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Shifting Baselines
The Cure for Planetary Amnesia
The Shifting Baselines Blog
Jennifer Jacquet is a Ph.D. candidate with the Sea Around Us Project at the UBC Fisheries Centre. She works closely with Dr. Daniel Pauly, who coined the term Shifting Baselines, the syndrome on which this blog focuses.
Josh Donlan is a conservation scientist and a Visting Fellow at Cornell University. He often hides out in the backcountry of the Teton Mountains, pondering bygone giant beavers and ground sloths. He also is also the founder and Director of Advanced Conservation Strategies and has a habit of restoring remote islands.
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New Projects & Publications
November 27, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "Why Consumers Alone Can't Save Our Fish" at 1pm at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C.
August 2008: Josh Donlan is co-author on a new paper titled Integrating invasive mammal eradications and biodiversity offsets for fisheries bycatch: conservation opportunities and challenges for seabirds and sea turtles published in Biological Invasions.
August 2008: Jennifer Jacquet is co-author on a new paper titled Funding Priorities: Big Barriers to Small-Scale Fisheries published in Conservation Biology.
August 2008: Josh Donlan is an author on a new paper in Journal of Applied Ecology titled Diversity, invasive species, and extinctions in insular ecosystems.
July 26, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the East Coast at the Woods Hole Film Festival in MA.
July 24, 2008: Josh Donlan gives a talk on biodiversity offsets to The Alcoa Foundation and the Alcao Intalco Aluminum Plant in Bellingham, Washington.
July 22, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "A Way Forward in a Sea of Market Based Initiatives to Save Wild Fish" at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA.
July 19, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the West Coast at Outfest in Hollywood, CA.
July 17, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "In Hot Soup: Shark's Captured in Ecuador's Waters" at the Society for Conservation Biology Annual Meeting in Chattanooga, TN.
July 9, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "Flawed Data, Reef Fisheries, And Food Security: A Close Inspection Of Marine Fisheries Catches in Mozambique, Tanzania, Fiji, And The Solomon Islands" at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
June/July 2008: Josh Donlan attends training for his Kinship Conservation Fellowship in Bellingham, WA.
May 2008: Josh Donlan is an author on a new paper in Ambio titled High impact Conservation: Invasive Mammal Eradications from the Islands of Western Mexico.
May 15, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet reviews Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood at the Tyee.
April 2008: Trade Secrets: Renaming and Mislabeling of Seafood by Jennifer Jacquet and Daniel Pauly is published in Marine Policy.
April 2008: Randy Olson and the Puget Sound Partnership release the flash video Shifting Baselines in the Sound:.
Mar. 2008: Dr. Josh Donlan joins the Shifting Baselines blog.
Jan. 2008 Jennifer Jacquet launches the Eat Like a Pig Seafood Wallet Card
Recent Posts
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Online Resources and Blogs
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Daniel Pauly + Vanity Fair
Category: Communicating
Posted on: April 3, 2008 6:20 AM, by Jennifer L. Jacquet
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Environment
Comments
how is it that Daniel Pauly invented the term "shifting baseline," but randy olson has assumed its ownership? is it possible that Pauly's popularity and Olson's obscurity stem from an equal-but-opposite karmic consequence? Pauly's accurate estimation that without the manipulation of the mainstream media, a scientific message is a wasted effort, has benefited him with a vote of confidence from the populace (vanity fair and the ted danson award are no coincidences). randy olson seeks this same respect and influence over and from his peers, yet his film "Flock Of Dodo's" absent of celebrity involvement, free of mainstream media coverage, is relegated to a limited run on showtime; the equivalent of a home video release starring corey feldman. "Dodo's" not only fails by falling into the hands of the IDers by "teaching the controversy," but does so without the fanfare it may very well have attracted, had Olson not lacked the foresight that accompanies his unique type of scientific arrogance.
Posted by: Frank | April 3, 2008 8:52 PM
Welcome back, Frank. You make me feel like a stand-up comic in an empty theater with only you, in the last row, heckling. But unfortunately this particular blogpost was about things other than my movie, and so your standard jabs at me are a bit out of place. You should save your ammunition for the next time I make a post. I'll be eager to hear from you then. In the meanwhile, we appreciate your comments, provided they stick to the subject.
Posted by: Randy Olson | April 3, 2008 9:31 PM
your point is astute, if not deflective. i was browsing your site, as i often do, and my passionate and seemingly dormant criticisms of Dodo's were reignited when i learned, according to your blogger, that Daniel Pauly, who I have the utmost respect for, created the term, "shifting baseline." here i have been, incorporating the conceptual elements of shifting baselines in my writings with great dismay, since i, on one hand, find the concept to be a relevant tool in our mission to repair the world we have lost sight of...but on the other hand, take issue with the scientist i imagined coined the term. but now i am free. i've been critical of you, as i've said, for not putting the nail in the coffin of the ID movement with the science at your disposal. that egregious error angered a community that desperately needs filmmakers and storytellers to defend the truth. perhaps, i have been too critical since your broader intentions with regard to declining fisheries, marine conservation, and your recent efforts in Puget sound, seem to be in the right place. but i have yet to hear you offer a coherent explanation for your Dodo's faux pas. do you not agree that your responsibility is not only to provoke, but to lend your voice in a process that may one day help prevent our own extinction?
Posted by: Frank | April 3, 2008 10:08 PM