The trajectory of Daniel McGowan's life is a familiar one: A young man from a conventional background finds meaning in a cause greater than himself. Thanks in part to overreaction by the authorities, he gradually becomes radicalized, dedicating himself to violent resistance — a course of action that grabs attention but ultimately backfires on him and his movement. An Islamic radical? White supremacist? Perhaps an anti-globalization anarchist? None of the above. McGowan was one of the key figures in the eco-terrorism of the 1990s, a man who used arson as a weapon in the fight to ... Read More
Solving Eco-challenges With Today’s Data
August 16, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
New academic centers usually bring the promise of spanking-new research, but a new entity at the University of Maryland promises to take undervalued existing research and synthesize it into answers for pressing environmental challenges. The Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, headed by entomologist Margaret Palmer, will focus entirely on the processing and better utilization of existing information. The center's goal is to fill gaps between scholarship and public policy, and between environmental science and social science. As Palmer explained to Miller-McCune, "The idea is that ... Read More
Botanist Brings Trees to the Israeli Desert
July 21, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The desert sky was an odd brooding gray as we pulled into McDonald's, the arches looming bright and preternaturally yellow out of the dusty landscape. By the time we'd finished our McKebab sandwiches — much better than you might expect — it was raining: a steady, drumming, respectable rain. It almost never rains in Israel's Arava Valley, the driest, hottest and southernmost part of Israel. I was about to meet a desert botanist, Elaine Solowey, so I was anxious to hear what she'd say. I assumed she'd be excited about the rain and wax rhapsodic about making the desert bloom and all ... Read More
The Making of the Ocean Health Index
July 12, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
If all goes well, when a scientific paper is published and the media pick up on the story, a lot of effort gets boiled down into a soundbite. New cure for cancer discovered. Water found on Mars. Fish stocks disappearing from the world's oceans. This focus can be a good thing for communicating science to the public, but it masks a lot of what was necessary to produce that result. Often, the story of how, and why, science gets done is as interesting and important as the actual result. Indeed, the decisions about what does not belong in the soundbite are as critical as the decisions about what ... Read More
Building Cities With Sustainability in Mind
April 12, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
A leading ecologist says if we want to build sustainable cities, we need to start with our money on our minds, and our minds in the gutter. William Patrick Lucey, an aquatic ecologist and special adviser to the British Columbia government on water policy, says little has changed in the way we have built cities in the 2,000 years since the Roman empire. Aside from some notable improvements in sanitation, and perhaps civility, our infrastructure still follows the Roman model; centralized water works, all-weather roadways with engineered drainage, and municipal sewers to whisk away our ... Read More
As Environment Degrades, Our Well-Being Grows?
April 5, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Earth's ecosystems are steadily deteriorating thanks to unsustainable practices like overfishing, rainforest clearing and natural gas "fracking." So, wouldn't it follow that human beings around the globe are getting sicker, poorer and less satisfied with their lives? Not so, according to Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, an environmental consultant and part-time lecturer at Montreal's McGill University. In "Untangling the Environmentalist's Paradox: Why Is Human Well-being Increasing as Ecosystem Services Degrade," published i n the September issue of BioScience, Raudsepp-Hearne and colleagues found ... Read More
Grasslands Preserve the Lonely Prairie
November 23, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
West from Sioux Falls, hundreds of miles of rolling South Dakota corn eventually morph into one of this country's largest remaining national grasslands, a portion of what is now the North American continent's largest endangered ecosystem. Miles beyond the wide Missouri River, a small sign announces the beginning of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland's 600,000 acres; part of nearly 4 million acres of national grasslands administered by the U.S. Forest Service. The Buffalo Gap grassland is just one integral part of a tenuous sea of grass that stretches from southern Canada to Mexico; ranging ... Read More
The Real Revenge of Montezuma: Voyage Conclusions
September 7, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Location: In Mazunte, just north of Huatulco. Through scattered clouds, the morning sun shines on the bay, whose centerpiece is a pair of jagged boulders. The rocks are frothy with crashing waves and soft backlight. The bay is surrounded by swaying palm trees and a snaking wetland. Conditions: From inside my swinging cot, hanging freely from a roof covered by a mosquito net, I can tell the morning air is starting to warm up. It's 8 a.m., and the septic tank truck is already pumping sewage and someone is running a drill. Fishermen are pushing their pangas past the tiny waves. Discussion: ... Read More
Childhood Dreams in Playa El Coyote
June 30, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
A stop along the way sparks childhood memories for the Voyage of Kiri. Location: Near the calm blue waters of Bahia Concepcion, an hour south of Mulege. Conditions: Under the canopy of a few highly prized trees, sheltered from the hot sun, with just the slightest breeze over the water. Discussion: I nudged Alyssum, saying, "You've got to see this." I had to interrupt my co-pilot's power nap to see the string of bays below us, shining in impossible colors. Each turn of the road winding along steep cliffs drew gasps. We finally chose our destination, Playa El Coyote. The dirt road ... Read More
A Question of Biodiversity
August 12, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Those who study nature have a simmering controversy centering on why different but similar species — whether they're annual grasses, reef fish or South American birds — coexist in the same area. Why doesn't the fittest push out the competition? For a century or so, the answer was so blindingly obvious nobody questioned it, and more importantly from a scientific perspective, nobody tested it. The obvious answer is that each of those similar plants or animals weren't exactly similar, and each took advantage of a slight but perceptible difference in resources — say more nitrogen in ... Read More
