Our Living World is Dying
Stacey Worman, 2006-2007 Michael B. Keegan Traveling Fellow
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Learn More "In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." -- Baba Dioum
"Freedom, Innovation, & the Environment" The Institue for Humane Studies ~ UC Berkeley, June 21st-27th This is the pre-seminar reading list that the Institue for Humane Studies gave us! An excellent collection of thought provoking online resources that I thought I would share with those looking to learn more! "The Tragedy of the Commons" -- Garrett Hardin, professor emeritus of human ecology at the Unviversity of California, Santa Barbara, offers an explanation for traffic congestion, acid rain, ocean dumping, and soil erosion. Click Here! "We saved the trees and the trees saved us" -- In the Sahel, a swath of drylands that cuts across the entire African continent, farmers have learned to push back the desert through innovation, adaptation, and the application of local knowlege. Click Here! "Once a Dream Fuel, Palm Oil May Be an Eco-Nightmare" -- The New York Times reports that scientists are uncovering a grave downside to the Dutch government's premature embrace of biofuels. Click Here! "Sell the Tiger to Save it" -- From the New York Time: "Which country is thinking about applying free-market principles to wildlife preservation and, in the process, improving the survival chances of a long-endangered speices while giving its economy a bost? Communist China, of course." Click Here! "Reversing Course on DDT" -- Dr. Richard Tren of Africa Fighting Malaria, a group that has advocated for change in global DDT policies, talks to aBetterEarth about the World Health Organization's decision to support indoor use of DDT to fight malaria, the high cost of misguided activism, and the importance of basing policies on science rather than sentiment. Click Here! "Norman Borlaug: A Billion Lives Saved." -- One would think that saving a billion lives in developing countries, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and being regarded in many parts of the world as among the leading Americans of this age would be enough to make someone a household name within America. And yet, very few Americans would be able to say who Norman Borlaug is, let alone list any of his groundbreaking accomplishments in solving the problems of world hunger. Click Here! "The Impact of Science on Public Policy" -- Ronald Bailey, science correspondent for Reason Magazine, testifies on energy and mineral resources before the US Congress, asking them to consider the accuracy of past preditions. Click Here! (pdf) "Politics Without Romance" -- Nobel laureate James Buchanan uses economic tools to analyze the policial process. His "public choice theory" helps us understand the collective decision-making process. Click here!
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