Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally

O.K. so to begin the ASIC course, we thought that part of this should be an attempt to look at historically what may have defined "global" - as in both the humanities and sciences context (maybe about 20 to 25 minutes each). Here is a preview of my first few slides. Essentially, I'll probably do what I almost always do to start off a train of thought - that is to try and "google" a definition (hence the first cartoon slide, taken from Ben's post earlier this year). Except that when you do this with the word "global," you get a whole ton of different things, quite frankly a lot of which I…
O.K. so, let's design a course. A course that has a calendar entry as follows: ASIC 200 (3) Global Issues in the Arts and Sciences: Selected global issues explored through the methodologies and perspectives of both the physical and life sciences and the humanities and social sciences. [3-0-0] Prerequisite: Second year standing in the Faculty of Arts or Faculty of Science. And a rationale as follows: The rationale for this course is based on the growing salience of the global issues facing human society and the educational challenge these issues represent. Global issues (such as climate…
Well, Ben has beaten me to the punch on showing some of the marvelous pictures presented here at Paleo Future. But I've actually been interested in these images for the past two weeks (with a nod to BoingBoing), having had the chance to look at some current projects that aim to use future simulations to aid in things like urban planning or policy authoring (particularly if it can be aimed at either mitigating or adapting to the possible consequences of climate change). So what's this about? Why is a geneticist looking into the academia of such things? Well, there's actually a pragmatic…
This is more a hat tip to a great article by the New Yorker's Michael Specter. In a recent issue, his piece "The Denialists" was published and it does a great job of providing the exasperating context to what is really a sad state of affairs in countries like South Africa. Zeblon Gwala is a 50-year-old South African who sells ubhejane, an untested herbal remedy he claims will cure AIDS. On a typical day, as many as 100 people come to his clinic. Ubhejane has been endorsed by South African President Thabo Mbeki's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and by Herbert Vilakazi, the head of…
Well, despite the political fallacies inherent in drafting such reports, the answer is an unequivocal "hell yes!" But a piece at the SCQ by Sarah Burch (which constitutes the second part of an FAQ about the IPCC reports) is better at telling you why: Given the deluge of noble mandates and far-reaching policy proposals emanating in ever-increasing numbers from that devious hub of sycophants and climbers that we call Ottawa, we must (being the ever-so-enlightened socio-scientific critics that we are) carefully evaluate the straw that broke dear Stephen's back: that is, the most recent IPCC…
Great White* Tiger* Hammerhead* Thresher* Leopard* Megamouth* - - - Not sure if there are any academic papers that monitor the decline of heavy metal, but there is certainly a wealth of research that examines the decline of shark populations. Thanks mostly to the work of Ransom A. Myers, who sadly passed away last week. Condolences to his family and colleagues.As an aside, I can't help but think that (in keeping with the above list), "Ransom Shark" sounds pretty good as well.
Last week, I managed to catch one of last year's Massey lectures on the radio. These are basically a high profile lecture series that is sponsored by both the CBC and the House of Anansi Press. In essense, they usually involve a prominent Canadian cogniscenti who attempts to cover a topic pertinent in the realm of citizenship at both the Canadian and, indeed, the global level. The 2006 series was authored by Margaret Somerville, a noted ethicist out of Montreal, and the byline of the accompanying book reads: What does it mean to be human today, when mind-altering scientific breakthroughs…
So, on Sunday and Monday, I had the privilege of hanging out with Dr. Shiva. And she was an absolute joy to host, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see students come away both enthused and provoked by the interaction. In case, you're not in the know, Dr. Shiva is: "is a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author of many books. In India she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights. She directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. She is one of the leaders of the International Forum on…
So, as mentioned previously, I got the chance to hang out with Chris Mooney this past week, and gracious as he is, he also took time to meet and greet a few of the local gang of science scouts. Anyway, his visit was great as a number of interesting topics were broached both in casual conservation as well as the public panels that he was involved in. A big theme that seemed to be reoccuring was the issue of public relations, branding, and the role of overall aesthetics in getting folks to notice things - um big things like the issue of global warming or general scientific literacy for…
"Leaping from tree to tree, as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia. The Giant Redwood. The Larch. The Fir! The mighty Scots Pine! The lofty flowering Cherry! The plucky little Apsen! The limping Roo tree of Nigeria. The towering Wattle of Aldershot! The Maidenhead Weeping Water Plant! The naughty Leicestershire Flashing Oak! The flatulent Elm of West Ruislip! The Quercus Maximus Bamber Gascoigni! The Epigillus! The Barter Hughius Greenus!" (The Lumberjack sketch, Monty Python) Not only is the above, a good opportunity to learn about a few flora (and occasional fauna), but…
No doubt, a lot of talk is buzzing about the IPCC and its statements. But how exactly do these documents come to be? I have an excellent article on this at Terry, written by Sarah Burch. Check it out. It's called: "IPCC FAQ PART I (BURCH REMIX) (OR TAMING THE LEVIATHAN: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE INTERGOVENMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE)"
So I went to a site today called Cool Drive Pass, which is a carbon offsetting project spearheaded by some colleagues of mine at UBC and their friends in Vancouver. Essentially, it's a calculator designed to figure out carbon dioxide emissions of your car, and then to equate an "offsetting fee," where the funds would essentially go to some renewable energy project. Anyway, carbon offsetting is a bit of contentious issue, since it's viewed by many a stalwart environmentalist as a step, even a step in the right direction, but more likely a step that condones complacency. In other words, some…
In the scientific literature, the use of characters from the Pokemon franchise has been suggested as a possible way to broach biodiversity and conservation challenges. True. Specifically, this is in reference to a short letter that was published in Science in 2002 (29 March 2002. Vol 295: 2367) and entitled "Why Conservationists Should Heed Pokemon." It starts: According to E.O. Wilson's Biophilia hypothesis, humans have an innate desite to catalog, understand, and spend time with other life-forms. This in turn provides a powerful aesthetic argument for combating the present extinction…
Here, succinctly anyway, is why a School Board place a moratorium on showing Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth": "Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher ... The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD." (Frosty Hardison, parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old) Looks like I found a potential third topic for my "Bible Passage Trilogy."
This is great. And there are two more here. Reminds me also of the ones here at the SCQ.
The UCS explains in a new report (here's a news story from the UCS website, and here's the pdf of the report itself) that "ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science." ExxonMobil, in a reply, calls the report "deeply offensive." They,…
Since there was a lot of interest in Faith's and Peter's "Hungry Planet" book, it's only fitting to share the beauty of their first bestseller, "Material World" which is a book that focused on visually representing the total possessions of "average" family households from different countries (again with the "average" word). I do have this book (it's great), and I should also point out that it's actually available as a paperback. Since this book was published in 1993, it's actually harder to find images on the net (although there is a good section at Peter's website), but then good old google…
Here is some silliness to get back in the swing of things. Composed whilst waiting for Ben (Cohen) at the Vancouver Airport, recently rejected by McSweeney's, and likely to make an appearance at one of my sites in the not so distant future. Still, I was (and still sort of am) seriously considering shopping a better version/take of this piece to a place that "pays per word", mainly because it would be deliciously ironic to get compensated for words like "Uuuuhhhggg", "Gggrr", and "Rrrrn." HAN SOLO AND CHEWBACCA WEIGH IN ON THEIR NEW HYBRID MILLENIUM FALCON. HS: Well, so far, it seems like…
One of my favorite recent sub-features at McSweeney's is Lawrence Weschler's Convergences Contest. I am stunned yet again with today's artful entry (#28), sent to L.W. by Walter Murch: [caption from the site: "Logging trees in a Swedish forest, as seen from the air"]
(Image from herbalgram.org) This past week and a bit have been chaos central with a number of things going on round my neck of the woods. Some of which are your usual academic doledrums, but some of which were pretty inspiring overall. I guess the thing that has been most on my mind was my role as a "producer" of sorts for a high-profile speaker series at UBC. Two days ago we had a visit by National Geographic Explorer in Resident, Wade Davis, so only now, are my wedding planner type instincts starting to die down. For those of you, who have never heard of Wade Davis, he is quite an…