Of the many insights for conservation and sustainability initiatives found in the work of ecologists, perhaps the most valuable is not a particular concept or principle, but the guidance provided by the discipline itself for a new way of thinking about how we interact with the natural world. The principles of ecology share in a philosophy of interconnectedness that weighs the form and function of a system together, capturing both inner dynamics as well as the phenomena that emerge from the system’s operation as a whole. To think ecologically, guided by its principles and examples, offers a great many benefits to people as we decide to how best interact with the world. Aldo Leopold called this “thinking like a mountain.” By revealing complexity and interconnectedness within and between places, ecological thinking forces us to assume that same level of complexity and interconnectedness in the outcomes of our behavior. Thinking ecologically also suggests a set of goals, such as diversity and resilience, by which managed ecosystems can thrive and persist over time. And perhaps most importantly, thinking in this way insists that people admit their residence within ecosystems, contrary to the too-long-held human vs. nature dichotomy, transforming conquerors of nature into potential managers of and entrenched participants in ecosystems. Read the rest of this entry »

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“There is an essential problem with the thesis… [values] have no place in an academic article.” - anonymous reviewer

Oh for the days when intellectuals were (dare we speak the word) advocates allowed to possess values and put forth arguments for action. Francis Bacon, Georges Hebert, Che Guevara, Salmon Rushdie, Rigoberta Menchu, these were people writing on science (natural, political or otherwise) AND values, ::gasp:: in the same breath. OK so lots of people like them were excommunicated, exiled, maimed, killed, but hey those were different times. These days what’s going to happen -the president at best puts you under a federal gag order, and at worst threatens naming you as an enemy combatant destined for Guantanamo Bay.? Ok maybe times aren’t that different. But I digress. Read the rest of this entry »

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I’ve been stewing some time about CBS’s upcoming reality show (read: social experiment) called Kid Nation. I’ve thought this show was just a bad idea from the start, after what I admit was a fleeting moment of interest and curiosity when I first saw a commercial for the show. But it wasn’t until NPR did a story questioning not only the production’s motives, but more importantly the long terms impacts of the experience on the children itself, that I gave the matter much thought.

No-one could possibly be fooling themselves to think that CBS made this show any reason other than to make money — and definitely not to “promote goodwill and a learning experience [for children] on a positive note,” as a mother quoted in this Detroit Free Press story hypothesized. So what’s bothering me is the general media silence and lack of public concern over the new show, the NPR show notwithstanding.

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“Coming out of the Foodshed: Change and Innovation in Rural Alaskan Food Systems. For Full Text Click Here

This thesis is a combined volume containing three individual research papers, each written for submission to a different peer-reviewed journal. Each to some extent investigates community resiliency and vulnerability as they manifest in the past and present of Alaska Native foodways.

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