Market-based solutions (chapter 14, Layzer)

Research Blog | September 28, 2020

EPA NAPAP page USGS reports page To answer question 2:Just for fun: Sabine Hossenfelder’s piss take “follow the science” How can science play a greater role without participating in politics? Also discuss: * Cost benefit analysis shortcomings in breadth, timescale, inputs I think scientists need to be HIRED in gov’t agencies (not fired or muzzled)….

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First World political ecology: lessons from the Wise Use Movement

Research Blog | September 27, 2020

James McCarthy demonstrates, through a case study of theWise Use movement, that the insights and tools of political ecology have much to offer in the study of First World resource conflicts. He uses theories and methods drawn from the literature concerning political ecology and moral economies to argue that many assumptions regarding state capacity, individual…

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Race, Nation, Nature

Research Blog | September 27, 2020

Responses to the eponymous McCarthy and Hague text,   Race, Nation, and Nature: The Cultural Politics of “Celtic” Identification in the AmericanWest Author(s): James McCarthy and Euan HagueSource: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 94, No. 2 (Jun., 2004) An examination of the claims of Celtic identity by Wise Use activists in NM…

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A Catholic legacy, naturalized

Research Blog | September 24, 2020

A recent article “A New Theory of Western Civilization” (The Atlantic) leads me to wonder about connections between this giving context to the rise of western ideas of the individual self, and the “widely held” beliefs ingrained in Wise Use and Property Rights movements. The Atlantic article is a deep look into evolutionary biologist Joseph…

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backlash (ch 13, Layzer)

Research Blog | September 20, 2020

The title “entrepreneur” means someone whose job it is to make a case for salience on an issue. What is the difference between a lobbyist and an entrepreneur? 2. This quote: Backlash against the 1970s’ environmentalists’ “honeymoon” with the institution of government regulation began in earnest in the 1980s, under mr cowboy, neoliberal extraordinaire Ronald…

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tackling pollution (chapter 2, Layzer)

Research Blog | September 20, 2020

Reframing Change the script in policymaking. As political scientists Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones observe, “[If] disadvantaged policy entrepreneurs are successful in convincing others that their view of an issue is more accurate than the views of their opponents, they may achieve rapid success in altering public policy arrangements, even if these arrangements have been…

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evironmental law, overview questions (chapter 1, Layzer)

Research Blog | September 14, 2020

I’m in a tutorial with John Hultgren at Bennington College, hoping to get some background and working knowledge of how environmental policy works (and seems like it isn’t working). I started with the introductory chapter from Judith Layzer’s 2002 book, The Environmental Case: Translating Views into Policy (updated in 2015). Layzer emphasized the use of…

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Toxic Progeny

Research Blog | August 31, 2018

Breakdown and discussion on Heather Davis’ article Toxic Progeny. … the whole world can be plasticized, and even life itself. –Roland Barthes, Mythologies A cod swallowed a dildo. What did it birth? Is it done birthing? Did it die from that encounter?

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Mountains > Cement > Buildings

Research Blog | March 26, 2018

Deep time vs human time +  inseparability: Research list: Cement and CO2  

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whale006

Research Blog | January 9, 2017

whale poop is part of the ocean’s circulatory system drawing iron up from the ocean bottoms as whales consume krill who consume phytoplankton who consume iron, and bringing it up to the surface oceans in the form of their faeces, which are released by the whales only in less water pressure levels. 

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whale006notes

Research Blog | January 9, 2017

whales – poop – circulation – iron- CO2 sinks NARRATION Baleen whales – such as humpbacks and blue whales – are a group of whales that sieve mountains of krill from the water in a single gulp. With that much going in one end, there must be a fair bit coming out the other. Dr…

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whale005

Research Blog | January 8, 2017

When oceans become crust. Three-fifths of Earth’s crust lies underwater, spread out along the seafloor. More than four cubic miles of ocean crust forms each year, constantly regenerating like new skin across the globe. This ocean crust arises along mid-ocean ridges — underwater mountain ranges that ripple along the ocean floor like jagged scars.– Oceans apart:…

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whale004notes

Research Blog | January 7, 2017

…the whale was able to disguise itself as an island. According to some traditions, the whale’s back was covered with rocks, dirt, and even trees and bushes in the creation of this grand facade. Such a tempting oasis within the sea readily attracted sailors and wayward monks, who settled upon this island and made camp….

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whale004

Research Blog | January 7, 2017

If you light a fire on the back of a whale, thinking it is an island, and drive stakes into its back, thinking you are on sandy land, you will almost certainly be tossed and turned into the sea.

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whale003

Research Blog | January 6, 2017

When the fish is hungry it opens its mouth very wide, and breathes forth an exceedingly sweet odor. Then all the little fish stream thither, and, allured by the sweet smell, crowd into its throat. Then the whale closes its jaws and swallows them into its stomach, which is as wide as a valley.– Bartholomaeus Anglicus…

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whale003notes

Research Blog | January 6, 2017

The monstrous whale known as aspidochelone was characterized by two distinctive behaviors. First, the whale possessed the ability to entrap its prey, usually fish, through the emission of a sweet, seductive odor released from its mouth. Unsuspecting fish were attracted by the scent, only to be devoured when the whale’s cavernous mouth snapped shut.– “Bad…

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whale002

Research Blog | January 5, 2017

When whales were monsters… In medieval society, animals served as “scapegoats, mirror images and representations of human reality.– "Bad to the bone”?  The Unnatural History of Monstrous Medieval Whales

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whale002notes

Research Blog | January 4, 2017

teratology now means a study of deformity, in the olden days it referred to monsters writhing sea monsters of the deep… whales were monstrous hell lay inside their mouths (jonah’s experience) they were often depicted with horns and scales. Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 6:6): Whales (ballenae) conceive through coition with…

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whale001

Research Blog | January 4, 2017

Hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) is a toxin found in tissue samples of sperm whales. It’s a known carcinogen, mutagen and teratogen (”makes monstrous”). A compound used in the pigment and metal industries, it can easily make its way into water sources and out into the ocean if industry’s proper waste disposal methods are sloppy or ignored.

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whale001notes

Research Blog | January 4, 2017

NOTES:  “hexavalent chromium is a major baddie for whales, corroding the genetic material in their cells and increasing their risk for cancer and reproductive problems. I didn’t realize that we all cross hexavalent chromium’s path pretty much every day. It’s in rust inhibitors, paints, dyes and inks. The yellow lines on our roads have hexavalent…

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