Returning bison to the American Prairie

Some visiting friends mentioned this story.

A nature preserve outside of the twin cities in Minnesota is releasing a few bison into its prairies to explore the possibility of more widespread introductions. I find this very exciting. I love the idea of trying to rebuild some of the wilderness that has been plowed over by civilization. Reintroducing bison seems to be a particularly dramatic and iconic step in this process. Especially now that agricultural land use is shrinking all over the country, converting much of it to (near) original ecosystems seems well-timed.

At the end of the above mentioned experiment, the preserve is planning on slaughtering the animals to demonstrate that such projects can also be economically sustainable. We should increase investments in parks like this all over the country - for ecosystem services such as (cheap) clean water and storm buffers, for recreation (including fishing and hunting) and to help cultivate a sense of place and the appreciation of the public.

Science communication

I just watched an episode of Nova titled "the four-winged dinosaur." I don't think I've ever seen the real process of science portrayed nearly as accurately. They follow different teams of scientists as they debate a big question (whether birds are descended from dinosaurs) by differently interpreting the evidence surrounding a tiny detail (the angle that the fossil leg seemed to fit into the hip).

Check it out! You'll come away with a much better appreciation for how science actually comes to definitive conclusions and why it so often doesn't quite.

Research burning

The California wildfire season is well under way. and it's only July. I had heard there were some small fires in Sonoma County and it occurred to me that my field sites may burn this year. I'd have to say it would be a cathartic way to end the frustrating experience of gradschool!

Here's a blog that includes some maps of the wildfires in Big Sur. When I heard that they were evacuating the area I became a little concerned about the research sites that some of my labmates have down there. I didn't think much of it at first since our lab's sites seems to revolve around moist redwood-tanoak ecosystems - then I heard a description on NPR from a firefighter that had watched pre-heated redwoods literally exploding into flames.

I went upstairs to check in with the boss to see if anyone we worked with was being hurt by the fires. Our one colleague who currently lives down there is okay and was assisting with the evacuation. When I asked my boss if the fires were impacting any of his sites he asked: "want to see?" He showed me a map of the coast and the locations of hundreds of his sites (part of a long-term ecosystem study of sudden oak death). It seemed that half to most were exposed to the fires! I was glad to hear him continue to explain that they had just finished collecting all the data they needed from these sites a few months ago. The lab is now well placed to address the impact that wildfires have on sudden oak death in California ecosystems.

It's encouraging to hear a story where fate works out in a scientist's favor!

Bioregionalism

I came across an interesting idea the other day that's been around for some time.

Bioregionalism is a philosophy that celebrates the diversity of endemic cultures - primarily as a reflection of local environment. It looks to the embrace of local environments and history in order to produce diversity in the face of globalization. It'd be great to have all the economic benefits of free trade without losing fascinating regional differences in attitudes, accents, food and design. I guess this ties in with my earlier post on The Big Sort. Maybe once again, the advance of globalization will defy critics by leading to increased local heterogeneity and self-determination.

And, because I love maps!

Location, location, location

As any interested parties have surely already learned, Richard Florida has been promoting his most recent book, Who's Your City. For any of you who don't already know, Florida has written a series of interesting books describing how the current job market and socio-political climate is largely shaped by individuals congregating in parts of the country that they find appealing - e.g. adventurous software engineers and scientists heading to the Bay Area. I've enjoyed many of his past books and plan to read this one too when it hits the library. The website I linked to above has some neat maps showing where certain types of people are accumulating. On a related note, Robert Cushing's book describes how this may be intensifying red state vs. blue state politics in The Big Sort.

As per usual, I heard it on NPR.

Carbon Farming

Another great seminar - Steve Savage on global warming and agriculture. He described some very interesting observations on the interaction of environmental protection and the free market.

First, he pointed out that despite all the foot-dragging from the Feds, major corporations are already adapting to global warming - mostly in anticipation of public demand, but also in savings of increased efficiency. In the vacuum of government leadership though, each company is haphazardly defining "sustainability" differently (and declaring how their products fulfill it). Since these decisions are driven largely by marketing, little care is invested in analyzing whether apparently environmentally-friendly practices really are (read Wal-Mart's foray into organic food).

Unfortunately, some private certification agencies are similarly more interested in public perception than scientific reality. If any such "sustainability" certification becomes popular, major companies will be compelled to adopt them, enshrining practices that aren't really good for our environment. Again, unless some government or scientific association steps in to fill the void with some facts.

Secondly, he pointed out that in spite of all the lobbying from environmentalists, the only organizations that have managed to prevent the marketing of GMO crops are major food retailers and manufacturers in charge of valuable brands. These companies have already halted the introduction of cultivars such as a ripening-controlled banana and glyphosate-resistant wheat, both of which and with others would have contributed to huge reductions in worldwide pesticide and herbicide use.

note: He also recommended Starving for Science, by Robert Paarlberg, for a description of how the crunchy elite, especially in Europe, have kept life-saving biotechnology out of developing countries in places like Africa. I'll read this and get back to you.

In the end, Dr. Savage really emphasized that if you want to optimize the sustainability of agriculture, you really need to establish appropriate standard metrics. He pointed out that if you measure pollution per unit of land, you encourage low yielding techniques that require more land to produce the same amount of food, and produce more pollution per amount of food. He argued that we should compare agricultural systems by the amount of pollution (E.g. carbon) produced per bushel of food. He cited a few studies that found that intensive agriculture, with intelligent use of chemicals and GMOs, produced more food per land/amount of pollution in comparison to organic agriculture (with limited exceptions).

It was also interesting to hear that organic agriculture (contrary to all the hype) accounts for a tiny fraction of total agriculture (half a percent!) and is growing at a slow, linear rate. In contrast, modern no-till ag now accounts for 15% of all ag. He then used no-till ag as a jumping off point to explain how modern, intensive agricultural practices including safe and highly specific chemicals and erosion-limiting no-tillage could be used to sequester carbon. (as another aside, he showed a great chart showing that many modern pesticides and herbicides such as glyphosate, are safer than aspirin and caffeine!)

He explained how a carefully constructed carbon trading program could quickly become very profitable for many growers. At $5 a ton, carbon would produce greater domestic income than the national grape crop, at $10 a ton, more than wheat, and at $30 it would become the nations second most profitable agricultural "crop."

Overall he recommended changing ag regulations from a system that rewards inefficiency and ignores pollution to one that rewards efficiency and decreases pollution by linking true costs to monetary costs. According to some ag economists, this problem will take care of itself with a little regulation.

Or as the agronomists say,

"The best cure for high commodity prices is high commodity prices"

Coal as the fuel of the future

I just saw a short piece on the news about Sasol, a South African company that's promising to produce gasoline from coal (profitably and with lower emissions). It seems that every few weeks we hear some scientist or company announce that they're about to release some revolutionary new fuel or fuel system that will solve all our oil woes.

I'm pretty jaded to it at this point.

On the other hand, I've only really been keyed in to these technologies for the past few years, which is significantly shorter than most development pipelines. Maybe some of these new systems really will sweep away our energy problems in the near future. In the meantime we need to commit ourselves to make the policy changes that will encourage future technological development while making the most of what we already have (e.g. energy conservation!).

It does appeal to me to be able to use coal as an energy source. It would seem like a waste not to take advantage of such an abundant natural resource - especially one so common in the U.S. Any move to take advantage of this technology would need to (from the start) plan how to deal with environmental effects though. I still haven't seen any sufficient efforts to sequester carbon, let alone enough to offset burning even more coal than we already do. Not to mention that coal is often mined by shearing off mountain tops....

Maybe we'd be better off without this technology after all.