Uncategorized – Page 54 – Southern Fried Science

Weekly dose of TED: Reviving New York’s rivers with oysters!

March 4, 2011 Andrew Thaler 3 Comments

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Kate Orff, is not a biologist, she’s an architect. I love the idea of using natural systems to design human systems. The idea that construction should work with the landscape is not new, all you have to do is visit Falling Water to see that, but it’s an idea that hasn’t taken off like it … Read More “Weekly dose of TED: Reviving New York’s rivers with oysters!” »

SFS Gear Review: Keen Hybrid Life

March 3, 2011March 3, 2011 Bluegrass Blue Crab 2 Comments

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Everyone’s seen the Keen sandals – the ones that characterize the feet of kayakers all over and arguably create their own style. Keen, however, also offers shoes more in line with their motto of “hybrid life” – that is, they are supposed to be good for a life on-the-go for someone who only wants to carry one pair of shoes.

I received such a pair as a birthday gift from my mother – the source of most shoes in my life. She bought them because they were “cute” and because they came in green, a color that pervades my wardrobe. So they’ve passed the mom test on style. How’d they do on function?

Biodiversity Wednesday: Three Gorges

March 2, 2011March 3, 2011 David Shiffman 3 Comments

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The Three Gorges region of Central China has one of the most striking landscapes on Earth. Steep cliffs covered in lush greenery rise right from the shores of the Yangtze (Yellow) river. Despite the harshness of the terrain, millions of people and numerous species of unique plants and animals call this region home.

Gorge1 — One of the three Gorges. Photo Credit: David Shiffman, 2007

The Yangtze is the third largest river in the world (after the Nile and the Amazon). The river and it’s shores are home to iconic Chinese species such as the Dawn Redwood tree, the tiger, the pangolin, the Chinese sturgeon and the Chinese river dolphin. All told, 570 species of vertebrates and almost 2,100 species of plants live in this region according to UNESCO. The area also has thousands of archaeological sites, including rare evidence of the Ba and Damaio peoples. This entire ecosystem is in big trouble because of one of the largest engineering projects of all time- the Three Gorges Dam.

Political Ecology at Home – Lessons from Abroad?

February 28, 2011February 22, 2011 Bluegrass Blue Crab

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Political ecology within the First World came from a gradual realization that the definition of the field did not only apply to exotic cultures abroad, but had resonance domestically. As first defined by Blaikie and Brookfield (1987), political ecology combines “the concerns of ecology and a broadly defined political economy. Together this encompasses the constantly shifting dialectic between society and land-based resources, and also within classes and groups within society itself” (17). Scholars returning from research in the Third World observed this shifting dialectic in their own countries, complete with struggles over power and access between sectors of society.

The first call to the political ecology community to consider applying their principles to the First World came from Louise Fortmann (1996) in her article “Bonanza! The unasked questions: Domestic land tenure through international lenses.” Although she admitted there are vast differences between home and abroad, she identifies six lessons from the international land tenure debate that could have traction in the United States: property as social process, customary tenures, common property and community management of resources, gender, the complexity of tenancy relationships, and land concentration.

Weekly dose of TED – Greg Stone: Saving the ocean one island at a time

February 25, 2011 Andrew Thaler

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Kiribati is perhaps one of the most remote countries in the world. Despite its distance from the sources of environmental degradation, it will probably be the very first country to be destroyed by climate change. Most of the country, a collection of small islands spanning an area almost as large as the United States, lies … Read More “Weekly dose of TED – Greg Stone: Saving the ocean one island at a time” »

SFS Gear Review: ExOfficio anti-microbial Underwear

February 24, 2011February 23, 2011 Andrew Thaler 3 Comments

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There’s a reason I wrote this free form poem, and that reason is Exoficio’s anti-bacterial boxer shorts. Yes, today we’re talking about underwear. Let’s face it, a bad pair of underpants can make a field season miserable, while a decent pair will make you, and everyone around you, much more comfortable. Life is messy, especially while doing field work.

Biodiversity Wednesday: Shortgrass Prairie

February 23, 2011February 23, 2011 Bluegrass Blue Crab

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The middle of America boasts some of the best soils in the world, making it “the breadbasket of America”, if not the world. However, that soil is both a blessing and a curse – native species of grasses and the birds, bugs, and bison that depended on the area have been pushed out in favor of human food production. The ecosystem of middle America looks today like miles upon miles of rows of corn and soy, not the shortgrass prairie that once inhabited the area.

State of the Field: Pay for that Particulate!

February 22, 2011February 22, 2011 Bluegrass Blue Crab

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kingston, tn fly ash spill (7) — What are the true costs of power? photo by author

Ever wonder why coal-fired power is so much cheaper than the alternatives? Coal-producing communities aren’t paid for their personal health impacts, the environment is not paid for streams turned acid, and mountains are not paid for their removal. More subtle costs are also passed on: rising rates of asthma from particulates in the air, introduction of malaria into previously unaffected areas from a warming world, and the relocation of whole countries due to sea level rise.

Pollution is a classic example of an economic externality – companies choosing not to sequester chemicals in their effluent pass the cost of pollution and remediation on to those downstream. Therefore the cost of production signaled by price does not represent the true cost of production. The contradiction is deeper, however, and forms one of the main critiques of capitalism – the “second contradiction of capitalism”. Capitalism relies on the continual growth of the market, costs determined by the raw material and labor inputs. However, these costs assume limitless availability of what Marx calls “conditions of production” – the infrastructure and environmental services that are required for production. These, however, are not limitless and therefore not cost-free. Rising costs will eventually outpace price and production will therefore cease (O’Connor 1998).

Reader Survey: Who reads Southern Fried Science?

February 21, 2011 Andrew Thaler 6 Comments

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Introduction

Who are our readers? That is the question we wanted to answer at the beginning of this year. Are you scientists, students, or interested laypeople? Where are you from? What do you like and what don’t you like? Is anybody out there?

So last month we launched a survey to help us find out.

Finding Melville’s Whale: Hark! (Chapter 43)

February 20, 2011February 21, 2011 Andrew Thaler

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Hark! A noise in the hold like a cough do you Imagine ghosts aboard? Or men, lying in the darkness.