Recently in Conservation Category

The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environemental Change (IHDP) is running a writing contest for young scholars. Information is available at http://www.ihdp.unu.edu/article/read/call-for-articles-ihdp-writing-contest. Here's a bit of what you'll find there.

The IHDP Secretariat's Writing Contest is open again! Young scholars are invited to take part and write an article for the third issue of the Dimensions magazine, to be published mid 2013. The issue will focus on the human dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals that have been widely discussed in the context of the Rio+20 summit. The magazine is directed towards a wider audience, including non-scientists interested in the topic. Upon expiry of the submission deadline, the Secretariat will select up to three winners to be awarded cash prizes - and will publish their work in the magazine (print and online).

Cash prizes will be awarded as follows:   

• 1st Place - US$ 500
• 2nd Place - US$ 200            
• 3rd Place - US$ 100     

The contest is open to graduate students and post-doctoral scholars. If you're interested, please head over to the IHDP site for more information.

Maria Popova (@brainpicker) points us to a marvelous passage from Herman Hesse's Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte (Trees: Reflections and Poems). Here's a bit of the passage. Head over to Brain Pickings for the rest.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

I am still learning to speak to trees and to listen to them. I have not learned the truth.

The Council of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity runs from 8 October through 19 October in Hyderabad, India. It was preceded by a Meeting of the Parties from 1 October through 5 October. Here's some of what The Hindu had to say about the Meeting of the Parties:

Biodiversity is all about the variety of life on earth and how to protect it. But the ongoing global summit on this important subject has generated a variety of trash.

An incredible 9.2 tonnes of solid waste was generated during the five-day Meeting of Parties (MoP) which concluded on Friday. This huge waste was generated by over 1,000 delegates from 65 countries in just five days. It includes paper, plastic, metal, glass and food.

When the conference opened on October 1 the waste was mere 130 kg. The next day it increased to 630 kg and the third day touched 2.1 tonnes. On the fifth day when the MoP ended, a whopping 3.4 tonnes waste was generated

For those of you, like me, who are metrically challenged, 9.2 tonnes is equal to 10.1 tons. That's a lot of garbage. With about 1000 delegates attending that's 0.01 tons or 20 pounds of garbage apiece in 5 days. A green conference should be able to do better than that. Much of the waste will be recycled, but it would have been better had it never been produced.

Last Tuesday, the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature released Priceless or Worthless?, a list of the 100 most endangered plants, animals, and fungi in the world.

If some smidgen of bacterial goo was found on a faraway asteroid, it would be the discovery of the year, perhaps the century. Life on Earth would not be alone! Yet when it comes to the life that surrounds us, people can be remarkably cavalier, even downright callous: What's another frog species more or less? What's it do for us, anyways? (Wired)

In his introduction to the report Simon Stuart, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission has this to say:

The future of many species is going to depend on reconciling the needs of people and nature, and ensuring economic development and conservation do not undermine each other. If society believes that all species have a right to exist on the planet,then why are 100 of the most threatened species on the planet receiving so little funding or attention? At a time when thousands of species are truly on the edge of extinction, it is time to ask society to take a stand - to declare that the 100 species in this book, and millions of others like them, have the right to exist on this planet.

Head over to the IUCN website for more information and to download a PDF copy of the report for yourself.

From my inbox:

STUDENT CONFERENCE ON CONSERVATION SCIENCE-NEW YORK (SCCS-NY)

American Museum of Natural History, New York City
October 10-12, 2012

$100 USD 

cbc.amnh.org

The conference is designed for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and early-career professionals pursuing or considering the field of conservation science. (Undergraduate students conducting thesis-level research may also apply.)

ALL DISCIPLINES ARE WELCOME!

Whatever your focus--biology, sociology, medicine, economics, architecture, the law--if it has a relevance for conservation, we want to hear your perspective!  Join fellow conservation students and conservation professionals from around the world to network, exchange ideas, and receive feedback from leaders in science, policy, academia, and management at one of the world's preeminent scientific and cultural institutions. 

MONDAY, APRIL 2: ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE for Talks, Speed Talks, and Posters

Non-presenting attendees may register until September.

The Student Conference on Conservation Science was created in 2000 by the University of Cambridge, and is currently held annually in Cambridge, New York, and Bangalore, India. The 2012 SCCS-NY is hosted by the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. Collaborating institutions include Cambridge University, Columbia University Earth Institute,Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Princeton University.  

To learn more, visit the SCCS-NY site or follow us on Facebook.

Aldo Leopold was one of the great conservationists of the 20th century. I remember very clearly discovering A Sand County Almanac in the visitors center at Dinosaur National Park during a family vacation when I was in high school. I was already a fan of Thoreau and Muir, but here were essays by a biologist that showed as much reverence for the natural world as Thoreau or Muir and were infused with the understanding of a professional biologist. The Land Ethic spoke to me deeply, as did Thinking Like a Mountain, especially this paragraph:

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes - something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

Tonight the Edwin Way Teale Series on Nature & the Environment opens its 2011-2012 season with a showing of Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for our Time. Curt Meine, who wrote the definitive biography of Aldo Leopold, and Ann and Steve Dunsky, the filmmakers, will join us to answer questions from the audience after the showing. The showing is free to everyone who is interested. Please join us.

Time:  7:00pm
Place: Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center, University of Connecticut

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

Gizmodo friend and amazing filmmaker and photographer Vincent Laforet
says that calling this time lapse video of Utah and Arizona
"breathtaking" is an understatement. He adds "Holy cow". Make sure to watch this at full screen and HD. (Source)

"Breathtaking" is an understatement. "Mind boggling" is more like it. The images with the night sky as a backdrop are beyond stunning. Thank you, Dustin Farrell and www.crewwestinc.com.

Unless you buy recycled paper, the paper you use¹ is probably made from wood pulp. Cotton and linen are added to "fine" papers, and there are wood free alternatives. But here's a wood-free alternative you're not likely to find from your local supplier.²

Mahima Mehra, a Delhi-based paper merchant, turned to elephant dung as the raw material [for her paper]. Ms Mehra sells her paper, produced by her business partner Vijayendra Shekhawat, under the name Haathi Chaap, Hindi for "Elephant Mark". They stumbled on the idea during their visit to Amer fort in Jaipur. They observed that the clumps of roughage left behind by elephants ferrying tourists up to the fort bore a striking similarity to the raw fibre used in paper-making. ("Frugal innovation: wholly shit", The Economist, 14 September 2011)

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