Tuesday 23 July 2013

Incorporating ethics in sustainability indexes (book)

Measuring and Evaluating Sustainability

 The indexes used by local, national, and international governments to monitor progress toward sustainability do not adequately align with their ethical priorities and have a limited ability to monitor and promote sustainability. This book gives a theoretical and practical demonstration of how ethics and technical considerations can aid the development of sustainability indexes to overcome this division in the literature and in aid sustainability initiatives.
Measuring and Evaluating Sustainability develops and illustrates methods of linking technical and normative concerns during the development of sustainability indexes.

Building resillience to climate change (book)


Managing Adaptation to Climate Change


Climate change is the largest threat to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals and sustainable development. This book calls for greater collaboration between climate communities and disaster development communities. One area that offers some promise for bringing together these communities is through the concept of resilience. This term is increasingly used in each community to describe a process that embeds capacity to respond to and cope with disruptive events. This emphasizes an approach that is more focused on pre-event planning and using strategies to build resilience to hazards in an adaptation framework. The book will conclude by evaluating the scope for a holistic approach where these communities can effectively contribute to building communities that are resilient to climate driven risks.

How do we make sense of nature? (book)

Making Sense of Nature

Making Sense of Nature shows that what we call ‘nature’ is made sense of for us in ways that make it central to social order, social change and social dissent.  This interdisciplinary text asks whether we can better make sense of nature for ourselves, and thus participate more meaningfully in momentous decisions about the future of life – human and non-human – on the planet. This book shows how ‘nature’ can be made sense of without presuming its naturalness. The challenge is not so much to rid ourselves of the idea of nature and its ‘collateral concepts’ (such as genes) but instead, we need to be more alert to how, why and with what effects ideas about ‘nature’ get fashioned and deployed in specific situations. Among other things, the book deals with science and scientists, the mass media and journalists, ecotourism, literature and cinema, environmentalists, advertising and big business.

New guide to citizen science (on-line)


Guide to Citizen Science

The UK Environmental Observation Framework supported by The Natural History Museum have just produced a new guide to conducting citizen science in the UK. It is available to download as a pdf.
This guide aims to support people already involved in citizen science, and those new to it, within the UK. It is based on detailed information gathered and analysed as part of the UK-EOF funded project “Understanding Citizen Science & Environmental Monitoring”, which semi-systematically reviewed 234 projects and included 30 case studies (Roy et al., 2012). It will help you to design and implement a citizen science project relating to
biodiversity or the environment.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Hidden carbon stored in deep soils (#journal)

The hidden organic carbon in deep mineral soils 

Current estimates of soil organic carbon (SOC) are based on surficial measurements to depths of 0.3 to 1 m. But many of the world’s soils greatly exceed 1 m depth. This paper provides the first detailed analysis of these previously unreported stores of SOC. Soils from five sites in south-western Australia were analysed for SOC. These soils ranged between 5 and 38 m depth to bedrockMean SOC for each of the five locations varied from 21.8–37.5 kg C m−2, two to five times greater than from sampling to a depth of just 0.5 m.

This finding may have major implications for estimates of global carbon storage and modelling of the impacts of climate change. The paper demonstrates the need for a reassessment of the current shallow soil sampling depths for assessing carbon stocks and a revision of global SOC estimates.

 

Portfolio of evidence for holistic managment (report)

Evidence supporting Holistic Management

The Savory Institute empowers people to properly manage livestock by teaching them how to use Holistic Management, connecting them in ways that have benefits for everyone, and removing barriers along the path to success. The  Institute is working to measure impact by monitoring the health of ecosystem processes, sequestration of atmospheric carbon into soil carbon, well-being of our communities, as well as our financial vitality. This portfolio that proves the principles behind Holistic Management includes peer-reviewed journal articles, theses and dissertations, and reports.

he Savory Institute empowers people to properly manage livestock by teaching them how to use Holistic Management, connecting them in ways that have benefits for everyone, and removing barriers along the path to success. Many of our key audiences such as policymakers, landowners and investors want evidence that shows Holistic Management works to achieve large-scale environmental, economic, and social benefits.
To meet this need, the Savory Institute is working to measure impact by monitoring the health of ecosystem processes, sequestration of atmospheric carbon into soil carbon, well-being of our communities, as well as our financial vitality. We have compiled a portfolio that includes peer-reviewed journal articles, theses and dissertations, and reports. This portfolio proves the principles behind Holistic Management and is an ever-evolving list. The gaps in research, documentation, and monitoring will guide us in strategically identifying collaborations and projects in which to engage.
- See more at: http://www.savoryinstitute.com/2013/03/resources/evidence-supporting-holistic-management/#sthash.Wg56zcOk.dpuf

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Perennial cropping at a farm scale (book)

Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard

Around the globe most people get their calories from “annual” agriculture — plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs — in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future. (NB; this book is not currently available outside the USA).