Published on Nov 6, 2014
As sea level rises higher over the next 15 to 30 years, tidal flooding is expected to occur more often, cause more disruption, and even render some areas unusable — all within the time frame of a typical home mortgage.
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice
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Published on Dec 3, 2015
Twenty years ago, scientist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson left his tenured professorship of marine biology for Hollywood. He had a single goal — the search for something that might improve the communication of science. He found it in a narrative template he crafted and labeled as “The ABT.” The ABT is adapted from the co-creators of the Emmy and Peabody award-winning animated series, South Park. In a 2011 documentary about the show, they talked about their “Rule of Replacing” which they use for editing scripts. Their rule involves replacing the word “and” with “but” or “therefore.” From this Olson devised his “And, But, Therefore” template (the ABT).
This has become the central tool for his new book, “Houston, We Have A Narrative,” his work with individual scientists, and his Story Circles Narrative Training program he has been developing over the past year with NIH and USDA. In this webinar, co-sponsored by the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Geophysical Union/AGU’s Sharing Science program, Olson presents what he has termed “The ABT Framework” which refers to “the ABT way of thinking.” He explains how he has expanded it into The Narrative Spectrum, presents examples of it working with scientists, and talks about the universal importance of narrative structure.
Speaker: Randy Olson, marine biologist-turned-filmmaker, author of Houston, We Have a Narrative.
Moderator: Aaron Huertas, Senior Washington Director at Cater Communications
Audience Partners: The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, New York Hall of Sciences, Surfrider Foundation, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Climate Voices.
Global Climate Change
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Environment Justice
Posted in Uncategorized
Published on Dec 3, 2015
Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, Cornell University, joins Thom. Oklahoma was never known for it’s earthquakes – until the fracking boom moved in in 2008. But now – officials say that induced earthquakes may be threatening America’s security.
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice
Posted in Uncategorized
Published on Dec 3, 2015
There were jokes and praise as President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney reunited to unveil a bust of Cheney in the Capitol. (Dec. 3)
Global Climate Change
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Published on Dec 3, 2015
The Niger River Basin is an extensive web of underground and surface waters that joins nine riparian countries in West Africa around one precious resource. Over 130 million people depend on the water and ecosystems of the Basin for their livelihoods and survival. In early 2015, driven by the urgency to abate the impacts of climate change, the Niger Basin countries with the support of the Niger Basin Authority, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank crafted a Climate Resilience Investment Plan. This plan will enable people living around the Niger Basin to enjoy better water quality, safer crops and increased access to electricity. Communities that are vulnerable to extreme weather and rising sea level will also be safer.
Global Climate Change
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Environment Justice
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Published on Dec 3, 2015
The communities who have lived on West Africa’s coastal areas for centuries are at the greatest risk of climate change. As sea levels rise, and severe weather events increase in frequency due to climate change, the safety and wellbeing of coastal communities is at peril, with poor and marginalized populations proving most vulnerable. Without concrete measures to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, West Africa’s development achievements, as well as hopes for continued growth and poverty reduction, will be severely compromised.
French version:
Global Climate Change
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Published on Mar 25, 2015
To mark The Nation’s 150th anniversary, John Nichols was joined in conversation by the eminent radical intellectual Noam Chomsky at the Tucson Festival of Books in Arizona on March 15. Discussing issues ranging from media accountability and voter participation, to money in politics and income inequality, Chomsky offered insight into the greatest challenges of our time.
“The race towards disaster is being carried out with almost euphoric intensity,” said Chomsky. Chomsky maintains that meaningful change requires a democratic awakening. “Democracy is a threat to any power system,” he said.
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Justice
Global Climate Change
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Published on Nov 2, 2015
On Tuesday, October 13, The Nation Live!, a new live magazine experience, launched a short anniversary series in front of 800 people crowding Portland, Oregon’s venerable Newmark Theater.
The idea was to put together some of The Nation’s (and the nation’s) strongest, most creative voices in a mixed-media program of short talks, readings, reflections, conversations, and music.
We heard Walter Mosely read one of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic Nation essays; Naomi Klein bring Wendell Berry’s 1976 musings about energy and development to life with an urgent contemporary postscript; Dave Zirin explain how Muhammad Ali’s 1976 letter to The Nation illustrates how the magazine has always fostered a fruitful tension between liberal reform and more radical critique; Richard Kim breathe life into Tony Kushner’s classic 1994 Nation essay, “Socialism of the Skin,” bringing into a modern space with nuance and appreciation.
There was a wide-ranging conversation between Ursula LeGuin and Zoë Carpenter. John Nichols told a remarkable and largely unknown story about The Nation’s profound influence on American music and we heard some of the historical evidence of that influence through the vocal stylings of soloist Eric Clausell.
Live magazine shows in Seattle, Washington, and Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse quickly followed this debut. Stay tuned.
Full length event:
Global Climate Change
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Published on Dec 3, 2015
Climate change is the greatest existential threat facing our planet, and the only way to rise to a challenge of this magnitude is to end our reliance on fossil fuels. But what should a post-carbon economy actually look like?
Global Climate Change
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Published on Nov 26, 2013
A Grantham Special Lecture by Professor Martin Parry, Grantham Institute and Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London
Climate change could lead to hundreds of millions of people being at risk of hunger by the middle of this century. This is in addition to the billion or so currently at risk.
Several new studies are just being completed of the potential effects of climate change on global food production potential, and there is a convergence of evidence about the scale and regional distribution of the challenge: Most of the additional climate-change driven hunger will be in the least developed parts of Africa, but significant numbers could also occur in south and south-east Asia. In all regions, the poor, young and elderly are likely to be most affected.
International negotiations as part of the UNFCCC have set a very ambitious spending target of about $50bn per annum to be available for adaptation for all sectors and, assuming that a significant part of this is spent on agriculture, the impacts of climate change can probably be substantially reduced. But it is unlikely that major effects can be avoided for current trends in economic development.
Only a major reduction in incidence of poverty would avoid significant damage. This requires a transformation in development effort.
For more information please visit http://www.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange
Global Climate Change
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Food-Matters
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Transition Studies 