Once Upon a College

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Ethanol ethics -- or lack thereof

A warning about what will likely happen if we don't get the fine print right on any future climate bill.

Might be a good time to do a thorough policy review of AB 32, whose first big implementation anniversary is coming up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/business/wall-st-exploits-ethanol-credits-and-prices-spike.html?hp

"Slowdown" attribution

http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2013/09/examining-the-recent-slow-down-in-global-warming/

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Online climate modeling primer from NAS

http://nas-sites.org/climatemodeling/page_1_1.php

Online hydropower reference

Janet found this useful reference, essentially a small textbook on hydropower, free online:

http://www.need.org/needpdf/Energy%20of%20Moving%20Water%20Student.pdf

Friday, September 13, 2013

Climate change knowledge inventory -- for ESS

We inventoried ESS 01 students' climate knowledge on Wednesday, in small groups and as a whole class. These are the things you believe you need to know more about.

I transcribed them, collated them, rephrased some of them (if needed -- most were perfectly lucid, even erudite and well-considered), and organized them in what I thought would be a logical order for learning.

How to understand current confusing climate fluctuations, including temperatures?

Related: We would like to try to settle confusion over whether climate denier claims have any scientific validity at all. A minority would particularly like to know how to "debunk the debunkers."

Carbon sinks and sources. We would like to know more about where atmospheric carbon comes from and goes to, and what is does when it gets into the atmosphere. Related: possibilities for carbon sequestration.

Adaptation: How can we adapt to changing climates? Related: Definition and explanation of Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience

Positive and negative side effects of solutions: Are there ways we could make this a worse problem, by doing the wrong thing?

Policies and politics in the USA: How should we understand why we don't seem to be able to do (much) about climate change in this country?

Related: Perceptions: How worldviews, perceptions, and preconceived notions effect how we approach climate change. (To include Kahan et al and Six Americas)

Natural resource law (your phrase, not mine, most likely from other classes), but essentially, what are the policy options for climate change? Do any have good economics, i.e., a positive payback?

Related: What are the economics of climate change?

Social freedom and social control: Does climate change help us move to a more liberal (with a small "l", meaning "more free", not politically Liberal), society, or a more authoritarian one?

How are relations between countries impacted? How have other societies ("cultures") dealt with climate change?

Friday 13th! Reading response assignment for Pollan (for Womersley section of EII)

Due Friday 20th September, 12 noon, delivery by attachment to your ePortfolio (unless otherwise authorized).

Note: be sure to share your ePortfolio with mwomersley@unity.edu.

These are essay questions (i.e., answer all questions in full-sentence, full and multi-paragraph format). Expect to revise and resubmit if grammar, syntax and spelling require. Make good use of the Writing Center and Writing Tutors or ask the instructor for help with writing.

What is the historical significance of the four meals in terms of human history? Do you think we should seriously consider old ways of life, as we explore how to cope with our modern industrial world? Why or why not?
What do you think the employment and macroeconomic (look this phrase up, if you don't know what it means) consequences would be, if the USA were ever to adopt a strong food policy based on the farm ideas of Joel Salatin? Would this be a good or bad thing? Explain why, in either case.
Describe your perfect meal. Explain your choices in terms of your personal "food policy."

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Climate communications

A new report from the UK Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) attempts to "reclaim" the conversation for the "centre right" [sic].

http://talkingclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/COIN-A-new-conversation-with-the-centre-right-about-climate-change.pdf

What this is about

A long time ago, in an educational universe far away and almost certain never to return, the professors of a certain small college experimented with experiential learning and taught their students not just to "read, write, think, and figure", but also to do practical things with that learning. Educational theory and research results from Kurt Hahn to modern scholars suggests strongly that experiential learning works better, particularly for active young people. It also matters greatly that young people have the physical and mental confidence to do something positive with their learning, particularly to make social and environmental change, in other words, to lead. This kind of confidence comes with physical challenge and being made to defend your ideas out loud, among other things. The small college was built around these ideas, deliberately, by a group of determined and innovative educators. With this success, along came the inevitable bean-counters who believed such a valuable education was way too expensive for those students. Wanting to keep more of the students' money (to pay their six figure salaries, of course), they cut the programs the first chance they got and went all-online where the teaching help is way cheaper and less demanding of budgets for tools and materials. I happen to think it was well worth the investment for any student who really engaged with the opportunity, but... bean counters gonna count beans. So the college is, for all useful purposes, gone, or at least changed beyond all recognition and not any good at teaching anyone anything practical at all. But the memories remain. And, despite the best efforts of the new administrators to erase them, so does quite a bit of open-source computer data to remind us of those memories, in the form of this and several other blogs and video pages online. In the case of this blog, the blog data were mine, not the college's, all along, even though they tried many times to get their cold dead bean-counter hands on them. So fuck 'em. Oh, and yes, this particular professor cusses more now that I don't have to worry about pointy-headed supervisors. Fuck them too. Enjoy. And remember, llegitimi non carborundum. If you're one of our former students and looking for stories you wrote or photographs or records of projects you worked on, just use the keyword search function or the chronological record to find your projects. They're all still here. Drop me a line using the comments section. I'd love to hear from you.