 03:01 PM -0500 10/29/07, tim knab wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>I do not post on this list regularly, but rather read many of the
>interesting discussions that pass by. However this recent article in Rolling
>Stone definitely caught my attention, and I wanted to pass it along to all
>of you to gather opinions. I know most of you are not atmospheric
>scientists, or climatologists, but your general scientific understanding is
>definitely valid. James Lovelock, an acknowledged scientist, essentially has
>stated that by the year 2100, he expects 5-6 billion people to have
>perished. I know this is a very grand claim, and there are always those who
>make fatal predictions. However, from what I have learned in my classes
>(such as 30-50% of all species will be extinct by 2050), I'm not entirely
>sure what to think.
>
>Here is a link to the article: h
>ttp://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock>
>
>I also realize that Rolling Stone is a magazine centered around music and
>culture, and that they do have a certain component of "shock" value. I also
>realize that this is not a scientific report in itself, and merely one
>educated man's opinions. Either way, being a young
>twenty-something-year-old, discussions such as this really hit home to me,
>and make me wonder what type of world I'm inheriting, and what type of world
>I'll be giving to my children (if I choose to have them).
>
>I wish you all a wonderful week,
>Tim Knab

News: Childhood Exposure to DDT Linked to Breast Cancer Later In Life

[Ashwani Vasishth]

[The Abstract from the research article is=20
appended below the news story excerpt.]

* * *

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ddt30sep30,0,3451847.st=
ory

Study suggests DDT, breast cancer link
  Exposure in childhood is key, quintupling=20
the risk among women with high levels of the=20
pesticide, researchers say.

By Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2007

Women heavily exposed to the pesticide DDT during=20
childhood are five times as likely to develop=20
breast cancer, a new scientific study suggests.

=46or decades, scientists have tried to determine=20
whether there is a connection between breast=20
cancer and DDT, the most widely used insecticide=20
in history. The UC Berkeley research, based on a=20
small number of Bay Area women, tested a theory=20
that the person's age during exposure was=20
critical, and provided the first evidence of a=20
substantial effect on breast cancer.

"There was very broad exposure to this pesticide,=20
and with this study, we have evidence that women=20
exposed when young were the most affected," said=20
Barbara A. Cohn, director of UC Berkeley's Child=20
Health and Development Studies, who led the study=20
of 129 women. "If this finding holds up, those=20
who were young and more highly exposed could be=20
the women at greatest risk."

Women born between 1945 and 1965 were most likely=20
to have been heavily exposed as children to DDT,=20
which was sprayed throughout the United States to=20
kill mosquitoes and other insects. DDT use began=20
in 1945, peaked in 1959 and was banned nationwide=20
in 1972 because it was building up in the=20
environment.

[=8A]

* * *

http://www.ehponline.org/realfiles/docs/2007/10260/abstract.html

Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 115, Number 10, October 2007

Research
DDT and Breast Cancer in Young Women: New Data on=20
the Significance of Age at Exposure

Barbara A. Cohn,1 Mary S. Wolff,2 Piera M. Cirillo,1 and Robert I. Sholtz1

1Child Health and Development Studies, Center for=20
Research on Women's and Children's Health, Public=20
Health Institute, Berkeley, California, USA;=20
2Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New=20
York, USA

Abstract
Background: Previous studies of DDT and breast=20
cancer assessed exposure later in life when the=20
breast may not have been vulnerable, after most=20
DDT had been eliminated, and after DDT had been=20
banned.

Objectives: We investigated whether DDT exposure=20
in young women during the period of peak DDT use=20
predicts breast cancer.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, nested=20
case-control study with a median time to=20
diagnosis of 17 years using blood samples=20
obtained from young women during 1959-1967.=20
Subjects were members of the Child Health and=20
Development Studies, Oakland, California, who=20
provided blood samples 1-3 days after giving=20
birth (mean age, 26 years). Cases (n =3D 129)=20
developed breast cancer before the age of 50=20
years. Controls (n =3D 129) were matched to cases=20
on birth year. Serum was assayed for p,p=B4-DDT,=20
the active ingredient of DDT; o,p=B4-DDT, a low=20
concentration contaminant; and p,p=B4-DDE, the most=20
abundant p,p=B4-DDT metabolite.

Results: High levels of serum p,p=B4-DDT predicted=20
a statistically significant 5-fold increased risk=20
of breast cancer among women who were born after=20
1931. These women were under 14 years of age in=20
1945, when DDT came into widespread use, and=20
mostly under 20 years as DDT use peaked. Women=20
who were not exposed to p,p=B4-DDT before 14 years=20
of age showed no association between p,p=B4-DDT and=20
breast cancer (p =3D 0.02 for difference by age).

Conclusions: Exposure to p,p=B4-DDT early in life=20
may increase breast cancer risk. Many U.S. women=20
heavily exposed to DDT in childhood have not yet=20
reached 50 years of age. The public health=20
significance of DDT exposure in early life may be=20
large.

Key words: breast cancer, child health and=20
development studies, exposure timing, o,p=B4-DDT,=20
organochlorines, p,p=B4-DDE, p,p=B4-DDT, pregnancy,=20
premenopausal. Environ Health Perspect=20
115:1406-1414 (2007). [Online 24 July 2007]

***   NOTICE:  In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.=20
Section 107, this material is distributed,=20
without profit, for research and educational=20
purposes only.   ***

News: DDT Returns to Africa, After All

[Ashwani Vasishth]

["It's already happened in Ghana, Burkina Faso=20
and other countries in west Africa, where farmers=20
have reportedly been illegally spraying DDT on=20
rice and cotton fields. In Nigeria, experts=20
suspect that tons of unregulated, often homemade,=20
chemical cocktails of uncertain quality are being=20
used in ad hoc spraying campaigns."]

* * *

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20790122/site/newsweek/

The Doomsday Spray
  To fight malaria, African nations are turning to DDT.

Illustration Omitted:
Fighting Bugs: A hospital patient seen=20
through a mosquito net.  Jose Cendon / AFP-Getty=20
Images

By Scott Johnson
Newsweek International

Sept. 24, 2007 issue - Fifty years ago Africa had=20
a coherent strategy to fight malaria. It involved=20
spraying large amounts of the pesticide=20
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, to curb=20
the mosquito that carries malaria. This campaign=20
was hugely successful, but it came to a halt=20
shortly after the 1962 publication of Rachel=20
Carson's "Silent Spring," which described the=20
environmental consequences of DDT running off=20
into lakes and rivers. Malaria cases soared on=20
the continent, except in South Africa, which=20
continued to spray. Finally, in 1996, pressured=20
by environmental groups, South Africa dropped DDT=20
for a less toxic alternative. Four years later,=20
the country was facing its first malaria epidemic=20
in half a century.

Now the story has turned back again. South Africa=20
resumed spraying in 2000, and malaria outbreaks=20
declined. Health officials from South Africa and=20
the United States helped persuade the World=20
Health Organization to approve DDT for malaria=20
control, saying the benefits were worth the=20
risks. Today South Africa stands virtually alone=20
on the continent, having gotten malaria under=20
control again. (Zambia followed its lead with=20
similar results.) Now the rest of the continent=20
is coming along as well. Last year Mozambique=20
embarked on a limited spraying campaign; health=20
officials say they see signs of improvement. In=20
November, Uganda will roll out a large-scale DDT=20
regime, backed by its president, Yoweri Museveni.=20
Tanzania and Kenya are both considering starting=20
DDT-spraying campaigns.

The return of DDT is part of a broader=20
recognition that controlling malaria is a high=20
priority for Africa-and that fighting it will=20
require all the tools health officials can=20
muster. A wide spectrum of donor-driven=20
initiatives and African government plans in=20
recent years have been aimed squarely at malaria=20
control, and some of that money is being spent on=20
DDT programs. U.S. First Lady Laura Bush recently=20
visited Mozambique on behalf of the $1.2 billion=20
President's Malaria Initiative to promote, among=20
other measures, the use of DDT in 15 African=20
countries.

These and other malaria initiatives helped reduce=20
the number of infant-mortality cases in Africa=20
last year to below 10 million for the first time=20
in decades, UNICEF reported last week. DDT will=20
be an important tool to help further reduce the=20
annual malaria death toll in Africa, which is now=20
1 million, most of them children.

Rachel Carson's claims about DDT may have been=20
exaggerated, but scientists have changed their=20
assessment of the risks in recent years. Whereas=20
large-scale, indiscriminate spraying is harmful=20
and still banned worldwide, targeted spraying in=20
small amounts can deter mosquitoes with little=20
effect on humans. In the past, health workers=20
would cover entire walls with DDT; today they=20
spray small amounts inside doorways and on other=20
key spots in houses. The small dosages limit=20
seepage into the water tables or soil beds.

DDT's main virtues are that it's cheap-six times=20
cheaper than alternative pesticides-and=20
long-lasting. One dosage can work for nine=20
months, long enough to span peak malarial seasons=20
in most places. "I'm thrilled about it," says=20
Maureen Coetzee, chief of vector-control research=20
at South Africa's National Institute for=20
Communicable Diseases. "It's long overdue." The=20
Gates Foundation is pouring nearly $5 million=20
into Africa to make sure DDT and other=20
insecticides are used properly.

That's a major challenge. Spraying too little, or=20
in the wrong way, can foster resistance among=20
mosquitoes. It's already happened in Ghana,=20
Burkina Faso and other countries in west Africa,=20
where farmers have reportedly been illegally=20
spraying DDT on rice and cotton fields. In=20
Nigeria, experts suspect that tons of=20
unregulated, often homemade, chemical cocktails=20
of uncertain quality are being used in ad hoc=20
spraying campaigns. And in Zambia, researchers=20
report that large amounts of pesticides are being=20
divvied up and sold in small bottles for home=20
use. The WHO is also working to prevent misuse.=20
Countries that wish to use DDT must register with=20
the WHO, explain why they need i

Re: DDT question

[Ashwani Vasishth]

The actual research article is at:
 
http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.716

For those who don't have access to Nature, a news summary is at:
 
http://www.scidev.net/content/news/eng/ddt-repels-rather-than-kills-mosquitoes.cfm

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth
   


At 11:21 AM -0400 9/2/07, Brian Todd wrote:
>http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070827/full/nm0907-1002b.html
>
>- Original Message - From: "joseph gathman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: 
>Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 1:32 AM
>Subject: Re: DDT question
>
>>>Paul Cherubini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>
>>>c) DDT mostly repels rather than kills mosquitoes
>>>from treated homes, hence acquired resistance is not
>>>a big problem either.
>>
>>Paul, can you cite evidence that DDT on walls repels
>>mosquitoes and that mosquitoes can't acquire
>>resistance to the repellent effect?  Maybe it's true.
>>Maybe it deserves credible scientific research.  But
>>if it's not true, the whole exercise would be
>>pointless.  But somebody would make plenty of money on
>>it.
>>
>>Joe
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who 
>>knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
>>http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433

Re: DDT question

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 08:29 AM -0700 9/1/07, Paul Cherubini wrote:
>until (and if) new, comparably cost-effective anti-malarial drugs or
>pesticides for mosquito control are ever developed.

On the issue of cost-effectiveness, and the argument that there are no 
cost-comparable treatments out there, where DO prices come from?  The idea that 
"the market" sets these prices is only true in a very limited way, in very 
special circumstances.  Pharmaceutical companies make all sorts of decisions 
about profit and about production volumes that are much more influential in 
setting prices than the magical supply and demand curves of a "free market".  
When you have a few suppliers, and many buyers, you do not have a free market.  
So the argument that DDT is the "cheapest" solution available is at least 
specious, if not downright horrid.  People ARE dying, and yet pharmaceutical 
companies in the West are able to use patent laws to make profit first?  The 
argument that they have to recover their R&D investment is made a lie by Henry 
Ford's argument that sales volume makes up for exorbitant pricing.  Do we sell 
a hundred units at a thousand bucks or a thousand units at a hundr!
 ed bucks?

As for this business of "limited spraying," where do you think antibiotic drug 
resistance comes from?  How did human pharmaceuticals come to be ubiquitous in 
the ecosphere?  Put a biochemical remedy out there, and it WILL be abused.  
People are neither smart nor responsible in their use of harmful substances.  
We will consistently assume that if a teeny bit is good, then a lot must be 
great.

To the extent that there is a vote being made, I vote firmly against substances 
like DDT.  (And I challenge anyone to tell me that I am indifferent to the cost 
in human lives.)  Read Crawford Holling's article at 
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/Holling+Ecology_and_Planning.pdf.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth
   


>Kelly Stettner wrote:
>
>> For some reason, I thought that Rachel Carson's allegation
>> about sea bird eggshells had been disproven?
>
>Kelly, whether or not Rachel Carson's allegation was correct
>is not relevant to the DDT indoor house wall treatment issue.
>
>Why?
>
>a) Because on a landscape scale, the amount of DDT used per
>acre of land per year for malaria control (house wall
>treatments) in developing countries is many
>thousands of times LESS than the amount of DDT
>that was used per acre per year in the USA on
>agricultural crops in 1950's. Therefore indoor house wall
>usage of DDT could not conceivably result in significant
>outdoor biomagnification, bioaccumulation, demasculinization,
>etc. environmental effects.
>
>b) DDT wettable powder is also relatively insoluble in water,
>so even when a house collapses and decays, DDT will
>not easily move from the house site.
>
>c) DDT mostly repels rather than kills mosquitoes from
>treated homes, hence acquired resistance is not a big
>problem either.  Meanwhile, DDT buys time and could
>save hundreds of thousands or millions of lives until (and
>if) new, comparably cost-effective anti-malarial drugs or
>pesticides for mosquito control are ever developed.
>
>Paul Cherubini
>El Dorado, Calif.

Re: The theory of evolution does not threaten the notion of God

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 12:46 PM -0800 8/28/07, Tessler, David F (DFG) wrote:
>The theory of evolution does not threaten the notion of God...  
>

These are good points.  But if we make a distinction between pantheistic and 
atheistic spiritual religions and monotheistic institutional religion, the 
problem lies with the latter.  These all require a relatively unmediated, and 
somewhat direct relationship between Man and God.  Institutional religions all 
need humans to be privileged within God's schema.  That's the nub of it, it 
seems to me.  A story that tells of creation as millennia removed from the 
emergence of humans just would not hack it, within any of the institutional 
religions.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

Re: DDT and malaria management

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I had put together a bibliography of material pertaining to DDT and malaria, 
from a malaria management perspective.

http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/DDT+Malaria-biblio.htm

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

   Assistant Professor
  Department of Urban Studies and Planning
   California State University, Northridge
 18111 Nordhoff Street, SH 208, Northridge, CA 91330-8259




At 05:15 AM -0700 8/28/07, Kelly Stettner wrote:
>Many respectful thanks for your response!  I will do some digging and see what 
>I can find.  I really appreciate being given a specific direction (like the 
>name of the journal), rather than simply "go look it up, fool!"  The reason I 
>posted here at ECOLOG is not because I am ignorant of any facts, but because 
>there seems to be an opposing view-point out there.  I believe that science 
>should not be consensus-based ~ or we'd still be living on a flat planet in 
>the center of the universe.  Heh!  I would like to explore all the data to the 
>best of my limited ability so I can try to form my own opinion.
>  
>  Sincerely,
>  Kelly Stettner
>
>
>Black River Action Team (BRAT)
>  45 Coolidge Road
>  Springfield, VT  05156
>  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>http://www.blackriveractionteam.org
>
>~Making ripples on the Black River since 2000! ~
>
>  
>-
>Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows.
>Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

Re: Mosquito control, DDT etc. - boundaries and scales

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Staying alive today trumps all other concerns, in most cases.  To that extent, 
a bias toward short-term thinking is both normal and natural.  The important 
point is that, while an excessive present-orientedness can jeopardize our long 
term prospects, short term thinking is not aberrant thinking.  This matters 
because it implies that we can never rest in our efforts to push folks to see 
the follies of an excessive present-orientedness.  Its a problem that we should 
not expect to see "solved", but rather should see as perpetual.

This is why ecologists are precious to society--there is a genuine value to 
thinking ecologically (paying attention to context and to consequence).  And 
people who are good at thinking ecologically will be necessary to each 
generation.  Throughout time.  This is one of those phenomena that we will 
never "solve", but rather are constrained to engage on an on-going basis.  If 
we do evolve to be superior creatures, it will be millennia from now. 

All this is in response to Bill's lament about the lack of a "solution to the 
problem of getting society to balance short-term benefits against long-term 
consequences."  The reason we had to invent adaptive management is because 
there is genuinely a class of problems that will never be "solved" but which 
must continuously be engaged.  (See, for instance, Rittel and Webber on "wicked 
problems" 
<http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/Rittel+Dilemmas+General_Theory_of_Planning.pdf>.)

People that propagate the use of DDT fall into two categories, it seems to me.  
There are those who are guilty of making incomplete descriptions, and there are 
those who are ideologically opposed to the regulatory framework that emerged 
out of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.  The former are, I suspect, blinkered by 
the manifest urgency of saving human lives that are being needlessly lost, and 
genuinely fail to see the long-term consequences of a renewed use of DDT.  The 
latter group, however, is likely not open to persuasion.  The best we can do is 
to act as a counter-weight in an effort to balance the whole.  That's the price 
for having learned to think ecologically.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth
   

At 12:41 PM +0100 8/23/07, William Silvert wrote:
>Ashwani raises a good and valid point, but one which also needs to be debated 
>on a broader scale. There are many things we do which will have long-term 
>consequences and we tend to ignore them. One clear and very long-term example 
>is the disposal of radioactive wastes, but what about PCBs and dioxins? Lead? 
>Mercury? Depletion of fossil fuels? Drug resistance fostered by heavy use of 
>antibiotics? Society tends not to take a long view, and I am not sure that 
>dealing with these issues on a chemical by chemical basis is the most 
>effective approach. Itis hard to see any solution to the problem of getting 
>society to balance short-term benefits against long-term consequences.
>
>Bill Silvert
>
>- Original Message - From: "Ashwani Vasishth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: 
>Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:18 PM
>Subject: Re: Mosquito control, DDT etc. - boundaries and scales
>
>>This on-going debate over the use of DDT to check the spread of malaria is 
>>really a debate over boundaries and scales.  Different spatial, temporal and 
>>organizational boundaries around what each side thinks is the proper "problem 
>>space" are what make two quite opposing conclusions valid.
>>
>>We can bound the problem space to the hut in question, at the time-scale of a 
>>mosquito's life span or to the life cycle of malarial infection, and in the 
>>limited context of "malaria control" that reduces the number of deaths from 
>>infection, and come to the conclusion that using DDT in specific cases (the 
>>so-called "indoor use" strategy--which assumes that DDT ceases to exist once 
>>it has been sprayed on walls and has done its job of repelling mosquitos) 
>>makes sense.
>>
>>We can alternatively bound the problem space to the level of the ecosphere, 
>>at the time scale of decades or centuries (which sees that DDT continues to 
>>work long after it has "done its job" of repelling mosquitos), and in the 
>>broader context of organisms other than mosquitos (such as women who develop 
>>breast cancer, or seabirds that lay eggs without shells, or sex reversal in 
>>fish, or the adverse impacts on polar bears or penguins), and come to the 
>>clear conclusion that this is not at all a good idea.
>>
>>Saying that using DDT is not a good i

Re: Mosquito control, DDT etc. - boundaries and scales

[Ashwani Vasishth]

This on-going debate over the use of DDT to check the spread of malaria is 
really a debate over boundaries and scales.  Different spatial, temporal and 
organizational boundaries around what each side thinks is the proper "problem 
space" are what make two quite opposing conclusions valid. 

We can bound the problem space to the hut in question, at the time-scale of a 
mosquito's life span or to the life cycle of malarial infection, and in the 
limited context of "malaria control" that reduces the number of deaths from 
infection, and come to the conclusion that using DDT in specific cases (the 
so-called "indoor use" strategy--which assumes that DDT ceases to exist once it 
has been sprayed on walls and has done its job of repelling mosquitos) makes 
sense. 

We can alternatively bound the problem space to the level of the ecosphere, at 
the time scale of decades or centuries (which sees that DDT continues to work 
long after it has "done its job" of repelling mosquitos), and in the broader 
context of organisms other than mosquitos (such as women who develop breast 
cancer, or seabirds that lay eggs without shells, or sex reversal in fish, or 
the adverse impacts on polar bears or penguins), and come to the clear 
conclusion that this is not at all a good idea.

Saying that using DDT is not a good idea is not at all the same thing as saying 
lets not be bothered about the horrific number of infants and adults who 
succumb to malaria each year.  We must indeed act forcefully to check this 
manageable disease, but we must act in a way that takes account of ecological 
context and ecospheric consequence.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth
   

At 10:36 PM -0400 8/21/07, Jane Shevtsov wrote:
>Interesting. I just read about bednets with permethrin included in the fabric 
>being very effective in malaria prevention. Unlike nets that are simply soaked 
>in insecticide, or DDT sprayed in homes, these nets last several years without 
>needing recharging or replacement.
>
>I realize that malaria is a much bigger health concern in Africa than 
>persistent pesticides are, but have any measurements been made of DDT 
>concentrations in the tissues of people who live in treated houses? I suspect 
>this would be most important for women.
>
>Jane
>
>William Silvert wrote:
>>Given the past discussions of DDT on this list, I thought the following item 
>>from the NY Times might be interesting to many of you.
>>
>>Bill Silvert
>>
>>August 20, 2007
>>Op-Ed Contributor
>>A New Home for DDT
>>By DONALD ROBERTS
>>Bethesda, Md.
>>
>>DDT, the miracle insecticide turned environmental bogeyman, is once again 
>>playing an important role in public health. In the malaria-plagued regions of 
>>Africa, where mosquitoes are becoming resistant to other chemicals, DDT is 
>>now being used as an indoor repellent. Research that I and my colleagues 
>>recently conducted shows that DDT is the most effective pesticide for 
>>spraying on walls, because it can keep mosquitoes from even entering the room.
>>
>>The news may seem surprising, as some mosquitoes worldwide are already 
>>resistant to DDT. But we've learned that even mosquitoes that have developed 
>>an immunity to being directly poisoned by DDT are still repelled by it.
>>
>>Malaria accounts for nearly 90 percent of all deaths from vector-borne 
>>disease globally. And it is surging in Africa, surpassing AIDS as the biggest 
>>killer of African children under age 5.
>>>From the 1940s onward, DDT was used to kill agricultural pests and
>>disease-carrying insects because it was cheap and lasted longer than other 
>>insecticides. DDT helped much of the developed world, including the United 
>>States and Europe, eradicate malaria. Then in the 1970s, after the 
>>publication of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," which raised concern over 
>>DDT's effects on wildlife and people, the chemical was banned in many 
>>countries. Birds, especially, were said to be vulnerable, and the chemical 
>>was blamed for reduced populations of bald eagles, falcons and pelicans. 
>>Scientific scrutiny has failed to find conclusive evidence that DDT causes 
>>cancer or other health problems in humans.
>>
>>Today, indoor DDT spraying to control malaria in Africa is supported by the 
>>World Health Organization; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and 
>>Malaria; and the United States Agency for International Development.
>>
>>The remaining concern has been that the greater use of DDT in Africa woul

Re: ECOLOGY How to Help the Ecosystem Succeed? Re: How to Succeed in Ecology session in San Jose

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 12:25 PM -0700 8/5/07, Wayne Tyson wrote:
>
>*After, of course, erecting a gigantic statue of David Inouye on the UMD 
>campus or perhaps the White House lawn?
>

I agree.  Its not trivial, what David does on an everyday basis to keep this 
list ticking as smoothly as he does.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth
   

Fwd: EPA Invites Public Comment on Design of Nanotechnology Stewardship Program

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Not my field, but it seems to me this might be of=20
interest to the Ecolog-L membership.

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth


>Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:20:18 -0500 (CDT)
>From: "U.S. EPA" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: News Brief: EPA Invites Public Comment on Design of Nanotechnology
>  Stewardship Program
>
>News Brief
>
>If you need more information on this subject, call the listed Press Officer
>
>For Release: (Washington, D.C. - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 )
>U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
>
>EPA Invites Public Comment on Design of Nanotechnology Stewardship Program
>
>Contact: Enesta Jones, (202) 564-4355 / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>In its continuing efforts to better understand=20
>the potential risks and benefits of=20
>nanotechnology, EPA is inviting the public to=20
>comment on the agency's proposed approach to=20
>developing a Nanoscale Materials Stewardship=20
>Program (NMSP). EPA's approach will increase the=20
>scientific understanding and ensure appropriate=20
>oversight of nanoscale industrial chemicals to=20
>facilitate the responsible development of this=20
>growing technology. 
>
>The effort will call on manufacturers of=20
>engineered nanoscale chemical materials to=20
>develop and report key information needed on=20
>these materials to help ensure the safe=20
>manufacture and use of the products of=20
>nanotechnology. This program will complement and=20
>support EPA's new and existing chemical programs=20
>under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
>
>The NMSP proposes to cover, but is not limited=20
>to, existing chemical nanoscale materials=20
>manufactured or imported for commercial purposes=20
>as defined by TSCA. The NMSP will also help to=20
>provide a firmer, scientific foundation for=20
>regulatory decisions by encouraging the=20
>development of key scientific information and=20
>use of a basic set of risk management practices=20
>in developing and commercializing nanoscale=20
>materials. EPA is seeking comment on a concept=20
>paper for the NMSP and the Information=20
>Collection Request (ICR) for the program. 
>
>EPA is also seeking comment on a document=20
>outlining its current approach for determining=20
>whether a nanoscale material is a "new" or=20
>"existing" chemical substance under TSCA.=20
>Manufacturers and importers of nanoscale=20
>materials that meet the definition of "chemical=20
>substances" under TSCA are subject to different=20
>requirements and reporting depending on whether=20
>they are considered "new" or "existing"=20
>chemicals. 
>
>On Aug. 2, a public meeting will be held to=20
>receive comments and the documents will be open=20
>for public comment for 60 days. For information=20
>on the public meeting or to read and comment on=20
>the documents that outline these efforts, visit:=20
><http://epa.gov/oppt/nano/nmspfr.htm>http://epa.gov/oppt/nano/nmspfr.htm
>
>R196
>
>Note: If a link above doesn't work, please copy=20
>and paste the URL into a browser.
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>You can=20
><https://service.govdelivery.com/service/user.html?code=3DUSAEPA>update=20
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>
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>Agency =B7 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW =B7=20
>Washington DC 20460 =B7 202-564-4355
>
>

Commentary: Why Do Some People Resist Science?

[Ashwani Vasishth]

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE RESIST SCIENCE?
By Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg

...In sum, the developmental data suggest that resistance to science 
will arise in children when scientific claims clash with early 
emerging, intuitive expectations. This resistance will persist 
through adulthood if the scientific claims are contested within a 
society, and will be especially strong if there is a non-scientific 
alternative that is rooted in common sense and championed by people 
who are taken as reliable and trustworthy. This is the current 
situation in the United States with regard to the central tenets of 
neuroscience and of evolutionary biology. These clash with intuitive 
beliefs about the immaterial nature of the soul and the purposeful 
design of humans and other animals - and, in the United States, these 
intuitive beliefs are particularly likely to be endorsed and 
transmitted by trusted religious and political authorities. Hence 
these are among the domains where Americans' resistance to science is 
the strongest. ...

PAUL BLOOM is a psychologist at Yale University and the author of 
DESCARTES BABY. DEENA SKOLNICK WEISBERG is a doctoral candidate in 
psychology at Yale University.

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#bloom2

Re: interesting report on fungi using melanin to metabolize radiation (Chernobyl)

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2007/2007-05-23-09.asp#anchor6

Radiation-Eating Fungi Found

BRONX, New York, May 23, 2007 (ENS) - Researchers=20
at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have=20
discovered that fungi that have the ability to=20
use radioactivity as an energy source for making=20
food and spurring their growth.

The finding could trigger recalculation of=20
Earth's energy balance and the scientists say the=20
ability of fungi to live off radiation could=20
prove useful to venturing into outer space.

"Since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer=20
space, astronauts might be able to rely on fungi=20
as an inexhaustible food source on long missions=20
or for colonizing other planets," says Dr.=20
Ekaterina Dadachova, associate professor of=20
nuclear medicine and microbiology and immunology=20
at Einstein and lead author of the study.

The research began five years ago when Dr. Arturo=20
Casadevall, chair of microbiology and immunology=20
at Einstein, read on the Internet that a robot=20
sent into the still highly radioactive damaged=20
reactor at Chernobyl had returned with samples of=20
black, fungi rich in melanin that were growing on=20
the reactor's walls.

Those fungi that are able to "eat" radiation must=20
possess melanin, the pigment found in many if not=20
most fungal species. But up until now, melanin's=20
biological role in fungi, if any, has been a=20
mystery.

[...]

At 02:42 PM + 5/27/07, stan moore wrote:
>YOu can read a public announcement of this at the following link:
>
>http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/2007042547data_trunc_sys.shtml
>
>
>I heard an interview on PBS'  Science Friday=20
>with a researcher (Ektarina ...) and she said=20
>that the mechanism that involves melanin is not=20
>fully understood, but it appears that some fungi=20
>use melanin with radiation in a manner similar=20
>to the use of chlorophyll by green plants with=20
>visible light.
>
>Interesting ramiifications are suggested...
>
>
>submitted by Stan Moore San Geronimo, CA[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>_
>Like the way Microsoft Office Outlook works?=20
>You=92ll love Windows Live Hotmail.=20
>http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=3Den-us&ocid=3DTXT_TAGHM_mig=
ration_HM_mini_outlook_0507

Re: News: Conservatives Split Over Darwin and Evolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 02:39 AM -0400 5/8/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>How can we teach critical thinking without offering different views to 
>consider?  And, the exercise loses its meaning if we are intent on  telling the
>student there can be only one right answer, which he has to get from  the
>instructor.
> 
Evolution science is hardly a monolithic singularity.  There's lots of debate 
and disagreement, and lots of scope to teach critical thinking.

Besides, there are actual facts in nature--however contestable they may be.  
There's a reason why "what" questions are distinct from "how" and "why" 
questions.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

News: Conservatives Split Over Darwin and Evolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/05/us/politics/05darwin.html?ref=science

A Split Emerges as Conservatives Discuss Darwin

By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: May 5, 2007

Evolution has long generated bitter fights between the left and the 
right about whether God or science better explains the origins of 
life. But now a dispute has cropped up within conservative circles, 
not over science, but over political ideology: Does Darwinian theory 
undermine conservative notions of religion and morality or does it 
actually support conservative philosophy?

On one level the debate can be seen as a polite discussion of 
political theory among the members of a small group of intellectuals. 
But the argument also exposes tensions within the Republicans' "big 
tent," as could be seen Thursday night when the party's 10 candidates 
for president were asked during their first debate whether they 
believed in evolution. Three - Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas; Mike 
Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas; and Representative Tom 
Tancredo of Colorado - indicated they did not.

For some conservatives, accepting Darwin undercuts religious faith 
and produces an amoral, materialistic worldview that easily embraces 
abortion, embryonic stem cell research and other practices they 
abhor. As an alternative to Darwin, many advocate intelligent design, 
which holds that life is so intricately organized that only an 
intelligent power could have created it.

Yet it is that very embrace of intelligent design - not to mention 
creationism, which takes a literal view of the Bible's Book of 
Genesis - that has led conservative opponents to speak out for fear 
their ideology will be branded as out of touch and anti-science.

[...]

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
  http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

Survey on Environmental Planning Techniques/Concepts

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>From: Ayman Ismail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Survey on Environmental Planning
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:29:59 +0300
>
>...I kindly ask your assistance in sending out=20
>this short opinion poll to as many planners and=20
>e-groups you know of (with return email to me).
>
>Ayman Ismail
>Assoc Prof. Urban and Regional Planning
>College of Environmental Design
>King-Abdul-Aziz University
>Jeddah - Saudi Arabia
=
-

Survey Form

The following methods are sometimes used by=20
environmental planners to quantify sustainability

a)  Emergy indices,

b)  ecological footprints,

c)  maximum em-power and

d)  environmental loading

This survey is about awareness about these and other methods

=


1.  I am a [] University Educator/Researcher=20
[] Private Consultant [] Other

2.  My background is in [=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A.]

3.  I specialize in [=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A.]

4.  I consider myself to be an Environmental Planner [] Yes [] No


If your answer is Yes

4.1.1In the last 3 years I have PUBLISHED=20
at least one paper on one of the topics listed []=20
Yes [] No  (If Yes, please list which one=20
(a)(b)(c)(d) or all/other)

4.1.2In the last 3 years I have APPLIED=20
at least one of the topics listed in a project []=20
Yes [] No (If Yes, please list which one=20
(a)(b)(c)(d) or all/other)

4.1.3I teach at least one of these methods in my class [] Yes [] No

4.1.4If Yes please list the Course/Dept/Univ. [=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=
=8A=8A=8A.]

4.1.5I think that these topics disserve=20
more prominence in sustainable development than=20
currently perceived.   Agree []=20
Disagree []  Not Sure []


If your answer is No

4.2.1In the last 3 years I have READ at=20
least one paper on one of the topics listed []=20
Yes [] No (If Yes, please list which one=20
(a)(b)(c)(d) or all/other)

4.2.2In the last 3 years I have=20
RECOMMENDED at least one of the topics listed in=20
a project to be applied. [] Yes [] No (If Yes,=20
please list which one (a)(b)(c)(d) or all/other)

4.2.3I believe these methods are becoming=20
more mainstream in environmental planning Agree=20
[] Disagree []  Not Sure []


Comments:=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=
=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A..

=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=
=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A

=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=
=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A=8A

Re: Equilibrium/Steady State and Complexity/Evolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

For a different take on this story line, see an essay that ran in the New 
Yorker a few years back, arguing that Manhattan is one of the greenest cities 
in the US, because it is one of the higher densities, with a good transit 
system.  Polemical, but still.  One copy of this is at:
 
http://www.greenbelt.org/downloads/resources/newswire/newswire_11_04GreenManhattan.pdf

>From a planning perspective, higher density settlements with well-mixed land 
>uses and with high diversity functions (socio-economic, ethnic, housing stock) 
>and a decent transit system (e.g., Manhattan) are thought to have a smaller 
>per capita ecological foot print than, say, a sprawling suburban development 
>(e.g., Levittown).  This is the basis for what some of us call "smart growth". 
> (For a bibliography of on-line documents, see: 
>http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/Smart_Growth_Reports-biblio.htm, or use 
>Wikipedia.)

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth


At 02:04 PM -0700 4/7/07, Warren W. Aney wrote:
>As I understand the situation, in comparison with smaller population
>centers, large population concentrations have relatively higher
>environmental costs due to in-transportation of such things as food and
>water, out-transportation of waste products and greater concentration of
>water, land and air pollutant loads. Large population centers can also have
>higher intra-urban transportation costs because people actually tend to end
>up living farther from where they work, buy things and socialize.  Others
>who are more knowledgeable on this probably have the data to back this up.
>
>And of course we can hope no one is advocating dispersing everyone onto 5.7
>acre hobby farms; that's even more costly in terms of infrastructure support
>and transportation costs as well as land use inefficiencies and losses of
>biodiversity.  That would certainly result in a much higher consumption of
>resources per capita compared to persons living in compact communities.
>
>
>Warren Aney
>(503)246-8613
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of patrick
>Sent: Saturday, 07 April, 2007 13:01
>To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
>Subject: Re: Equilibrium/Steady State and Complexity/Evolution
>
>
>The population density of the earth is estimated to be 112 people per square
>mile of land surface. That approximates a 500 by 500 foot plot of land per
>person, or 5.7 acres per person (~23 acres for a family of four). If
>families were more evenly distributed across the landscape instead of being
>concentrated within cities (and considering that a significant portion of
>the earth's surface is inhospitable to human colonization, e.g. Himalayan
>peaks, Antarctica, Sahara desert), it seems like there would be even more
>serious resource management issues and conflicts than we have today (e.g. a
>grizzly bear home range is between 10 and 380 square miles), despite the
>assumption that people would be consuming the same quantity of resources per
>capita.
>
>Patrick
>
>
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ashwani Vasishth
>Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 12:08 AM
>To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
>Subject: Re: Equilibrium/Steady State and Complexity/Evolution
>
>At 11:32 PM -0700 4/5/07, Warren W. Aney wrote:
>>First, I would hope to see an economy and population that is stabilized and
>>optimized world wide.  One in which wealth and amenities are fairly
>>distributed across urban, suburban and rural communities.  Where
>>economically and socially viable communities are well dispersed around the
>>world, and each such community has its own stable economy based on a clean
>>and sustainable industry.  And less than half of the world's population
>>lives in metropolitan areas or communities of over 100,000 population.
>
>Yes, that would be a start.  Give us this much, and the rest gently follows.
>
>The most recent population projections from the UN, taking account of myriad
>factors such as the changing rates of HIV/AIDS and plummeting fertility
>rates, puts world population at over 9 billion by 2050.  That number does
>not go away, no matter what we might think to do in the here and now--short
>of massacre and mayhem.  We're just going to have to learn to live with
>that.
>
>And that's not all, folks.  There's going to be a surge in consumption rates
>across the board that will effectively double the world's population for all
>practical purposes.  Tha

Re: Equilibrium/Steady State and Complexity/Evolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 11:32 PM -0700 4/5/07, Warren W. Aney wrote:
>First, I would hope to see an economy and population that is stabilized and
>optimized world wide.  One in which wealth and amenities are fairly
>distributed across urban, suburban and rural communities.  Where
>economically and socially viable communities are well dispersed around the
>world, and each such community has its own stable economy based on a clean
>and sustainable industry.  And less than half of the world’s population
>lives in metropolitan areas or communities of over 100,000 population.

Yes, that would be a start.  Give us this much, and the rest gently follows.

The most recent population projections from the UN, taking account of myriad 
factors such as the changing rates of HIV/AIDS and plummeting fertility rates, 
puts world population at over 9 billion by 2050.  That number does not go away, 
no matter what we might think to do in the here and now--short of massacre and 
mayhem.  We're just going to have to learn to live with that. 

And that's not all, folks.  There's going to be a surge in consumption rates 
across the board that will effectively double the world's population for all 
practical purposes.  That's not going away either.  The West has set the 
standard for what it means to be modern, and there's a few billion decent human 
beings out there who hard and want a taste of that as well.  Thus my allusion 
to Garrett Hardin's call for a "life boat ethic".  Can we say to them, we've 
got it, but you can't have any? 

(We tried this back in the 1970s, by the way, we really did.  We developed 
biogas plants and solar cookers and alternative technologies galore--read 
Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World, for instance.  We didn't have the 
Whole Earth Catalog, but we knew the content of it backward and forward.  We 
were deep into this stuff, went out to villages, did demonstration projects, 
presentations, trying to convince folks that we had to grow smarter not bigger. 
 And we never made it to first base.  They weren't having any of that.  They 
knew modern when they saw it in the movies, and that's what they wanted.  If it 
was good enough for the West, it was just what we ought to have.)

So, populations and consumption are both going to go up.  Way up.  And we're 
simply going to have to adapt.  Because, make no mistake, there's a few billion 
people coming down that pike, and they're going to want their fair share of the 
world.  They've been fueled by centuries of propaganda telling them the West is 
the best.  And you know what?  They've bought it!!!  As ye sow...

None of this is to say that "anything goes."  None of this is to say that we do 
not face a clear imperative to find and actualize proper action.  But these are 
the parameters within which change must happen.  Almost double the population, 
with some legitimate claim to a better material life--more stuff.  Now, can we 
do this smarter?  How? 

Steady state economics tells me nothing about what I need to be doing, here and 
now, in my every day life, to accommodate this reality.  I love the imagery of 
Daly's writing, I buy that he is one very, very astute man.  For years he was 
my lode stone.  But a manifesto does not a plan make.

Finally, carrying capacity and ecological footprint are evolutionary as well.  
They are not finite numbers enscribed on the walls of some obscure cave, 
waiting to be discovered by seekers after the greater truth.  I=PAT is only the 
tip of that particular iceberg.  Read Robert Kates, "Population, Technology and 
the Human Environment: A Thread Through Time," in that 1996 issue of Daedalus I 
mentioned.  Carrying capacity has always been at least plastic and perhaps 
entirely organic.  We don't know what the carrying capacity of the planet 
actually is, and we never will.  Its constantly being renegotiated.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

Considering growth, and inertia

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I just heard Bill McKibben talk about his new book, Deep Economy.  So 
I'm thinking about growth and growth-related issues.  Just wanted to 
say, apropos the earlier exchanges, that I know very well that 
growth--or, rather, a certain kind of growth--is likely the key 
source of a complex of problems we face.

But then I came home and reread a news story I'd flagged for one of 
my news groups, about how the number of people with cancer on the 
planet will, inevitably, double over the next 25 years.  Simply 
because the population will have grown to 8 billion plus.

Its like watching the Titanic in the long period of time after they 
spot the iceberg, realize they're going to hit it, and then are 
helpless to do anything about changing course--for all the ringing of 
the bells and the spinning of wheels.  There's an inertia in the 
system.  The moment of that inertia makes some portion of the future 
effectively inevitable.  Nothing that we can do, nothing short of 
massacre and mayhem, is going to change the population increase over 
the next couple of decades.  Now what is to be done?  What price zero 
growth then?

We've got one more doubling coming up.  No maybes about it.  The only 
question is, can we lighten our tread enough to accommodate that 
coming increase?  Or do we take the Garrett Hardin way, and advocate 
for his infamous lifeboat ethic...lets save ourselves and let the 
rest of the world drown?  Again, remember the Titanic.  There's a 
horror on that path too.

Regards,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

Re: Equilibrium/Steady State and Complexity/Evolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 12:21 AM + 4/3/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>  - no politburo required when the democratic rider is strong enough for the
>capitalist horse.
>

Respectfully , Brian, that's a rather substantial caveat to slip in 
to the conversation.  All evidence that I see from tracking everyday 
politics and policy shows me that democracy is steadily losing out to 
corporate capitalism--every where.  Not only does it no longer matter 
that people should get what they want, people often don't know what 
they should want.  (And even when they know what they want and do get 
it, it turns out to be connected to all sorts of things that they 
definitely don't want.) Then what is to be done?

But more importantly, show me the mechanism that would keep any 
economy at an actual "steady state."  It seems to me that we 
currently expend huge amounts of effort in attempting to "keep the 
economy on an even keel," but even there, we fail more often than 
not.  The idea that we can stay put, in any fashion, seems to me 
completely an unnatural state of affairs, except if it is taken 
metaphorically.  (And then it does very little for us, near as I can 
tell.)

I like Daly et al., and agree with them about the need to manage for 
a different set of objectives than physical or morphological  growth. 
I buy the quite meaningful distinction between growth and 
development.  But the root reason(s) that an ecosystem approach is 
imperative to the management of life is because the world is a 
dynamical place that, further, can not be singularly defined.  Show 
me what specific steps we could take--both as individuals and as 
groups (ontogeny and phylogeny both have standing in this, yes?)--to 
get away from growth and toward a steady state?

I don't doubt in the least that there are a host of policies that 
would move us toward development and away from growth (adopting Cobb 
et al.s' Genuine Progress Indicators is only one example), but how 
does one stay put, in life, without first needing to deny both 
complexity and evolution?

By the way, a wonderful history of the idea of equilibrium in US 
social science is:

Russett, Cynthia E.  1966. The Concept of Equilibrium in American 
Social Thought. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.

And on the idea of evolutionary progress, see:

Nitecki, Matthew H. (ed.).  1988.  Evolutionary Progress.  Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press.

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

Re: Crisitunity

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 01:31 PM -0700 4/2/07, patrick wrote:
>In China, the word for "crisis" is the same as the word for "opportunity".
>
This is not really true.  The conventional Western characterization of this 
idea holds that the Mandarin character for crisis is an amalgam of two other 
characters signifying danger and opportunity.  A whole cottage industry has 
grown up around this notion.  Turns out to be a more complicated story after 
all.  Run a search in Google for , or 
take a look at:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_translation_of_crisis

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Re: George Monbiot on Biofuels

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 05:34 PM + 4/1/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Ashwani says (and ascribing to Ernie), “conservation alone would allow
>us to grow into the foreseeable future (say, 50 years), without ANY
>increase being needed in energy production.”  I disagree.  By
>definition, conservation is not growth, but rather maintenance of
>natural capital stocks. 
>
I agree.  The term conservation probably better applies to the steady state 
economy position than to what I have in mind--Holling's shifting domains of 
equilibrium.

>Really, its' the macroeconomic goal that counts. 
>
I agree that changing societal and directional goals matters.  But, and without 
touching the debate between the primacy of macro- or micro-economics in shaping 
human behavior, the world in which I work is at the neighborhood level of 
organization, so to speak.  Personally, I can do nothing about macroeconomic 
goals per se (Ben Bernanke is out of my reach and influence), and signing 
petitions is not satisfying for me.  But I can change individual behavior at my 
own level of organization, and perhaps that of groups and communities, one or 
two levels out.  And my changes in behavior can, very effectively I believe, 
change the settings on the macroeconomic world.  (When I choose to drive at 55 
mph, some few individuals will almost always cue up from me.  Nearest neighbor 
theory does work.)

Its about preferred domains of action, more than anything else, I think.  I 
like big picture stuff.  But only because it allows me to rethink my own 
detailed world.  The think ecologically, I find, is to consider context richly, 
and to trace consequences across levels of organization.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth
 

Re: George Monbiot on Biofuels

[Ashwani Vasishth]

There was a really wonderful special issue of the journal Daedalus in 
1996 (it was supposed to come out as a book, subsequently, and may 
have, for all I know), titled "The Liberation of the Environment."  A 
very, very smart bit of speculative analysis and back-of-the-envelope 
forecasting.  The bibliography for that is appended below.

The punch line, as I took it, is that we can live well, even better 
than we do today, using way, way less stuff (land, raw materials, 
energy) than we currently do.

Conservation is virtually instantaneous in its effect.  Anybody watch 
the gas prices soar?  Sure, sure, complex story and all the rest of 
that.  But it would involve a refutation of mechanical physics to 
disregard the fact that demand for fuel shot up between 1998 and 2004 
(at least...that's as long as I followed the data).  In 1998, 
"trucks" were 15% of new car sales.  In 2004, SUVs were 55% of new 
car sales.  you can fudge the numbers however you like, but the fleet 
fuel economy for the nation went out the window that day.  And it was 
written in stone that the prices of gasoline would shoot through the 
ceiling any day now.  And they did.  If we could use eminent domain 
to seize every gas guzzler out there, reasonably defined, our "oil 
dependence" problem would suddenly unhappen.

Conservation, and intelligence in choosing alternative technologies 
are the calls for the day, it seems to me, and no one is making that 
case persuasively.  As usual, the diatribists have the day.

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth

* * *

Bibliography: The Liberation of the Environment
Special Issue of Daedalus, v125n3 (1996)

Ausubel, Jesse H.  1996.  "The Liberation of the Environment," 
Daedalus, v125n3 (Summer 1996): 1-17.   [Ausubel argues that 
well-established trajectories that raise the efficiency with which 
people use energy, land, water and materials can cut pollution and 
leave more soil unturned.  In altering the landscape so dramatically, 
humans have secured a new insecurity in that more has been 
transformed than is needed or prudent.]

Grubler, Arnulf.  1996.  "Time for a Change: On the Patterns of 
Diffusion of Innovation," Daedalus, v125n3 (Summer 1996): 19-42. 
[Grubler discusses the temporal patterns of the diffusion of 
technological innovations and what these patterns may imply for the 
future of the human environment.  Key technologies that can be 
envisioned to raise the quality of the environment must probably 
await the second half of the 21st century to become widespread and 
influential.]

Kates, Robert W.  1996.  "Population, Technology, and the Human 
Environment: A Thread Through Time," Daedalus, v125n3 (Summer 1996): 
43-71.   [Kates employs a sequence of four temporal frames--ages, 
millenia, centuries and decades--to examine the dynamics of 
population, resources and technology.  It appears that the Earth is 
about halfway in numbers into the third great population surge.]

Waggoner, Paul E.  1996.  "How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare 
For Nature?" Daedalus, v125n3 (Summer 1996): 73-93.   [Waggoner 
discusses how much land ten billion people can spare for nature.  If 
people keep eating and multiplying and farmers keep tilling and 
harvesting as they do now, the imperative of food will take another 
tenth of the land away from nature.]

Nakicenovic, Nebojsa.  1996.  "Freeing Energy From Carbon," Daedalus, 
v125n3 (Summer 1996): 95-112.   [Nakicenovic discusses the large 
secular decreases in energy requirements per unit of economic output 
that have been achieved throughout the world.  The emissions of 
carbon dioxide from energy systems have also decreased per unit of 
energy consumed]

Schipper, Lee.  1996.  "Life-Styles and the Environment: The Case of 
Energy," Daedalus, v125n3 (Summer 1996): 113-138.   [Schipper argues 
that the precise nature of the demands for services that humans 
collectively create increasingly shape environmental change. 
Consumers and their lifestyles arbitrate the quality of the human 
environment.]

Ausubel, Jesse H. & Cesare Marchetti.  1996.  "Elektron: Electrical 
Systems In Retrospect and Prospect," Daedalus, v125n3 (Summer 1996): 
139-169.   [Electricity was one of the first fields of research in 
which the US assumed a leading role.  The long economic cycles that 
seem to affect all parts of social and economic life constitute a 
good frame of reference for the development of the electrical system 
in terms of technology, territorial penetration, birth and death of 
enterprises and intensity of use.]

Wernick, Iddo K. & Robert Herman & Shekhar Govind & Jesse H. Ausubel. 
1996.  "Materialization and Dematerialzation: Measures and Trends," 

Re: George Monbiot on Biofuels

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Actually, Ernie's two key points:  a) that the US is an astoundingly wasteful 
nation when it comes to energy, and so, conservation alone would allow us to 
grow into the foreseeable future (say, 50 years), without ANY increase being 
needed in energy production;  and b) that the ways in which we are currently 
responding to the "energy crisis" is hands down the wrong way to go--what we 
are doing is merely pandering to established vested interests, rather than 
pushing for doing the right thing (surprise, surprise).

Could we use, say, the ESA, to put a unified message from the ecology community 
out there in a clear, simple and loud voice?  As matters stand, we're all 
chasing our own private Idahos, so to speak.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
  http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth



At 08:39 PM + 3/31/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>"Let's stop crying about the problems and get to work," Ernie Rogers
>says.  It's easy to agree, but we should leave Ernie and other
>technologists to get to work on green technology, while others of us
>get to work in explicating, for publics and polities, the fundamental
>conflict between increasing production and consumption of goods and
>services and environmental protection.  And a certain amount of
>"crying," as it may be portrayed, is necessary to get voters and
>politicians motivated.
>
>Cheers,
>
>
>Brian Czech, Ph.D., President
>Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
>SIGN THE POSITION on economic growth at:
>www.steadystate.org/PositiononEG.html .
>EMAIL RESPONSE PROBLEMS?  Use [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
>I was impressed by the clarity of Wayne Tyson's statement of the
>question. 
>The question does deserve an answer.  I am quite sure I can  refute the
>points
>made by Monbiot.  My chosen work is to deal with the  energy problem,
>looking
>for solutions.  The problem here is whether I  should devote the time
>required to make a proper reply, or if I should focus on  finding
>solutions.
> 
>If you will forgive me, for now I will just offer a general criticism
>that 
>applies to most papers like Monbiot's.  These writers usually focus on
>the 
>problems and don't think through the opportunities.  For example,
>inevitably
>there is a cry about the amount of farmland and fresh water that must
>be redir
>ected to biofuel crops.  The answer to this is simple-- I agree, we
>should not
>detract from food needs to grow fuels.  But, is that an  essential part of
>biofuel production?  Do we need fresh water, wouldn't  deep ocean
>water, rich in
>phosphorus and nitrogen, be a much better  source?  Would cyanobacteria
>provide a better biofuel "crop," in which case  there may not be a
>competition for
>farmland?  Lastly, are we sure that a  suitable fermentation process can't
>provide both useful food and fuel at the  same time?
> 
>I am distressed by the almost constant clamor that the U.S. will need "x 
>percent more energy" by some future date.  This is simply ignoring part
>of  the
>solution.  We can live very well with much less energy, as other  advanced
>countries have already demonstrated.  And, if we put our shoulders
>behind finding
>better technology, we can live very well indeed.  As an  example, I just
>finished a calculation, defining a new transportation vehicle  that is
>able to
>travel (in air) at 200 mph carrying 8 passengers and with a  fuel
>economy of 113
>miles per gallon.  That's five times more efficient  than today's best
>transportation system (the Greyhound bus at 160  passenger-miles per
>gallon).  With a
>well-developed "bus system" using this  new vehicle, U.S. transportation
>requirements could be met with about one-tenth  of current fuel needs, all
>supplied very nicely by biofuels.
> 
>Let's stop crying about the problems and get to work.  I get depressed
> when
>I read about foolish men tearing up precious ecosystems to make fuel.
> 
>THE GREATEST DANGER TO EARTH'S DIVERSITY IS GLOBAL WARMING. 
>We must stop burning fossil carbon!
> 
>Ernie Rogers
> 
>>> Is there anyone on this list who can refute the
>>>  essential points made in this article?
>>
>> I don't think so.   It's a question of quantity.  Even
>> if we devote large amounts of  cropland to ethanol
>> crops (substantially reducing food production in  the
>> process), there's no way to replace
>> soon-to-be-dwindling oil  supplies even as demand keeps
>> 

Re: ENERGY Sustainability Biofuels REQUIRED READING FOR EVERY ECOLOGIST? Re: George Monbiot on Biofuels

[Ashwani Vasishth]

See also an op-ed by Tilman and Hill, at:
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301625.html?reload=true

At 05:45 PM -0800 3/29/07, Wayne Tyson wrote:
>Thank you, Cara.
>
>Is there anyone on this list who can refute the essential points made in this 
>article?  It's a bit long, but worth reading, understanding, and commenting 
>upon with solid science to back them up.
>
>WT
>
>At 04:27 PM 3/27/2007, Cara Lin Bridgman wrote:
>>Here's the link to a recent article by George Monbiot on Biofuels.
>>
>>
>>
>>~~
>>Cara Lin Bridgman
>>
>>P.O. Box 013  Phone: 886-4-2632-5484
>>Longjing Sinjhuang
>>Taichung County 434
>>Taiwanhttp://megaview.com.tw/~caralin/
>>~~

Fwd: Re: Ocean Level Rising - watching campfires, observing the Sun

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 11:44:20 -0400
>From: Jim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: Ocean Level Rising
>
>Has anyone ever watched a campfire?  It starts, it grows, it gets hot, and it 
>gets cold.  How many global warming experts have been watching the Sun?
>
>James T. Conklin
>Longwood,  FL

There's a difference between "watching" a campfire and "observing" the Sun.  
The first happens in chronological time, while the second happens in actual 
time.  We can tell all kinds of things about the way the world "used to be", 
just by applied attention.  We can "know" that the Sun has gotten 30% hotter 
than it was when life began on the planet.  We can "know" that the planet has 
not.  And we can use that "knowledge" to tell that GHGs in the upper atmosphere 
have likely been trending downward, not upward, to allow these two otherwise 
incomensurate facts to coexist.

That's really all we need to "know" to conclude we're headed in the wrong 
direction, by pumping up GHGs into the stratosphere.  Nothing about the end of 
the world, nor about some singularly inevitable catastrophic end state, just 
about being headed in the wrong direction.  Add time lags to that story (watch 
the Titanic for all sorts of great analogies in navigation and obstacle 
avoidance under inertia), and we know all we need to know about what we ought 
to be doing, at an ecospheric level of organization.

As for the Al Gore dig, well, as we have seen, there's nothing in the books 
that tells us that first hand knowledge is necessarily superior to second or 
third hand knowledge.  Savvy tells savvy.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Re: Consumer Choice & the Environment

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 02:58 PM -0500 3/20/07, Wendee Holtcamp wrote:
>... something like 64-87% of
>all environmental impacts (air and water pollution, land alteration and
>global warming) were caused by 3 conglomerated categories - transportation,
>home operations (energy, AC/heating, etc), and food.

Don't drive over 55, check your tire pressure every couple of weeks (even 2 psi 
makes a difference), change your engine oil whenever it looks dark (2.5K, to be 
safe), and drive your average speed (minimize braking and acceleration);  wear 
warm clothes in the house in winter and use fans in the summer; go as close to 
vegetarian as you can.  Its not very complicated, though hardly easy.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Re: forests & ecosystem services, etc

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Some suggestions from a different list.

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

  * * *

Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:43:06 -0700
From: "Kuhn, Nicholas T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [URBNRNET] Fwd: forests & ecosystem services, etc
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

http://www.coloradotrees.org/benefits.htm

I like this page

Nicholas Kuhn
City Forester of Albuquerque, NM
Environmental Health Dept - Sustainability Program
505.768.2706
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.cabq.gov/sustainability

  * * *

Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 07:51:27 -0800
From: Kathleen Wolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [URBNRNET] Fwd: forests & ecosystem services, etc
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Seems any discussion of ecosystem services quickly turns to economic 
valuation - here is a primer:

http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/
_

Kathleen L. Wolf, Ph.D.
Research Social Scientist
College of Forest Resources
University of Washington
Box 352100
Seattle, WA  98195-2100

Human Dimensions of Urban Green Space:
www.cfr.washington.edu/research.envmind


  * * *

From: Kathleen Wolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [URBNRNET] Fwd: forests & ecosystem services, etc
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Oh yes, no attachments allowed on the list serve. Here is a link:

http://conserveonline.org/docs/2001/12/economicvalue.pdf

_

A good overview of more traditional forest ecosystem services is attached.

I haven't found the equivalent for U&CF. The science information is out
there in multiple publications but hasn't been packaged in this kind of
readable format.

kathy

^
Kathleen L. Wolf, Ph.D.
Research Social Scientist

College of Forest Resources
University of Washington

Research on Human Dimensions of Urban Greening:
www.cfr.washington.edu/research.envmind/

^



At 08:36 PM -0800 2/22/07, Susan Kephart wrote:
>HI..
>
>Does anyone have a pdf or suggested reference of a good paper for 
>interested non-science majors to read on forests and the ecosystem 
>services they provide? I'm interested in something suitable for 
>discussion.
>
>Also--for others teaching non-majors... Chpt 1 of EO Wilson's "The 
>future of life" is great for discussion of Archaea, Bacteria and 
>unusual animals and plants that occur in extreme environments or are 
>newly discovered.. We're usign the entire book as a supplement to 
>the regular textbook and students are enjoying it much.
>
>OK.. thanks for any suggestions on suitable forest ecosystem service 
>type papers, whether regionally (case studies) or globally focused.  
>I'll be happy to post responses to the list serve
>
>Best
>
>Susan Kephart

Feature: The Wedge Game Helps Make Complex Problems More Tractable

[Ashwani Vasishth]

This may be of interest to those thinking about social decision 
making under conditions of complexity.

Cheers,
-
   Ashwani
  Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
 
   Department of Urban Studies and Planning
California State University, Northridge
  18111 Nordhoff Street, SH 208, Northridge, CA 91330-8259
 


>Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:29:15 +0100
>From: david duthie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [bioplan] Wedging Sustainability Into Public Consciousness 
>- the art of the soluble
>

Dear BIOPLANNERS,

The climate change "problem" is so big it is easy to get overwhelmed 
and end up paralyzed and doing next to nothing.  This problem works 
at all scales, from personal to global.

On the margins of the AAAS meeting that I posted on last week, 
participants were given the chance to play the "Wedge Game", a 
practical hands-on way to get to grips with "the problem.

Based on a Princeton University initiative, the game demonstrates how 
a big problem can become tractable by being broken down into smaller 
discrete "bites" - analogous to Sir Peter Medawar`s "art of the 
soluble " metaphor for successful scientific research.

Now, thanks to BIOPLAN, you and your children can play the Wedge Game too.

Information about the game, plus links to download the two key 
peer-reviewed papers by Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala describing 
the stabilization wedges are available at:

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmi/resources/stabwedge.htm

Many influential institutions have already picked up on this idea, 
for example http://www.wri.org/climate/topic_content.cfm?cid=4229

Check it out and get it into schools via your kids.

Best wishes
--
David Duthie
UNEP-GEF Biosafety Unit
Geneva

Email: david.duthie @ unep.ch

*

Science 23 February 2007: Vol. 315. no. 5815, pp. 1068-1069
DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5815.1068

News of the Week: AAAS ANNUAL MEETING:
Wedging Sustainability Into Public Consciousness

Robert Coontz*

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--In a darkened ballroom in the Hilton San 
Francisco, 413 people tap numbers onto slate-gray keypads, each the 
size of a thick paperback book. Around them, almost 600 others watch 
as two screens at the front of the room reveal the results of their 
manipulations: a selection of strategies for taking wedge-shaped 
bites out of a graph of projected levels of atmospheric carbon over 
the next 50 years. Their mission: to whittle future CO2 levels down 
to a plateau in time to avert intolerable greenhouse warming.

The "Wedge Game," based on "stabilization wedges"--a concept 
developed by Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala of Princeton 
University (Science, 13 August 2004, p. 968)--was part of a town 
hall-like session for teachers and students at the AAAS Annual 
Meeting, held here from 15 to 19 February. The game, designed to 
convey the scale of the effort needed to stabilize carbon emissions 
and the pros and cons of possible options, was just one of some 200 
sessions, ranging from "Addiction and the Brain" to "Education, 
Learning, and Public Diplomacy in Virtual Worlds." (For coverage of 
selected sessions, visit www.sciencenow.org.) But one theme dominated 
the meeting: "Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being."

AAAS President John Holdren of Harvard University and the Woods Hole 
Research Center in Massachusetts set the stage with an opening 
address in which he warned of the dangers of complacently expecting 
technological fixes such as nuclear fusion to solve our problems. 
"I'm a great believer in science and technology, but the notion that 
science and technology will ride to the rescue is a pernicious one," 
Holdren told reporters at a morning briefing before the talk. 
"Believing in technological miracles is usually a mistake." Instead, 
he said, a huge effort on many fronts will be needed. Holdren urged 
scientists to "tithe" 10% of their time to working on four key 
challenges: global poverty, the competition for resources, the 
"energy-economy-environment dilemma," and the threat from nuclear 
weapons.

For its 4000 participants and 3000 visitors, including some 1000 
reporters, the meeting offered a crash course in those challenges and 
how scientists are tackling them, from "big picture" strategies to 
technical nuts and bolts.

Researchers monitoring the state of the planet reported warning signs 
from several quarters. Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State 
University in Columbus said ice cores from the Quelccaya Ice Cap in 
Peru--the largest body of ice in the w

News: Rachel Carson On-line Book Club Celebrate's 100th Anniversary

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>Subject: [fws-news] RACHEL CARSON ONLINE BOOK CLUB BEGINS IN MARCH
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:52:56 -0500

Contacts: Anne Roy, USFWS National Conservation Training Center,
304-876-7399
Nancy Pollot, USFWS Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office,
503-231-6179

Rachel Carson is considered by many to be the mother of modern-day 
ecology. This year, to mark the 100th anniversary of Rachel Carson's 
birth, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, working with the Friends 
of the National Conservation Training Center, will celebrate the 
achievements of its most notable employee by launching the Rachel 
Carson Online Book Club.

Beginning in March and continuing through November 2007, the online 
book club will focus on the life and work of Rachel Carson including 
her role as a female leader in science and government. Through the 
study of her writing, the Book Club will provide an opportunity for 
dialogue and discussion of current environmental issues in light of 
Carson's legacy

Several distinguished moderators will participate in the online 
discussions. Author and Carson biographer, Linda Lear will launch the 
first session on March 1. Among other moderators in the line-up are: 
marine biologist and Director of Duke Marine Laboratory, Cindy Van 
Dover; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service historian Mark Madison; 
Houghton Mifflin Executive Editor Deanne Urmy; author and professor 
of Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, John Elder. (See 
complete list of moderators below.)

"This online discussion (or blog) will be such a fabulous way to 
engage and bring together people from many different communities to 
focus on the life and legacy of Rachel Carson," said Anne Post Roy, 
NCTC conservation librarian. "The discussion should be incredibly 
interesting given the stature of some of our moderators and the depth 
of knowledge that they will bring to the online chat."

Each month, a moderator will start the book discussion with an 
opening statement. Then, in dialogue with book club participants, the 
moderator will provide weekly installments and add comments on the 
discussion throughout the month. Discussions will encompass current 
environmental issues like global warming, and will extend to personal 
attitudes toward the natural world.

Titles in the schedule range from Carson's first book, Under the 
Sea-Wind, in which she reveals her unique ability to present 
intricate scientific material in clear poetic language that 
captivates readers; to Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, 
and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson, an 
anthology edited by Peter Matthiessen that will be released on April 
22, 2007.

Silent Spring, Carson's most well known book which alerted the public 
to the dangers of pesticides and sparked a firestorm of controversy 
in its wake, will be showcased as well as some of her lesser known 
texts on the sea, and the truly inspirational The Sense of Wonder.

The Rachel Carson Online Book Club is sponsored by the Friends of the 
National Conservation Training Center. Participation in the online 
book club is open to everyone. For more information, please contact 
Anne Roy, National Conservation Training Center at: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED], or Nancy Pollot, Oregon 
Fish & Wildlife Office at: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] View the book 
club Web site at: 
http://rcbookclub.blogspot.com

The complete list of moderators includes: Patricia DeMarco, Rachel 
Carson Homestead Executive Director; Thomas Dunlap, author and 
Professor of History; John Elder, author and professor of 
Environmental Studies at Middlebury College; Maril Hazlett, 
Independent Scholar; H. Patricia Hynes, author and Professor of 
Environmental Health; Jim Lynch, Northwest author; Mark Lytle, 
author; Mark Madison, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service historian; Tom 
Schaefer, educator and historian; Deanne Urmy, Houghton Mifflin 
Executive Editor; and Cindy Van Dover, marine biologist and Director 
of Duke Marine Laboratory.

For more information on how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is 
celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson, 
please visit our website at 
http://www.fws.gov/rachelcarson/

*** 
News releases are also available on the World Wide Web at 
http://news.fws.gov

Questions concerning a particular news release or item of information 
should be directed to the person listed as the contact. General 
comments or observations concerning the content of the information 
should be directed to Malcomb Barsella 
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) in the 
Office of Public Affairs.

To unsubscribe from the fws-news listserver, send e-mail to

Fwd: Earth Day Network's Urban Environment Report

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:30:57 -0500
>From: Julian Agyeman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Earth Day Network's Urban Environment Report
>Sender: Planning Educators Electronic Mail Network 
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>Hi folks
>
>The Urban Environment Report (UER) scores the current environmental 
>performance of 72 US cities based on over 200 indicators, taking 
>into account those populations which may have greater sensitivity or 
>susceptibility to environmental, health, and social problems through 
>a Vulnerable Population Index (VPI). The Urban Environment Report 
>broadens the dominant view of environmental quality of life by 
>taking into account those who often suffer the most but are heard 
>the least.
>
>Makes a real change from the steady diet of 'green' city rankings?
>
>http://www.earthday.org/UER/report/
>
>Julian
>
>Dr. Julian Agyeman
>Associate Professor
>Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning
>Tufts University
>97 Talbot Avenue
>Medford MA 02155 USA
> 
>
>tel (1) 617 627 4017
>fax (1) 617 627 3377
>http://www.tufts.edu/~jagyem01/
> 
>
>Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability
>http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/13549839.html
> 
>
>

Re: Carbon offsetting - is electricity from coal the same as from wind?

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 05:51 PM -0500 2/19/07, Christopher A. Farmer wrote:
>to fool people into thinking that (coal and wind) electricity is different so 
>they should pay more for one kind than another.
>

The electricity from wind, coal and solar may be the same, if taken as mere 
electricity, but the consequences of generating these  sorts of energy are 
quite different.  Then to say wind energy is "the same" as coal energy is 
conceptually incorrect. 

Put differently and currently, we, as a society, may in actual fact be paying 
more for electricity produced by burning coal or petroleum than we do for 
electricity produced by wind or solar--after all, we can't not count the higher 
health (morbidity and mortality) and environmental costs of the former.

The price of electricity needs to more accurately reflect the true costs of 
producing and using that energy, if we want to use market forces to allow 
people to democratically choose society's direction.  We need to internalize 
all those externalities, and get to a full-cost cradle-to-grave accounting, if 
we want to use price as a proxy for planning.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Feature: Women in Science - food for thought

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/science/19women.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

Women in Science: The Battle Moves to the Trenches

By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: December 19, 2006

HOUSTON - Since the 1970s, women have surged into science and 
engineering classes in larger and larger numbers, even at top-tier 
institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where 
half the undergraduate science majors and more than a third of the 
engineering students are women. Half of the nation's medical students 
are women, and for decades the numbers have been rising similarly in 
disciplines like biology and mathematics.

Yet studies show that women in science still routinely receive less 
research support than their male colleagues, and they have not 
reached the top academic ranks in numbers anything like their growing 
presence would suggest.

For example, at top-tier institutions only about 15 percent of full 
professors in social, behavioral or life sciences are women, "and 
these are the only fields in science and engineering where the 
proportion of women reaches into the double digits," an expert panel 
convened by the National Academy of Sciences reported in September. 
And at each step on the academic ladder, more women than men leave 
science and engineering.

So in government agencies, at scientific organizations and on 
university campuses, female scientists are asking why, and wondering 
what they can do about it. The Association for Women in Science, the 
National Science Foundation and the National Research Council are 
among the groups tackling these issues. In just the past two months, 
conferences have been held at Columbia University and the City 
University of New York graduate center. Harvard has a yearlong 
lecture series on "Women, Science and Society."

[...]

CFR: Wetland Restoration Project Funding Applications Announced

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.lgean.org/html/whatsnew.cfm?id=1136

Applications Now Being Accepted for 5-Star Wetlands Restoration Program

The National Association of Counties, the National Fish and Wildlife 
Foundation, the Wildlife Habitat Council, in cooperation with the 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Southern Company, are 
now soliciting applications for the Five-Star Restoration Matching 
Grants Program. The Five-Star Restoration Program provides modest 
financial assistance on a competitive basis to support 
community-based wetland, riparian, and coastal habitat restoration 
projects that build diverse partnerships and foster local natural 
resource stewardship through education, outreach and training 
activities. Wetlands help our communities protect themselves against 
devastating floods, improve local water quality and provide critical 
wildlife habitat.

The President's Wetlands Initiative calls for collaborative 
approaches by federal, state, tribal, and local governments, the 
private sector, and the public to restore, improve, and protect 3 
million acres of wetlands by 2009. The Five-Star Restoration Program 
contributes to the achievement of one of several initiatives 
undertaken to help meet the President's wetlands restoration goal. In 
addition to EPA funding for projects located within any U.S. state or 
territory, $200,000 in additional grant funding from Southern Company 
is available for projects located in the following areas:

 * Georgia (excluding Union, Fannin and Towns Counties)
 * Alabama (excluding Lauderdale, Colbert, Lawrence, Limestone, 
Madison, Marshall, Morgan, Jackson, DeKalb, Cherokee and Cullman 
Counties)
 * the Florida Panhandle (west of the Apalachicola River)
 * southeast Mississippi (23 counties, from Meridian to the coast, 
with the west boundary running from Pearl River County to Union 
County)

Projects must involve diverse partnerships of ideally five 
organizations that contribute funding, land, technical assistance, 
workforce support, and/or other in-kind services. Projects must 
include a strong on-the-ground wetland, riparian, or coastal habitat 
restoration component and must also include a strong training, 
education, community stewardship and/or outreach component. 
Applicants must demonstrate that measurable ecological, educational, 
social, and/or economic benefits are expected to result from the 
completion of the project.

Applications must be postmarked by March 9, 2007. For more 
information, including the application guidelines and frequently 
asked questions, click here 
.

Re: ecology as general education

[Ashwani Vasishth]

There are many excellent reasons why (evolutionary) ecology should be part of 
any college education experience, I agree.  Amalgamating the sciences (AND the 
arts) into a synthesis course for GE aimed at informing social and policy 
choice making is surely a project worth pursuing.

But then there's ecology as a way of thinking, rather than merely a subject to 
know.  My field is planning, and some of us have found it important to 
recognize and call out the distinctions between simple systems and complex 
systems, mechanical and organic systems.  [See, for instance, Holling and 
Goldberg, 1971, and Rittel & Webber, 1973, 
<http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/index_Resources.html> as my own points of 
departure from conventional problem solving technologies and toward an adaptive 
ecosystem management approach.]

Then, to know something ecologically is to know that thing with particular 
attention to context and to consequence, under conditions of change processes.  
Then ecology as pedagogical frame can be brought to permeate most disciplinary 
ways of knowing.  I'm not an ecologist, and nor a wannabe, but I strive to show 
this way of knowing in every class I teach.  What would each one of us need to 
know, to make savvy social and policy choices?

Maybe more generalist-integrationist scientists need to be seeking out joint 
appointments in Liberal Studies programs across the nation?  I know we'd 
benefit.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

Resource: Darwin's complete works online

[Daniel M.T. Fessler (by way of Ashwani Vasishth)]

...the University of Cambridge now hosts an open-access web site providing the 
complete works of Charles Darwin:
 http://darwin-online.org.uk/






To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
   [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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News: NSF To fund research into Biology's "most challenging questions"

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=108068

Press Release 06-145
NSF Announces New Awards to Tackle Biology's Most Challenging Questions

Grants are part of agency's Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research Program
FIBR scientists will study ecology and evolution in Trinidad streams.

FIBR scientists will study ecology and evolution in Trinidad streams.
Credit and Larger Version

October 6, 2006

How do environmental changes cause organisms to evolve, and how, in turn, do 
evolving organisms change an ecosystem? How does the brain control complex 
behaviors? What are nature's rules for encoding a protein structure by its DNA 
sequence?

To tackle these major questions in biology, the National Science Foundation 
(NSF) has awarded three new grants totaling $14 million over 5 years in its 
Frontiers in Integrative Biology (FIBR) program. The goal of the FIBR program 
is to encourage investigators to identify major understudied or unanswered 
questions in biology, and to use innovative approaches to address these 
questions by integrating scientific concepts and research tools across 
disciplines that include biology, mathematics and the physical sciences, 
engineering, social sciences and the information sciences.

Each of the 5-year awards brings together researchers from many areas of 
science and engineering to draw upon advances in genomics, ecology, 
cyberinfrastructure and other fields. This year's FIBR awards involve 24 
principal investigators and 19 U.S. institutions in 12 states doing 
collaborative projects.

How environmental changes cause organisms to evolve

A team of researchers led by David Reznick, an evolutionary biologist at the 
University of California at Riverside, has been awarded $5 million over 5 years 
to conduct a study of how ecology and evolution interact. The findings will 
help explain how environmental changes influence an organism's evolution as 
well as how the evolving organism, in turn, changes the ecosystem in which it 
lives.

In collaboration with colleagues in molecular biology, population biology, 
ecosystem science, biogeochemistry and applied mathematics, Reznick will study 
evolution-ecology interactions in natural stream communities on the island of 
Trinidad. The team will focus on guppies, small fish that coexist with the 
Hart's killifish, a predator. Scientists will look at not only what causes the 
guppies to evolve but also the co-evolution of the killifish.

How brain activity leads to complex behavior

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of 
California at Berkeley will develop techniques to turn brain cells on and off 
in animals as the animals go about their daily activities, allowing scientists 
to understand the details of how brain activity leads to complex behavior. The 
team has been awarded $4.4 million over five years to conduct its study. Lead 
scientist Michael Dickinson at Caltech believes the project will help in 
developing an understanding of the mechanistic basis of complex behavior.

The research will focus on fruit flies, which are well-understood at the 
genetic level, and will involve experiments in which the activity of specific 
cells in the fruit flies' nervous systems can be controlled using light. The 
biologists hope to bioengineer ion channels that can be opened and closed with 
light flashes. By controlling these genetically engineered ion channels, they 
can directly manipulate the electrical impulses nervous systems use to sense 
and process information, allowing for the study of specific cells and circuits 
in animals. A central goal of the research will be to determine how nervous 
systems use sensory data to process changes in a complex set of behaviors.

How the cellular micro-environment affects folding of proteins

In an effort to shed new light on what is known as the "protein-folding 
problem"--the deciphering of rules for encoding protein structure by its DNA 
sequence--researchers, led by biophysicist Shimon Weiss of UCLA, have been 
awarded $4.5 million over five years to study the effects of the folding 
environment on protein-folding mechanisms.

In all living organisms, proteins begin to self-assemble or fold into their 
"native" 3-dimensional structures as they emerge into their intracellular 
folding environment from either the exit tunnel of the ribosome--the 
nanomachine responsible for translating genetic material into functional 
proteins--or from nanopores designed to transport proteins between 
intracellular compartments. For most proteins, the delicate balance of forces 
that controls and guides the folding process is highly sensitive to 
environmental conditions such as salt concentration, pH, temperature and other 
factors like the presence of folding co-factors and "chaperones."

The FIBR team will use a host of recent advances to allow the detection and 
study of protein-folding processes under physiologically relevant conditions, 
and with the spatia

Commentaries on science and on evolution

[Ashwani Vasishth]

There are two commentaries in the current issue of Bioscience that I thought 
worth considering, in the particular context of the current "debate" about the 
teaching of evolution science in our schools

The first, by Ross H. Nehm, "Faith-based Evolution Education?" (638 BioScience 
* August 2006 / Vol. 56 No. 8 www.biosciencemag.org) argues that scientists, 
generally defined, have limited themselves to generating belief statements on 
evolution, rather than scientifically and systematically addressing the 
misconceptions inherent in lay beliefs and in creationist rhetoric.  In 
addition, we need to get much better at showing people why a knowledge of 
evolution science matters, to everyday folks, on an everyday basis.

The second, by Margaret Wertheim, "Who Is Science Writing For?" (640 BioScience 
* August 2006 / Vol. 56 No. 8 www.biosciencemag.org), argues that science 
writers, generally defined, are not positioning themselves where the readers 
are, in America, but rather are catering to a very narrow (and quite small) 
self-selecting cluster of individuals who actively seek out science-related 
material.  We need to get better at doing what she calls "missionary work."

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 Department of Urban Studies and Planning, ST 206
California State University, Northridge
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/

News blurbs: DDT exposure impacts on humans

[Ashwani Vasishth]

The following web page has links to some recent studies that explore the impact 
of DDT on humans and on birds.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
 Department of Urban Studies and Planning, ST 206
California State University, Northridge
 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/


   * * *

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/archives.jsp?related=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Findex.php%3Fset_id%3D14%26click_id%3D14%26art_id%3Dvn20060724003819434C666973

DDT exposure linked to liver cancer in humans. High blood levels of the 
pesticide DDT are associated with an elevated risk of liver cancer, according 
to the results of a study conducted in China. Reuters Health. 24 July 2006. 
[related stories]
Bird brains shrink from exposure to contaminants. The regions in robins' brains 
responsible for singing and mating are shrinking when exposed to DDT at levels 
found in the environment-- residues persisting since the late 1960s. SPX. 24 
July 2006. [related stories]

The risk of developing liver cancer was elevated 3.8-fold in Chinese patients 
in the highest quintile of DDT exposure. No association was found for DDE. DDT 
is known to cause liver tumors in laboratory rodents. Journal of the National 
Cancer Institute. 24 July 2006. More... [related stories]

For American Robins, exposure to DDT causes large changes in brain structure in 
areas related to mating and song. Exposures caused overall reductions in brain 
size, reductions in the size of two areas important to song, and 'drastic 
reduction' in a brain structure critical for normal sexual behavior. Exposure 
was restricted to early development. Behavioral Brain Research. 14 July 2006. 
More... [related stories]

A birth cohort study of children of Mexican farm-workers in California finds 
that prenatal exposure to DDT is associated with neurodevelopmental delays 
during early childhood. A similar but smaller association was seen with DDE. 
Even when mothers had substantial exposure, however, breast feeding was usually 
associated with improved development. Pediatrics. 5 July 2006. More... [related 
stories]

A study of semen parameters in Mexico where DDT was used to control malaria 
found that exposure was related to impaired sperm quality. Men with higher DDE 
levels had a lower precentage of motile sperm and a greater percentage of sperm 
with tail defects. Sperm chromatin condensation was also affected adversely. 
These findings are especially important because the subjects were not involved 
in spraying DDT, but instead were simply living in the area. Journal of 
Andrology 12 April 2006. More... [related stories]

A study of newly married Chinese textile workers reveals that women who reached 
puberty earlier had higher levels of DDT in their blood. The age of menarche 
was 1.1 years younger in women in the highest exposure group compared to women 
with the lowest levels of serum DDT. Menstrual cycle lengths were also shorter. 
Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 12 February 2006. More... [related 
stories]

Women with higher DDT levels are more likely to experience early spontaneous 
miscarriage. Tracking hormone levels of newly married women in China, the study 
found that losses occurred before the women knew they were pregnant. 
Miscarriage later in pregnancy was not associated with DDT levels. Epidemiology 
27 September 2005. More... [related stories]

Although DDT is generally not toxic to human beings, research has shown that 
exposure to DDT at amounts that would be needed in malaria control might cause 
preterm birth and early weaning. Other risks, such as neurological and 
reproductive effects in spraying staff, might also apply. Decisions to use DDT 
for malaria control should balance the benefits and risks. Lancet. 27 August 
2005. More... [related stories]

A study of women exposed to historically high levels of DDT have higher 
incidence of pregnancy loss. Women exposed to DDT between 1959 and 1965 were 
found to have an increased risk of spontaneous abortion with increasing blood 
levels of DDE. Up to 60 ppm there was a dose-response effect. These results are 
consistent with other studies on DDE and pregnancy loss. Environmental Research 
1 February 2005. More... [related stories] [Subscription Required]

1 to 10 of 10 items

News: 100 Ecological Questions of High Policy Relevance to the UK

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://draft.britishecologicalsociety.org/articles/publicaffairs/press/pressreleases/100questions/

BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY PRESS RELEASE
7 June 2006

Policy makers draw up list of "top 100" ecological questions

Environmental policy makers have come up with a list of the "top 100" 
ecological questions most in need of an answer. The list, published online in 
the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, is the result of 
an innovative experiment involving more than 600 environmental policy makers 
and academics, and includes crucial questions such as which UK habitats and 
species might be lost completely due to climate change, and what are the 
comparative biodiversity impacts of newly emerging types of renewable energy? 
The list should help bridge the gap between science and policy that exists in 
many disciplines - including ecology - and could therefore have a major impact 
on future ecological research and its funding.

According to the lead author, Professor Bill Sutherland of the University of 
East Anglia: "There is currently too little information flow between scientists 
and policy makers. Narrowing this gap would be very beneficial in generating 
policies that are based on sound science. Conversely, it is desirable that 
research should be more clearly directed at issues that influence policy."

The list of 100 questions is the outcome of two days of discussion between 654 
environmental policy makers and academics. The academics acted as facilitators, 
helping the policy makers arrive at a short-list of 100 key questions from an 
initial long-list of more than 1,000. Policy makers came from 30 leading 
environmental organisations and regulators, including the Environment Agency, 
SEPA, English Nature, the National Trust, Butterfly Conservation, the Wildlife 
Trusts, the Woodland Trust and the British Trust for Ornithology, and the 
short-list was agreed by consensus and compromise.

Ecologists hope that the list will have a major impact on both science and 
policy. Lists of research questions have been highly influential in the past in 
other fields, such as mathematics. At the Second International Congress of 
Mathematicians in Paris in 1900, David Hilbert posed 23 problems that had a 
major impact on mathematics throughout the twentieth century. Another 
mathematician, Paul Erdös, is thought to given most of his money away by 
offering prizes for the mathematical problems he posed.

- ends -

Notes for editors

1. William J Sutherland et al (2006). Journal of Applied Ecology, doi: 
10./j.1365-2664.2006.01188.x. Copies of the paper are available from Becky 
Allen, BES Press Officer, tel: 01223 570016, mob: 07949 804317, email: [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]

2. For further information, please contact Professor Bill Sutherland, 
University of East Anglia, tel: 01603 592778, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or the 
UEA Press Office, tel: 01603 592203, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

3. The Journal of Applied Ecology is published by Blackwell Publishing for the 
British Ecological Society. Contents lists are available at 
www.blackwellpublishing.com/jpe.

4. The British Ecological Society is a learned society, a registered charity 
and a company limited by guarantee. Established in 1913 by academics to promote 
and foster the study of ecology in its widest sense, the Society has 4,000 
members in the UK and abroad. Further information is available at 
www.britishecologicalsociety.org.

 

Copyright 2005 British Ecological Society. All Rights Reserved

 * * *

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10./j.1365-2664.2006.01188.x

Journal of Applied Ecology

Online Early
doi:10./j.1365-2664.2006.01188.x
Volume 0 Issue 0

FORUM
The identification of 100 ecological questions of high policy relevance in the 
UK

William J. Sutherland1, Susan Armstrong-Brown2, Paul R. Armsworth3, Tom 
Brereton4, Jonathan Brickland5, Colin D. Campbell6, Daniel E. Chamberlain7, 
Andrew I. Cooke8, Nicholas K. Dulvy9, Nicholas R. Dusic10, Martin Fitton11, 
Robert P. Freckleton12, H. Charles J. Godfray13, Nick Grout14, H. John 
Harvey15, Colin Hedley16, John J. Hopkins17, Neil B. Kift18, Jeff Kirby19, 
William E. Kunin20, David W. Macdonald21, Brian Marker22, Marc Naura23, Andrew 
R. Neale24, Tom Oliver25, Dan Osborn26, Andrew S. Pullin27, Matthew E. A. 
Shardlow28, David A. Showler1, Paul L. Smith29, Richard J. Smithers30, Jean-Luc 
Solandt31, Jonathan Spencer32, Chris J. Spray33, Chris D. Thomas34, Jim 
Thompson35, Sarah E. Webb36, Derek W. Yalden37 And Andrew R. Watkinson38

Summary

1.  Evidence-based policy requires researchers to provide the answers to 
ecological questions that are of interest to policy makers. To find out what 
those questions are in the UK, representatives from 28 organizations involved 
in policy, together with scientists from 10 academic institutions, were asked 
to generate a list of questions from their organizations.

2.  During a 2-day workshop the initial list of 1003 questio

Re: Sustainability Definition

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I guess any meaningful word can be degraded by unconsidered use into a 
buzzword--ecology itself has been a good example of this, historically.

As a planner, its fairly easy for me to find a working definition of 
sustainability, or rather, of sustainable development.  There are two basic 
critiques of conventional development--the status quo, if you will.  First, 
that such development is driven by decision making processes that are overly 
biased toward economic factors, while largely disregarding ecological and 
equity (or social, or community) factors.  And second, that conventional 
decision making about development is unduly biased toward the present while 
overly and inappropriately discounting the future.  (The latter is or course 
the now famous Brundtland call to caring for "future generations.")

If you buy this frame work, then development becomes more sustainable when it 
derives from the adoption of decision processes that give some appropriately 
balanced attention to economic, ecological and equity factors or issues, while 
at the same time giving due consideration to future (and distant future) 
states.  (A corollary formulation might call for a displacement of exclusively 
or even predominantly monetary metrics in doing comparative and evaluative work 
within the decision space.)

For me, speaking as a planner, this is not that dissimilar from the place I 
come out at when I use scale hierarchic ecosystem ecology to help set up a 
decision space for planning.  We only get to know reality in some ecological 
way by making multiple depictions, across levels of organization, and then only 
by using some appropriate mix of spatial and temporal scales.  Purpose and 
perspective (as in spectator point) condition what we choose to think 
significant (and so, real), and then what we can see of that reality is scale 
dependent, in very actual ways.  So sustainability planning is a decision 
making process that uses a strategically balanced mix of purposive 
perspectives, using suitably multiple scales and boundaries.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
     Vasishth   [EMAIL PROTECTED]   (323) 462-2884
   http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth

At 06:53 PM -0700 6/5/06, Wayne Tyson wrote:
>Am I the only one who worries that "sustainability" has more than one
>meaning ranging from the useful, even critical, to a deceptive buzzword?
>
>WT

Fwd: History of Extinction in Mexico

[Ashwani Vasishth]

In case some one on this list has expertise in this area.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
   http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth

>Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 06:09:17 -0700
>From: "Adam M. Sowards" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: History of Extinction in Mexico
>Sender: H-NET List for Environmental History <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Approved-by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Reply-to: H-NET List for Environmental History <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>From: Paul Hirt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: 26 April 2006
>Subject: History of Extinction in Mexico
>
>Dear colleagues,
>   I have a friend in Mexico City, Oscar Moctezuma, who is the executive
>director of one of Mexico's premier conservation organizations, Naturalia,
>and he is pursuing a research project on Mexican vertebrate species that
>have gone extinct in the 20th century.  He has identified 43 species so far
>and want to produce a book on the causes of their decline and extinction as
>an educational tool for conservation efforts in Mexico.  Is anyone out there
>doing similar research already?  Does anyone know of someone who might be
>interested in taking on some of this research as a thesis or dissertation
>project?  Does anyone have suggestions on where information about extinct
>species may be found in North American archives (e.g., the Smithsonian, the
>American Museum of Natural History)?   You can reply to this list or to me
>or to Oscar directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Paul
>-- Paul Hirt Department of History Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 
>85287-4302 ph: 480-727-9084 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

[SPAM] CFP: Ecological Restoration (and history)-- A transatlantic workshop

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 18:01:35 -0700
>Subject: CFP: "Restoring or Renaturing?"-- A transatlantic workshop
>Sender: H-NET List for Environmental History <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Approved-by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>From: Marcus Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: 6 April 2006

Call for Papers and Posters:

"Restoring or Renaturing?
The presence of the past in ecological restoration -- A transatlantic workshop"

to be held in Zurich, Switzerland
July 9-11, 2006

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of damaged 
ecosystems. The highest goal for restoration practitioners is usually to bring 
back the natural state, the state that existed before humans transformed the 
land. In the Americas and other New Worlds, the classic restoration goal is 
therefore a pre-settlement state, be it pre-Columbian or pre-Indigenous. But 
determining pre-settled states in Europe and other Old World countries is more 
difficult, so that restorationists in these older lands may see their goal as 
reestablishing ecosystem health or ecological integrity--or as reinstating 
former processes instead of former conditions. It can be said that Americans 
restore while Europeans renature. The terminology of recent land-use policies 
reflect these semantic preferences, with Americans enacting various 
"restoration" measures for their damaged ecosystems, while the British, Dutch, 
German, Italians, and Swiss often pursue plans for "new natures" and "r!
 enatures."

More than most interdisciplinary teams, historians and ecologists can work 
together for improving the practice of ecological restoration. They can offer 
answers to such questions as:

o Which conditions should be brought back, and do such conditions represent new 
natures or betters pasts?
o What historical assumptions do we hold when we set out to restore, and what 
are the political and social implications?
o What can the historical record tell us about the nature of degradation?
o Can exotic species belong in properly restored sites?
o Can rewilding be a legitimate goal in Europe, or is this a Holy Grail better 
pursued in the New World?
o How can restoration history improve our current efforts to restore?

This two-day workshop will consider these and related questions by focusing on 
how an understanding of the past can enhance the way we restore and renature. 
It will bring together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere 
who have thought about how restoration history can inform the way we assist 
damaged ecosystems to recover. Discussions will explore various case studies 
that revolve around the identification of reference systems, the meaning of 
degradation, the past of restoration, and the uses of history in land 
management.

The scope of the conference is not limited by region or time period. English 
will be the main language of the conference. To submit a paper, please send a 
one-page abstract of the proposed paper or poster along with a CV with relevant 
publications (not longer than two pages) by April 30, 2006. Please send all 
inquiries and abstracts to:

Marcus Hall
University of Utah, Department of History 380 S. 1400 E., Salt Lake City, UT 
84112 USA Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FAX: 801-585-0580

>
>See the workshop website at:
>http://www.unizh.ch/uwinst/Workshop/home.html

News: Island Nations Face Growing Threat of Invasive Species

[Ashwani Vasishth]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32901

BIODIVERSITY:
Islands - Paradise Invaded
Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 14 (IPS) - Many countries, including Brazil, are only just 
waking up to the threat that invading species can pose to islands, generally 
seen as natural paradises and tourist attractions.

[...]


Or see:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/envecolnews/message/3158






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Excerpt: Graduate Education for Tropical Conservation and Development

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 08:16:55 -0700
>From: Rick Reis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: TP Msg. #713  A GRADUATE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK FOR TROPICAL 
>CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>List-Subscribe:
> ,
>   

"When asked whether an independent India would follow the British pattern of 
development, Mahatma Ghandi replied, "It took Britain half the resources of the 
planet to achieve this prosperity. How many planets would a country like India 
require?" The challenge of addressing the seemingly contradictory objectives of 
environmental conservation and economic development is particularly urgent in 
tropical countries, which often have both high biodiversity and some of the 
world's lowest standards of living."

CHECK OUT THE NEW MIT SPONSORED
 "The Tomorrow's Professor Blog"
A place for discussion about teaching and learning at: 
http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/

*   *   *   *   *
TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(SM) MAILING LIST
 desk-top faculty development one hundred times a year

Over 26,250 subscribers
Over 650 postings
Over 650 academic institutions
Over 100 countries

 Sponsored by
THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
 http://ctl.stanford.edu

An archive of all past postings (with a two week delay) can be found at:
http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/index.shtml

*   *   *   *   *
Folks:

The posting below, while using a particular set of subjects - tropical 
conservation and development - provides a model for interdisciplinary education 
that should appeal to many other departments and universities. The posting is 
an from the paper "A graduate education framework for tropical conservation and 
development". and is provided by Professor Karen Kainer [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] of 
the School of Forest Resource & Conservation/ Tropical Conservation & 
Development Program at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Reprinted 
with permission.

Regards,

Rick Reis
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
UP NEXT: Department Meetings

Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning

- 1,981 words 


A GRADUATE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK FOR TROPICAL CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Kainer, K.A., M. Schmink, J.R. Stepp, H. Covert, E.M. Bruna, J.L. Dain, S. 
Espinosa and S. Humphries. 2006. A graduate education framework for tropical 
conservation and development. Conservation Biology 20(1):3-13.

Reshaping graduate education

This complex, interrelated, and rapidly changing world has motivated 
universities to rethink the educational experience of society's future leaders. 
In the United States, and perhaps more so in developing countries, public 
investment in higher education is predicated upon a return of knowledge and 
technology for the benefit of society. Some call for changes not to just "tweak 
graduate education around the edges", but to reshape it completely.

Conventional graduate training related to tropical conservation and development 
has typically separated the two fields, with students focusing on either 
conservation from the perspective of the biophysical sciences or development as 
an extension of the social sciences. Employers, however, indicate that they 
need team members with cross-disciplinary and disciplinary depth, skills in 
languages, negotiation, and policy analysis. The ability to effectively elicit 
and present ideas and negotiate varying interests can make or break a 
conservation program, regardless of technical merit. Although the traditional 
currency of peer-reviewed publications still holds the greatest weight within 
the scientific community, communicating effectively with a remarkably diverse 
group of stakeholders, ranging from indigenous groups to corporate CEOs, is now 
considered a highly desirable conservation skill.

How might graduate programs better prepare students to become this type of 
skilled, forward-thinking leader prepared to improve human well-being while 
conserving the diversity of biological wealth in the tropics? The University of 
Florida's Tropical Conservation and Development Program (TCD) has been 
wrestling with these issues for over 15 years, and the program's framework for 
managing and adapting a graduate program is a product of these years of 
experience.

Framework for tropical conservation and development learning and action

The TCD program, housed in the University of Florida's Center for Latin 
American Studies, was established in the 1980s. The program does not grant 
degrees; rather, it offers an interdisciplinary certificate that functions much 
like a minor. I

CFP: Ecological Restoration (and history)-- A transatlantic workshop

[Ashwani Vasishth]

>Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 18:01:35 -0700
>Subject: CFP: "Restoring or Renaturing?"-- A transatlantic workshop
>Sender: H-NET List for Environmental History <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Approved-by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>From: Marcus Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: 6 April 2006

Call for Papers and Posters:

"Restoring or Renaturing?
The presence of the past in ecological restoration -- A transatlantic workshop"

to be held in Zurich, Switzerland
July 9-11, 2006

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of damaged 
ecosystems. The highest goal for restoration practitioners is usually to bring 
back the natural state, the state that existed before humans transformed the 
land. In the Americas and other New Worlds, the classic restoration goal is 
therefore a pre-settlement state, be it pre-Columbian or pre-Indigenous. But 
determining pre-settled states in Europe and other Old World countries is more 
difficult, so that restorationists in these older lands may see their goal as 
reestablishing ecosystem health or ecological integrity--or as reinstating 
former processes instead of former conditions. It can be said that Americans 
restore while Europeans renature. The terminology of recent land-use policies 
reflect these semantic preferences, with Americans enacting various 
"restoration" measures for their damaged ecosystems, while the British, Dutch, 
German, Italians, and Swiss often pursue plans for "new natures" and "r!
 enatures."

More than most interdisciplinary teams, historians and ecologists can work 
together for improving the practice of ecological restoration. They can offer 
answers to such questions as:

o Which conditions should be brought back, and do such conditions represent new 
natures or betters pasts?
o What historical assumptions do we hold when we set out to restore, and what 
are the political and social implications?
o What can the historical record tell us about the nature of degradation?
o Can exotic species belong in properly restored sites?
o Can rewilding be a legitimate goal in Europe, or is this a Holy Grail better 
pursued in the New World?
o How can restoration history improve our current efforts to restore?

This two-day workshop will consider these and related questions by focusing on 
how an understanding of the past can enhance the way we restore and renature. 
It will bring together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere 
who have thought about how restoration history can inform the way we assist 
damaged ecosystems to recover. Discussions will explore various case studies 
that revolve around the identification of reference systems, the meaning of 
degradation, the past of restoration, and the uses of history in land 
management.

The scope of the conference is not limited by region or time period. English 
will be the main language of the conference. To submit a paper, please send a 
one-page abstract of the proposed paper or poster along with a CV with relevant 
publications (not longer than two pages) by April 30, 2006. Please send all 
inquiries and abstracts to:

Marcus Hall
University of Utah, Department of History 380 S. 1400 E., Salt Lake City, UT 
84112 USA Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FAX: 801-585-0580

>
>See the workshop website at:
>http://www.unizh.ch/uwinst/Workshop/home.html

Re: invasive plants

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I would like to second Elizabeth's challenge to the notion that extinction and 
extirpation are sufficiently suitable metrics for species endangerment.  From a 
Southern California perspective, the areas of the region downwind of the most 
heavily automobile trafficked Los Angeles County are receiving increasing 
depositions of nitrogen, which is giving "weedy" non-native species a 
considerable edge (bibliography below).  The landscape is being at least 
transformed, and somewhere down the road, habitat change must inevitably 
follow--with all the attendant ecosystem effects.

Speaking from an environmental planning perspective, and if we are to break 
from the typological, population-community view of conservation and move to an 
ecosystem management approach that seeks to manage the processes and functions 
which underwrite species and communities, one of the first things we need to 
do, it seems to me, is to break from our almost exclusive reliance on the 
Endangered Species Act (and its quite incidental specification of "critical 
habitat").  Species extinction is a legitimate ecological concern, but 
extinctions are too far down the timestream to be actually useful to 
conservation action.

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
   Assistant Professor
 Department of Urban Studies and Planning, ST 206
California State University, Northridge
 http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth

 * * *

Allen, E. B. & P.E. Padgett & A. Bytnerowicz & R. Minnich.  1998.  "Nitrogen 
Deposition Effects On Coastal Sage Vegetation of Southern California,"  
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Air Pollution and Climate Change 
Effects on Forest Ecosystems, Riverside, CA February 5-9, 1996. USDA Forest 
Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, PSW-GTR-166, 131-140. 
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/gtrs.shtml (select GTR-166).

Cione, N.K., Padgett, P.E. & Allen, E.B.  2002.  "Restoration of A Native 
Shrubland Impacted By Exotic Grasses, Frequent Fire, and Nitrogen Deposition In 
Southern California,"  Restoration Ecology, v10(2002): 376-384.

Edgerton-Warburton, L.M. & Allen, E.B. 2000.  "Shifts In Arbuscular Mycorrhizal 
Communities Along An Anthropogenic Nitrogen Deposition Gradient,"  Ecological 
Applications, v10 (2000): 484-496.

Fenn, M.E. & J.S. Baron & E.B. Allen & H.M. Rueth & K.R. Nydick & L. Geiser & 
W.D. Bowman & J.O. Sickman & T. Meixner & D.W. Johnson.  2003.  "Ecological 
Effects of Nitrogen Deposition In the Western United States,"   Bioscience,  
v53 (2003): 404-420.

Huston, Michael A.  2004.  "Management Strategies for Plant Invasions: 
Manipulating Productivity, Disturbance, and Competition," Diversity and 
Distributions,  v10 (2004): 167-178.

Meixner, T. & E.B. Allen & K. Tonnessen & M. Fenn & M. Poth.  2002.   
"Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition: Implications for Managers of Western U.S. 
Parks,"  Park Science,  v21 (2002): 30-33.

Padgett, P. E. & E.B. Allen. 1999.  "Differential Responses To Nitrogen 
Fertilization In Native Shrubs and Exotic Annuals Common To Mediterranean 
Coastal Sage Scrub of California,"  Plant Ecology,  v144 (1999):93-101.

Wood, Yvonne A.  & Thomas Meixner & Peter J. Shouse & Edith B. Allen.  2006.  
"Landscape and Watershed Processes: Altered Ecohydrologic Response Drives 
Native Shrub Loss under Conditions of Elevated Nitrogen Deposition," Journal of 
Environmental Quality, v35 (2006):76-92.


At 03:22 PM -0400 4/4/06, Elizabeth Leger wrote:
>I don't understand how the metric for measuring impacts of invasive
>species became "extinction" or even "local extirpation" of native
>species.
>
>If I measure 90-99% cover of exotic species in a system (totally the
>norm in California's central valley grasslands), I'm not supposed to be
>upset about the impacts of invasive species impacts because there
>haven't been any local extinctions?  That makes no sense.
>
>Beth

Re: For Immediate Release: Wetland Mitigation Banking Shortchanges Urban Areas

[Ashwani Vasishth]

The research is also available as a working paper at:

Ruhl, J.B. and Salzman, James E., "The Effects of Wetland Mitigation Banking on 
People" (January 2006). FSU College of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 179 
Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=878331

Cheers,
-
  Ashwani
     Vasishth   [EMAIL PROTECTED]   (323) 462-2884
   http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth


At 02:13 PM -0500 3/30/06, Gwen Arnold wrote:
>For Immediate Release: March 30
>
>Contacts: Gwen Arnold 202-939-3819
>
>John Thompson: 202-939-3833
>
>Empirical Study Finds Wetland Mitigation Banking Shortchanges Urban
>Areas
>
>Two legal experts have determined that wetland mitigation banking
>redistributes wetland resources from urban areas to rural ones, leaving
>city dwellers with fewer important environmental services such as water
>filtration, erosion protection, and flood control.
>
>In their article "The Effects of Wetland Mitigation Banking on People,"
>published by the National Wetlands Newsletter, J. B. Ruhl and James
>Salzman assert that the wetland mitigation banking industry has a
>systematic, pervasive environmental downside: mitigation banking shifts
>environmental services away from urban areas and to rural communities.
>
>The article documents the first comprehensive empirical study of
>demographic changes prompted by wetland mitigation banking, a rapidly
>growing industry in the United States.
>
>Eliminating net loss of wetlands nationwide has been a policy priority
>for the United States for more than a decade. Mitigation banking seeks
>to achieve this goal by providing developers who damage or destroy
>wetlands with opportunities to buy off-site wetlands as compensation.
>Federal policy encourages agencies such as the U.S. Environmental
>Protection Agency and Federal Highway Administration to use mitigation
>banking to compensate for wetland impacts.=20
>
>Mitigation banking has been controversial since the inception of the
>banking industry roughly 10 years ago. Critics say that banks do not
>adequately replace wetland values and functions, while advocates say
>that banking is far more successful than any other means of compensating
>for wetland losses.
>
>J. B. Ruhl is the Matthew and Hawkins Professor of Property at the
>Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee, Florida. James
>Salzman is a professor at the Duke University School of Law and the
>Nicholas School of the Environment.
>
>The National Wetlands Newsletter, the nation's only wetland law, policy,
>and science journal, is published by the Environmental Law Institute.
>For more information, please contact editor Gwen Arnold at 202-939-3819
>or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>###
>
>The Environmental Law Institute(r) is an independent, non-profit
>research and educational organization based in Washington, D.C. The
>Institute serves the environmental profession in business, government,
>the private bar, public interest organizations, academia, and the press.
>For further information from the Environmental Law Institute, please
>contact John Thompson at 202-939-3833 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Web resources for educational documentaries?

[Ashwani Vasishth]

If you have any pointers to web resources for educational documentaries that 
are relevant to environmental and science issues, I will compile and web-mount 
the results.

Many years back, I had compiled film suggestions from a variety of listervs, 
primarily on environmental issues, which are at:
 http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth/EH+Env+Ecol-Films+Videos.htm

Thanks,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
   Assistant Professor
 Department of Urban Studies and Planning, ST 206
California State University, Northridge
 http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth

Urban ecology: Rainwater harvesting, bioswales and groundwater recharge?

[Ashwani Vasishth]

I was hoping that some of the urban ecology folks on this list might have 
suggestions or pointers to references that you have found useful and 
informative on these subjects.  I have lots of stuff on impervious surfaces and 
porous pavement, but have not had much luck finding good materials on rainwater 
harvesting techniques in an urban context.  I'd be glad to compile and share 
the results.

Thank you,
-
  Ashwani
 Vasishth  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  (818) 677-6137
   Assistant Professor
 Department of Urban Studies and Planning, ST 206
California State University, Northridge
 http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth

Mulch Warning: Debunking an Internet Hoax

[Ashwani Vasishth]

At 11:07 AM -0700 3/7/06, Pepper Provenzano wrote:
I forward this message below from the Garden Writers Association to help 
resolve today's discussion. 
-
Pepper Provenzano
Executive Director, TreeLink
68 East Girard Ave
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
801-359-1933
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.treelink.org

Sign up for our FREE newsletter at www.treelink.org/TreeLinkNews

Interested in updates on the latest in Urban and Community Forestry? Sent 
directly to your inbox, TreeLink News keeps you informed about issues that mean 
the most to you, including the latest resources, hot topics, conferences and 
JobLink.

MEMORANDUM

The anonymous Internet message regarding potential termite infestation of mulch 
from the Katrina clean-up effort continues to circulate and stir both consumer 
and industry concern. The Mulch & Soil Council has been working with 
universities, retailers and web sites to provide the correct information. The 
Council has issued a press release to the general media to debunk the issue. I 
want you to be advised of this problem and the response in the event you 
receive inquiries from your readers. The MSC press release can be found at the 
following URL:

http://www.mulchandsoilcouncil.org/Inforesorce/Pressrelease.html 

Multiple websites have begun providing information debunking the widely 
circulated Internet message. Here are a few resources you may wish to note for 
any reader inquiries:

>From the National Plant Board:
http://www.nationalplantboard.org/la_mulch.html

>From Snopes.com Rumor Website:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/termites.asp

>From Texas Nursery & Landscape Assn:
http://www.tnlaonline.org/#merchant  

>From Texas A&M Extension:
http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/ENTO/Mar0306a.htm

>From Louisiana State University:
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/environment/insects/Termites/formosan_termites
/Efforts+under+way+to+prevent+spread+of+Formosan+subterranean+termites+in+mu
lch+from+Louisiana+follow.htm

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/environment/insects/Termites/formosan_termites
/Quarantine+on+wood+cellulose+material+after+hurricanes+Katrina+and+Rita.htm

>From Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry:
http://www.ldaf.state.la.us/aboutldaf/presscenter/pressreleases/pressrelease
.asp?id=542

>From Chron.com media tracker:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3700489.html

If you have any new information on this issue, please contact the GWA
office. We will continue to monitor the situation and advise members of new
developments.

Universally, there is agreement that buying mulch from reliable vendors is
extremely helpful. Situations like this are exactly the reason the Mulch &
Soil Council developed the Product Certification Program. Without
certification backed by industry standards and product testing, consumers
have little means to identify quality products from less reliable products
in the market place. 






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Naming "an ecosystem of reference"

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Some time in the past, there had been a commentary in the ESA 
Bulletin (I think) with a title expressing the need to name an 
ecosystem (or perhaps level) of reference.  I can't find it now, however.

Here's the problem I have.  In writing up some of the implications of 
nested scale hierarchies for how we do regional level planning, I am 
arguing that planning benefits from adopting the nested systems 
scheme in making descriptions.  The naming of sub-systems, systems 
and supra-systems thus becomes necessary to that description.  What I 
am trying to get at is the basis by which we choose to name some 
particular level of organization as the system of reference, from 
which we would then call off the sub-systems and supra-systems.  Any 
suggestions to literature in ecosystem ecology would be keening appreciated.

Thanks,

-
    Ashwani
    Vasishth [EMAIL PROTECTED] (818) 677-6137
  Assistant Professor
Department of Urban Studies and Planning, ST 206
 California State University, Northridge, CA 91330
  http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vasishth