So I saw this article pop up on my feed about how whales are ending up tailless due to fishing and getting tangled in fishing nets.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/whales-animals-entanglement-fishing/
I think it is a little over whelming that there really isn’t any form of way to prevent these things from happening at the moment. I don’t really have a comment or know what to say about this, I just think it is a thing to know about the world.
Hi guys, since I won’t be making it to class today, I wanted to share my thoughts on the essay assigned for today on the blog.
The Not in My Backyard Concern – ‘NIMBY’
Coming from the Midwest, I’ve always thought this concern was illogical. With nothing but farms and open fields around, in my opinion, wind turbines can only serve to spruce up the landscape. I also really like the description that the essay gave regarding how farmers see the turbines as a modern advancement and a way to get the most out of the land. However, over the past few years and particularly through this essay, I was somewhat enlightened to this NIMBY concern. If I were a property owner who bought my land for the aesthetics/escape from urban life, I probably wouldn’t want one of these giant turbines built near my land. I also don’t think that this concern is so far different from fracking or other industries that also require permission from landowners. If the owner values the payment they would receive more than their land, then the project usually goes through.
Despite the way that the paper downplays the NIMBY concern as a fickle psychological issue, I don’t think the issue can or will be solved without angering people further. Instead, it means technology/policy planners should be careful about where they plan projects and should consult with their communities before advancing too far in the planning process. While it may be frustrating for technology advocates, working with the community is a reality that should be accepted and properly dealt with. That being said, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around why people on the eastern seaboard prevent offshore projects because they would be immensely effective at providing wind energy to the U.S.
Turbine Design
One idea that this article sparked in my reading was the idea of wind turbine design. I would venture to say that most turbine designers spend most of their time finding ways to increase overall efficiency. However, this article highlights the other aspect of design that is apparently important, which is aesthetic design. I just thought that this makes for an interesting design challenge for engineers who are probably frustrated by this constraint. In that sense though, these designers can be likened to car designers.
Further Questions
-Why do people reject off-shore wind turbine projects, despite their efficacy?
-How do turbine designers/manufacturers adjust for community-related concerns?
-Is there a way to quantify/evaluate a community’s tie to a ‘natural’ vs. a human integrated nature? I.e. people in Scotland had a strong tie to their environment so they would get a 10, vs. people in the Midwest, who would score a 2. If so, this could be helpful for project planning.
I hope this can help contribute to the discussion today! Sorry again for missing class, enjoy the outdoor activity!
Since choosing to do my final project on the research being done into protecting current coral reefs and trying to re-introduce corals into damaged reefs, I have been looking in to a lot of the research being done on ways to artificially grow corals and use them to preserve reefs.
I came across this video that does an excellent job of explaining some of the science behind such a process to a wide audience who does not need to have a very technical understanding of science to be able to follow along with the explanation provided. Hopefully it helps you learn more about the topic, and maybe even gives you a starting point for your digital communication project, to help you think about how to gear your project towards a non-technical audience.
When we talk about the role of knowledge in environmental policy, we usually think about scientific knowledge. Along with our premise that knowledge is primarily scientific, we also regularly share the assumption that knowledge is a relatively homogenous, rounded, and stable corpus of facts. Therefore, knowledge would be easily “transmitted,” “transferred,” or separated from social or political processes.
However, the written and audiovisual materials for tomorrow’s class present a more complicated picture. Scientific knowledge does not monopolize policy debates or policy-making processes. The politics of knowledge production and its circulation also shape hierarchies in the kind of knowledge(s) that get to be part of policy processes and in our daily lives.
Using the assigned materials, please write a reflexion on the multiple roles of knowledge(s) and politics in both policy and public debates. Feel free to draw examples from the video on the GMO debate or your own project to apply (or challenge) the book’s perspective.
Hi all!
After much deliberation and a lot of research, I’ve decided that my final project and paper will be centered around corporate sustainability. I didn’t know much about the area prior to last week, but I have found it to be really fascinating! As you might figure, more companies than ever are facing internal and external pressures to add “sustainability” — whatever that means — to their corporate strategy. Think of Starbucks, for example, and its efforts to sustainably source the ingredients in its supply chain. Or think of Patagonia and how central sustainability is to their entire marketing scheme. And perhaps most surprisingly, Walmart is actually frequently ranked among the world’s most sustainable companies. This is because corporate sustainability strategies can actually save businesses a lot of money, especially in the long-run as climate change-induced issues become more severe.
Now, in order for companies to reap benefits from a sustainability strategy, it has to go beyond just creating incremental changes. For example, employee biking initiatives or recycling programs are unlikely to create any real long-term lasting value for the company. Long-term benefits can only come from sustainability strategies that affect the core business practices of a company; indeed, in the most advanced sustainable companies, their long-term business strategy and corporate sustainability strategy are inseparably tied together.
Here are some readings if you’d like to learn more about the field.
CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AT A CROSSROADS — A joint Sloan-BCG study
When going green is not black and white — an interview with MIT professor Yossi Sheffi who recently wrote a book that examines the trade-offs companies face when grappling with sustainability issues.
For BASF, Sustainability Is a Catalyst — A short case study of the German chemicals manufacturer BASF
Here a couple of questions to start our discussion on virtual water and water footprints.
The concept of Virtual Water has been considered a valuable approach to effectively address the interconnectedness of water uses and consumers.
How the concept changes our understanding of the water-energy-food nexus?
Is the concept a revolutionary turning point in the history of our cultural, legal, economic, and social relationship with water?
What are the potentialities and challenges of a virtual water approach to address issues like resources inequality and climate change?
In case you missed my comment at the beginning of class, here is an interesting piece I stumbled upon last week:
http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/12/news/companies/new-zealand-oil-gas-exploration/
Basically, the oil and gas industry responded with somewhat unsupported comments about how terrible this will be for the economy. I would like to call attention to one particular line in the article though that I think deserves much more expansion: “The government said that the oil industry should instead use its expertise in more environmentally and economically sustainable areas, such as mining materials for solar panels.”
Encouraging oil and gas companies to pivot to other industries is an interesting concept and one that Hillary Clinton advocated for in her campaign in 2016 (RIP) when speaking to voters in states with coal-dominated energy grids like Kentucky and West Virginia. I think that New Zealand could be a very interesting case study for concepts like these in the near future. Additionally, Iceland went through a similar transition starting in 2007 and will also give us some interesting comparisons in the next few years.
If anyone would like to invest the energy to expand further on the New Zealand article, I’d love to hear more thoughts, but I figured I’d at least get the information on here.
In today’s discussion we evaluated the effectiveness of visual promotion and inspiring movements for change. I want to ask the class if they think environmental crises that are highly publicized will lead to actual changes in environmental policy.
For example, the Flint, Michigan council has recently announced that it is stopping its program of free bottled water to Flints. Critics say that all of the pipes have not replaced and that Flint still tests positive for lead and I was wondering what your take is on what is going on.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2018/04/city_council_passes_resolution.html
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2018/04/man_asks_federal_judge_to_orde.html
To start our Thursday discussion, let’s watch both videos on the sidebar about the Environmental Humanities and let’s reflect on these questions:
1. Professor Stephen Muecke argues that one of the primary goals of the Environmental Humanities is to critically think what kind of knowledge(s) about the environment get used and what kind of arguments dominate others.
Considering your final project for this class, 1) think about what kind of knowledge(s) and arguments are at play; 2) do some of them dominate others? And why you think this is the case?; and 3) how those hierarchies might affect our incapacity to develop novel solutions?
2. One of the recommendations from Professor Judy Motion is to think about what we want to achieve and pay particular attention to how we narrate nature or talk about nature.
Thinking about your digital communication project, reflect on 1) what different narratives about nature you could embrace, and 2) which of them you would like to pursue in your project considering what you want to achieve.
Before writing your reply to this specific questions give us a small description of what your topic/questions are, so we can all contribute to your reflections.
Energy, Environment & Society 