New Whistleblower Protection Law “An Environmentally Significant Reform,” say Activists by Audrey Haynes – December 13, 2012 But some protections may be challenging to implement, they caution Last month President Obama signed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act into law. The law revamps protections for federal employees who come forward and report misconduct, abuse of authority, or violation of law in their workplaces. These enhancements could be crucial in advancing environmental issues, but only if implemented properly. Photo by Farm SanctuaryThe new law closes judicially created loopholes in pre-existing whistleblower protection laws that inhibited federal employees, such as USDA food inspectors, from speaking out. “Protecting federal employees with the courage to come forward — at the risk of their own careers — to report waste, fraud, and abuse that they have witnessed is an important cornerstone of good and effective government,” said Congressman Todd Platts (R-Pennsylvania) in a statement. Fear of punishment is unfortunately common among federal scientists.
Taking time to learn | Early Career Ecologists By Lindsay Reynolds, PhD Blogging is a powerful avenue our society has developed as a way to communicate ideas, but 15 years ago the word didn’t even exist. And now, some people are already asking, has blogging hit its peak? The first Blackberry smartphone was introduced in 2002, and for a long time the only people I knew with smartphones were my friends in med school. This is a question every scientist has to ask themselves. While we’re in grad school, we have the opportunity to take classes to learn most of the tools we need for our science. One of my committee members used to preach about self-teaching. Solar powered data loggers for a stream gage in the field Investing time and money can be a risk. As scientists, we inherently have a tremendous capacity (and usually a love for!) Taking time to learn is important. Old fashioned paper-and-pencil field data Like this: Like Loading...
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Forest Republished from yesmagazine.org By Vandana Shiva My ecological journey started in the forests of the Himalaya. My father was a forest conservator, and my mother became a farmer after fleeing the tragic partition of India and Pakistan. It is from the Himalayan forests and ecosystems that I learned most of what I know about ecology. The songs and poems our mother composed for us were about trees, forests, and India’s forest civilizations. My involvement in the contemporary ecology movement began with “Chipko,” a nonviolent response to the large-scale deforestation that was taking place in the Himalayan region. In the 1970s, peasant women from my region in the Garhwal Himalaya had come out in defense of the forests. Logging had led to landslides and floods, and scarcity of water, fodder, and fuel. Women knew that the real value of forests was not the timber from a dead tree, but the springs and streams, food for their cattle, and fuel for their hearths. Beyond Monocultures What Nature Teaches
Preparing Ph.D. Graduates for Climate Change Careers | DISCCRS Obama vs. physics: Why climate change won’t wait for the president Change usually happens very slowly, even once all the serious people have decided there’s a problem. That’s because, in a country as big as the United States, public opinion moves in slow currents. Since change by definition requires going up against powerful established interests, it can take decades for those currents to erode the foundations of our special-interest fortresses. Take, for instance, “the problem of our schools.” Even facing undeniably real problems — say, discrimination against gay people — one can make the case that gradual change has actually been the best option. Which is not to say that there weren’t millions of people who suffered as a result. And that’s always been the difficulty with climate change — the greatest problem we’ve ever faced. We’re talking about a fight between human beings and physics. Physics doesn’t understand that rapid action on climate change threatens the most lucrative business on Earth, the fossil fuel industry.
Conservatives can be persuaded to care more about the environment, study finds When it comes to climate change, deforestation and toxic waste, the assumption has been that conservative views on these topics are intractable. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that such viewpoints can be changed after all, when the messages about the need to be better stewards of the land are couched in terms of fending off threats to the “purity” and “sanctity” of Earth and our bodies. Study finds that conservatives can be moved to support pro-environmental policies when messages emphasize fending off threats to the purity of our bodies. Published today (Dec. 10) in the online issue of the journal Psychological Science, the findings indicate that reframing pro-environmental rhetoric according to values that resonate strongly with conservatives can reduce partisan polarization on ecological matters. In the first experiment, 187 men and women recruited via several U.S.
ited Nations News Centre - FEATURE: One woman’s heroic efforts to restore more than just Rwanda’s forests 12 April 2013 – As her nation emerged from crisis, and in the face of great personal tragedy, Rose Mukankomeje took the initiative to bring Rwandans together to protect their natural resources and, in the process, restore communities devastated by conflict. She is one of five individuals from around the world honoured this week with the Forest Heroes Award by the United Nations Forum on Forests for their efforts to sustain, protect and manage this vital natural resource, and inspire positive change. Rose was unable to attend the award ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey, as she was taking part in numerous events taking place this week in Rwanda to mark the 1994 genocide, during which nearly one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were massacred by Hutu militia and government forces over a period of just 100 days. She then set out to find her nieces and nephews, going from one orphanage to another, greeted along the way by child after child who longed for a family of his or her own.