The high cost of low prices (book)

Cheaponomics: The High Cost of Low Prices

Do you really think you are getting a good deal when given that free mobile phone for switching service providers, or by the fact that food is cheaper today than ever before? Think again! This compelling book clearly shows that cheapness is an illusion. The real cost of low prices is alarmingly high, for example where consumers provide welfare support to poorly-paid workers, or rely on the exploitation of workers in poor countries. Environmental pollution is paid for indirectly by people living away from its source or by future generations. Even private cars, when properly costed, prove to be an astronomically expensive model of transportation. The key point is that costs and risks are socialised: we all pay for cheapness, but not at the point of purchase.

Sustainabilty leadership in a perverse world (book)

The Positive Deviant

An economy low in carbon and high in life satisfaction will require thousands, if not millions of exceptional leaders. This book is the first to bring together sustainability knowledge with the leadership skills and tools to help you become one of those leaders. In it you will find everything you need to get started straight away, and to grow your effectiveness, even in a world that remains perversely intent on the opposite.

Adoption of conservation agriculture in Malawi (#journal)

Adoption and extent of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in Malawi

Understanding factors affecting farmers' adoption of improved technologies is critical to success of conservation agriculture (CA). This study explored why  farmers adopted the three principles of CA (minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and crop rotations), in 10 communities in Malawi. From a total of 15,854 households in the study areas, 18% of smallholders had adopted CA, on 2.1% of all cultivated land. The first stage of the research showed that hired labor, area of land cultivated, membership to farmer group, and district influenced farmers' decisions to adopt CA. The second stage suggested that total cultivated land, duration of practicing CA, and district influenced farmers' decisions. Agency and social structures influenced adoption and extent of CA. Future policy should address ways to provide access to information and long-term support to farmers to enable them to embrace the technology fully.

Land use practices to improve water quality (#journal)

Estimating water quality effects of conservation practices and grazing land use scenarios

Conservation management practices such as reduced tillage, fertilizer management, and buffer strips are well-established means by which to control erosion and nutrient losses from fields planted in annual row crops. However, agricultural systems which include perennial plant cover may represent an alternative way to reduce these losses. In this study, management intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) was tested as a means by which to improve water quality on highly vulnerable row crop land, compared to more traditional conservation management schemes in Southeastern Minnesota. The effects of both sets of alternative scenarios were evaluated with a watershed-based modeling approach using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool. Watershed-wide implementation of all conservation management practices resulted in reductions in sediment (52%) and total P (28%) loads.

No till cropping cools the hottest days (#journal)

Preferential cooling of hot extremes from cropland albedo management

The projected increase in warm extremes associated with climate change is a major concern for society and represents a threat to humans and ecosystems. This study shows that heat wave impacts could be attenuated locally by increasing surface albedo through no-till farming. This is due to an identified asymmetric impact of surface albedo change on summer temperature distribution resulting in a much stronger influence on hot extremes than on mean temperatures. This finding has important implications for the development of sustainable land management strategies and for the design of climate-engineering measures acting upon high-impact climate extremes.

Connecting cities and oceans (book)

Blue Urbanism

The consequences of our emotional disconnect from oceans have been severe: the marine ecosystems that make up 70% of our planet are imperiled as never before. Restoring the integrity of the oceans will require unprecedented effort, but Blue Urbanism highlights the promise of urban areas around the world that have begun to prioritize marine health, such as efforts to discover  the amazing marine biodiversity near cities, new prototypes of wind- and solar-powered shipping vessels, urban aquaponics systems and buildings and parks that connect with the ocean visually and structurally. This book offers an impassioned argument for the need to harness the political, economic, and emotional power of our growing cities to benefit the ocean, offering a comprehensive look at the challenges and great potential for urban areas to integrate ocean health into their policy and planning goals.

Addressing water scarcity (book)

Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability

Water scarcity is spreading and intensifying in many regions of the world, with dire consequences for local communities, economies, and freshwater ecosystems. Current approaches tend to rely on policies crafted at the state or national level, which on their own have proved insufficient to arrest water scarcity. To be durable and effective, water plans must be informed by the culture, economics, and varied needs of affected community members. Chasing Water tells a cohesive  story that sustainable water sharing in the twenty-first century can only happen through open, democratic dialogue and local collective action.