MITPressLog

The Earth, its Day, and its Future

It is Earth Day's 40th anniversary - a chance for some to reflect on the future of the environmental movement, for others to sneer at what they see as the illusory danger posed by global warming and other environmental 'alarmists.' Others think that every day should be earth day.

To the glut of commentary, we'll just add a few reflections from two brand new books on the future of our relation to the natural world. Thomas Princen, in his new book Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order, says that the problem isn't just what we do on Earth Day, or whether we drive a hybrid car, or whether we recycle enthusiastically. If we really want to save the earth, and ourselves, from the coming calamity, we need nothing less than a full reorientation of how we ought to live, both ecologically and economically. We need to imagine a new relationship with nature and society:

As valuable as it is to lay out the context and explain the science (see data quoted above, and more below, as examples), there comes a time when we must go beyond gloomy trends. That time is now. Citizens and policy makers alike rarely respond constructively to a barrage of scary facts and scenarios. Rather, I take it that people do better for themselves and others (and “the environment”) when they roll up their sleeves and tackle a problem, however big or small their contribution may be. They do better when they are realistically hopeful, engaged, and working with others...

So this book is about imagining—about getting grounded ecologically and ethically. And because getting grounded is demanding, this book is also about hard work. Repairing the current edifice is, by comparison, easy, if ultimately futile. Laying groundwork is the task ahead; all signs—scientific, intuitive, experiential—point there.

Of course, one reason we prize nature is for the sense that it represents something distinct from, other than, the man-made world. That wild, untamed-ness of nature is, for all intents in purposes, gone, so extensive has human intervention in nature become. That point was first put forward by Bill McKibben in his widely noted book The End of Nature.

Paul Wapner, of American University, has taken this idea one step further. In his book Living Through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism, he introduces to what he calls the postnature era, one that accepts that a certain amount of human intervention in nature is unavoidable and that preserving nature as an unsullied realm is no longer possible. Yet instead of feeling despondent, Wapner thinks it presents fresh opportunities for the environmental movement:

The end of nature offers—indeed demands—a new orientation. It presents the chance for the movement to liberate itself philosophically and politically from a nature-centric perspective, and thus cultivate frames of reference as well as devise strategies for creating ecological and social health in a world where it is impossible to separate humans and nature. To the degree that environmentalists recognize the hybrid character of human-nature relations and appreciate the end of nature arguments, they can self-consciously work to protect the well-being of both people and the nonhuman world, and capitalize on environmental protection opportunities that arise at the complicated interface between the two...In short, rather than become nervous, environmentalists should embrace the end of nature, and take advantage of the opportunity it offers to become philosophically clearer and politically more effective.

Happy Earth Day to all.

Climate Talk

Does climate change policy begin with a "top down" approach or is it more effective to start at a local level? What is the potential for using NAFTA for carbon dioxide emissions trading? Stacy VanDeveer answers these questions and more about North American climate policy on E&E TV's "OnPoint". Click here to watch the video.

Stacy VanDeveer, an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of New Hampshire, is the editor of Changing Climates in North American Politics.

Paloma Pavel on KPFA Morning Show

This Thursday, August 6th, at 10:30 EST Paloma Pavel will be discussing her book on the Bay Area radio station, KPFA 94.1 Morning Show. It will be recorded live and she will be taking listeners questions. Listen here.

History lesson, H1N1 version

The spread of H1N1 flu - or swine flu - continues throughout North America. As of this writing, New York City has confirmed 201 cases of the flu, including one fatality, and has closed 30 schools. Closer to our base of operations, Boston has closed four schools, including Boston Latin, the city's largest.

One question that seems to come up repeatedly is the likelihood of future outbreaks, and how severe they're likely to be. To get some historical perspective, we turned to Andrew Price-Smith, who teaches political and environmental science at Colorado College and is the author of The Health of Nations and Contagion and Chaos. The latter book deals in some detail with the 1918 outbreak of H1N1 - the so-called "Spanish flu" pandemic - and its destabilizing effects. Andrew's main message was to beware of talking heads who don't know their history. Here's what he sent us:

It is troubling to see the parade of quasi-ignorant MD’s as talking heads on CNN, Fox and other cable news since the H1N1 epidemic began in North America. Getting the history of pandemic influenza wrong seems to be a prerequisite for air time in the USA these days. Few public health historians are ever given air time to discuss the actual historical patterns of the 1918 influenza.  The platitudes offered by the talking heads include the usual (paraphrasing here) “well it’s the end of regular flu season, so we only have to worry about a second wave in the Fall.”

Wrong. Anyone who has ever studied the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic knows that the pandemic took the form of three viral waves with the first appearing in the Spring of 1918 in the USA. (Although I have published Austrian data that suggests the flu may have originated in Vienna and environs in the Spring of 1917). The ‘second’ wave of the pandemic struck Europe and North America in the mid summer of 1918, and the ‘third’ and deadliest wave hit Central Europe in the Fall of 1918.

That pandemic was also generated by an H1N1 variant that exhibited some similarity to the current strain. So, if history serves as a guide, it is reasonable to suggest that we might see another viral wave hit this summer, with greater intensity.

Let’s try to get some real experts in the media to discuss the implications of this emerging virus.

"Poignant, disturbing, and not easily refuted"

That's the verdict on Mark Dowie's book Conservation Refugees by Peter Kareiva. Kareiva is the chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, and his thoughts appear on the Conservancy's blog, Cool Green Science. What makes his judgment more interesting than the average review is that Dowie's book - which he outlines in this Boston Globe piece - focuses on how efforts to establish protected areas for conservation has led to the displacement of millions of indigenous peoples. And many of those areas have been so designated at the urging of NGOs  like the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Conservation International, and...the Nature Conservancy itself.
So Kareiva's engagement with the book amounts to a sort of institutional self-reckoning. Indeed, he begins his post by stating that he is "going to commit conservation heresy and ask out loud: Should the conservation movement be proud of the 108,000 protected areas around the world it has thus far helped establish?"

Not surprisingly, he doesn't recommend blowing up the entire conservation movement or calling a halt to the Nature Conservancy's work, and Dowie - who calls the book "a good guy vs. good guy story" - would hardly advocate that. Indeed, Kareiva thinks that in coming decades, the importance of protected areas will only grow as the earth becomes more crowded in future decades. But he does think that a serious reexamination is warranted. Here's the money quote:

However, for me at least, the rights of people for self-determination take supremacy over any species or biodiversity tally. It is my job as a conservation scientist to find the ways that people can indeed come first and while biodiversity can also be protected.  The traditional protected areas strategy has all too often trampled on people’s rights — which is why that strategy warrants a critical reexamination.

Read the whole thing - it's an admirably honest work of institutional self-assessment, something that always seems, unfortunately, to be in short supply.

Alphabet City Festival

   

If you are in Toronto this weekend and coming week, check-out the Alphabet City Festival.  This year’s theme is Fuel.  Organized around the recently published book Fuel, the Alphabet City festival will have a cabaret performance tonight (Thursday Nov 27th) at 8pm, an exhibition which opens on Nov. 27th and a book launch on the 28th.  

For more information click here.

Confronting the Coffee Crisis Discussion on Sept. 17th

If you will be in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday Sept, 17th Christopher Bacon will be giving a talk at Occidental College about his work and recent book, Confronting the Coffee Crisis. 

The talk, hosted by the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, will be held in the Morrison Lounge at the Johnson Student Center and run from 11:30am to 1pm. 

For Directions or more information please contact the Urban and Environmental Institute at (323) 259-2991

Post-Olympic Air

In the time leading up to the Beijing Olympics, China scurried to clean up pollution, most notably, air pollution by removing cars from the roads, closing manufacturing plants, restricting other industries that produce air pollutants, and going great lengths to green the trees. 

As the Olympics came to a close last night, the one question that seemed most prevalent—What next?—clouded the ceremonious ending. What happens to Beijing’s air once the world’s attention is forced to other more pressing stories: this fall’s presidential campaign, fighting in Georgia, and the volatile economy? 

There are several books by the MIT Press that tackle this issue. Clearing the Air: The Health and Economic Damages of Air Pollution in China examines different  ‘green taxes’ which could mitigate the damage caused by pollutants, and also lead to further economic growth. 

China Shifts Gears: Automakers, Oil, Pollution, and Development looks at the impact of Chinese-American business partnerships in the automotive industry and how current technology, if implemented in current automobile models could reduce the country’s pollution. 

ASA Meeting Roundup

The American Sociological Association held their annual meeting in Boston in early August.  The theme of this year's meeting was "Worlds at Work," the the interconnections between work—broadly conceived—and society. Work is one of the most basic of social activities and institutions and has far-reaching correlates and consequences.   MIT Press attended the ASA meeting for the first time in many years.  We asked acquisitions and marketing folks who attended the four day conference to share their experiences with us. Here are thoughts from an acquisitions point of view. 

At the ASA meeting, I attended the business meeting of the Environment and Technology section, where I was invited to speak for a few minutes about the MIT Press environment list, our book series, and other sociology-related areas in which we publish, including Science, Technology, and Society.  Attendance at the business meeting was an estimated 75-100 people.  This is a growing section of ASA, with dues-paying membership currently at 450.  They have their own website, where they post debates, papers, job openings, etc., and they're working on establishing virtual conferences/panels on topics of interest.  Our author J. Timmons Roberts won an award for "invaluable contributions to the field of environmental sociology" - a kind of lifetime achievement award for publications, teaching, organizing the section, etc. - even though he's relatively young. 

At least three senior sociologists at the meeting told me that MIT Press has by far the best book list in environmental sociology and in the environmental social sciences in general, and an informal survey of the displays and catalogues of other presses in attendance (particularly Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, Chicago, and Cornell) indicated that none are publishing much in environmental sociology.  Our series Urban and Industrial Environments, edited by Robert Gottlieb, is where the majority of our environmental sociology books are published, but some also appear in our Global Environmental Accord, Politics, Science, and the Environment, and Food, Health, and the Environment series. 

I attended several panels sponsored by the Environment and Technology section and think this seems to be a growth area in environmental scholarship, with lots of enthusiastic graduate students and younger faculty members.

Tomorrow, we'll provide  a view from the booth. 

A Game Looking at the Reality of Climate Change

Eric Klopfer, director of MIT's Scheller Teacher Education Program and author of Augmented Learning describes TimeLab, the program's most recent Augmented Reality Game: 

TimeLab starts with a video that sets the players 100 years in the future when global climate change has wreaked havoc on Cambridge.  They are then sent back in time to present day to study ballot initiatives that could potentially remediate the effects of global climate change in the future.  Players walk around the MIT campus and surrounding areas collecting information (real and virtual) on methods of reducing climate change and the impact of climate change on Cambridge.  For example, at one point they look across the Charles River to the Hancock Tower that currently uses a beacon to provide information about the weather, and consider whether a more comprehensive weather warning system could be of use to warn future area residents of frequent severe weather.  As players stand on Memorial Drive near the MIT campus, they consider how 100 years in the future that location is often under water from floods, and think about ways that those floods could be prevented.  In the end, the players choose a number of ballot initiatives that they must debate, and through some simple game mechanics ultimately find out whether those measures are approved and what impact they have.

Timelab (sponsored by The Center for Future Civic Media) has been played with a number of groups including parents and kids and the Cambridge Science Festival, adults as part of The Center for Future Civic Media, and MIT students as part of a class.  The most recent implementation was this past Wednesday when a class of 20 middle school students from Gloucester came to MIT as part of a summer camp.  Over the course of three hours the students explored the campus, learned about the potential impacts of climate change on Cambridge, and debated how to mitigate these impacts.  The students were very enthusiastic in their response to the game, as they enjoyed exploring the campus, playing a game and learning.  The teachers also enjoyed the game and cited the unique ability to engage students in problems of both scientific and social/political impact as a critical and positive attribute of the game.

To learn more about MIT's AR project here.  We've already mentioned this, but you can also read an interview with Klopfer about his work on Henry Jenkins blog.