by KELLY HONDULA
Faculty Research Assistant

and JESSICA MARX
Research Program Manager

Last Monday on May 6, SESYNC’s Research Program Manager Jessica Marx and Environmental Science Research Assistant Kelly Hondula attended an event at Resources for the Future, co-sponsored by SESYNC, entitled “Responding to Ecological Loss: The Promise and Limits of Ingenuity.” This interdisciplinary and diverse panel—moderated by SESYNC Director of Social Science & Policy, Jim Boyd—brought together scholars, policymakers, and business folks to discuss how technological advancement and conservation priorities can work in concert with each other rather than as opposing forces. When faced with looming ecological loss, can technological innovation develop solutions to vast environmental problems? The panelists tackled this question through a variety of lenses—from scholarly disciplines ranging from economic history to psychology, and from both an NGO and corporate perspective.

Examining the value of nature from historical and psychological perspectives can provide insight into decision-making processes that influence and alleviate present-day problems. The economists argued that the historical loss of natural capital progressed alongside advancements in intellectual and social capital, although at a great cost. A contradiction that the panelists tried to resolve was: as natural capital is lost and ecological resources are degraded, do we value what is left more due to scarcity, or less due to generations adopting new baselines of what is acceptable? The value of nature has certainly shifted over time—not only its economic value, but its inherent and biophysical values. As a psychologist on the panel noted, our perception of what is nature has shifted too—from something “out there,” whether we classify nature as the wilderness or as something we humans are a part of, to even the development of “technological” natures that attempt to mimic natural objects and landscapes.

This discussion made clear that the value of nature spans disciplines and cannot be accurately represented by traditional market ideology. Although we intuitively know that values such as ethics, emotion, and the importance of biodiversity shape our decision-making processes, these forces aren’t currently accounted for in the price signals that have historically led to losses in the natural functioning of socio-environmental systems. The psychologists argued that it would be incredibly naïve to think that we even understand the full extent of the value we’ve lost in ecosystems. Therefore, assigning economic value to resources cannot be the only method we use to combat ecological loss. This idea brought consensus among the panelists: innovation and ingenuity of institutions rather than of technology is where the best opportunities lie in tackling lost ecological functions.

Using the market to value assets is our “normal” approach,” but it is only one tool with which we can approach socio-environmental systems. And historically, this method has not been able to develop the social capital necessary to collectively solve our environmental issues that are inherently rooted in a social world. Instead, we need to broaden our understanding of how collective action, cooperation, and trust can be innovative solutions to address society’s needs while maintaining natural systems.

View video of the entire seminar below:

Rachel at a farmers market in Los Angeles.

  
by RACHEL BERNDTSON
Graduate Research Assistant

As one of the discipline’s five themes, human-environment interactions are foundational to the field of Geography. Two-way relationships between humans and the environment affect physical and cultural landscapes. This year’s Association of American Geographers (AAG) annual meeting in Los Angeles, CA, offered several thought-provoking sessions around one of the most fundamental human-environment interactions: agriculture.

At this year's meeting, I participated in a paper session entitled “Interracial Dynamics in Urban Agriculture or (How) Race Matters in Urban Agriculture." Presenters addressed human-environment interactions and, in particular, how they play out through cultural landscapes in urban settings. Cultural and ethnic groups engaged in urban agriculture often leave group imprints—which can be structural, aesthetic, linguistic, and ecological—on the community gardens and farms in which they work. For example, in their research on Puerto Rican community gardens in New York City, Laura Saldivar-Tanaka and Marianne E. Krasny point to casitas (small wooden houses used for leisure and cultural activities) and ethnic vegetable crops (such as brujo [oregano], sweet peppers, and kimbombo) as reflecting the gardeners' country of origin.

My paper in development, entitled "Sustainable agriculture in the Jewish community: A Baltimore, Maryland case study," explores a new Jewish cultural landscape emerging on a sustainable community farm. In developing a new cultural landscape, the humans involved on the farm interact with and thus impact the surrounding environment—for instance, by producing etrogs, an otherwise obscure citrus fruit used for ritual activity during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The farm's resultant, bucolic setting reflects Jewish culture, history, and tradition based on crop variety, architecture, and ritual structures.

Cultural landscapes are a product of human impacts on the environment, but the interaction goes both ways: the surrounding environment (be it a rural farm, urban community garden, or individual-size backyard plot) impacts human culture and behavior. Elements of agriculture may be normalized or incorporated into a farmer's preexisting culture or lifestyle. Agricultural activity may also present new educational and economic opportunities. In his paper “Race, Community Geography, and the Development of an Urban Agriculture Curriculum and Community Partnerships at a Predominately African-American University,” Daniel Block described a new urban agricultural initiative at Chicago State University (CSU), a predominantly African-American institution. The urban agricultural project is intended for the development of black entrepreneurship. CSU's initiative intends to use agriculture as a vehicle for professional development and entrepreneurial endeavors.

While in Los Angeles, I spent time investigating the cultural landscapes surrounding agriculture both within and outside the AAG meeting. My investigation took an experiential turn as I checked out several farmers markets throughout the city. The produce, signage, and vendors reflected cultures different from those in my hometown, and this variation was apparent through the markets' cultural landscapes. For example, I learned how to best prepare and serve cactus leaves (a plant non-native to the DC metro area). Try them in a smoothie! As local farming initiatives continue to grow and diffuse throughout the United States, I look forward to exploring the new human-environment interactions and cultural landscapes that emerge.

by CYNTHIA WEI
Assistant Director, Education and Outreach

Cynthia Wei, SESYNC’s Assistant Director of Education and Outreach, was invited to participate in the 135th annual White House Easter Egg Roll earlier this week.

The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) participated for the first time in the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 1, 2013. ASTC joined Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to provide hands-on science activities at the festivities. The challenge for all these organizations was how  to get kids interested in science amidst egg rolls, egg hunts, hula hooping, concerts, story-telling, and celebrity sightings.

The answer: start with fun. At the ASTC area, kids were enticed by hearing strange kazoo-like noises and the prospect of making a fun craft. Once the kids had come over to the tables, I introduced the science with questions: Did you know that a rubber band could be a musical instrument? Do you know how sound is created? After we made the “sound sandwiches,” I had the kids experiment by applying pressure at different points on the sound sandwich to discover how the sound changes.

What is the impact of making approximately 2,500 “sound sandwiches” on public understanding of science? That is difficult to quantify. But I can say that the impact extends beyond the kids: just as many parents and older siblings that accompanied the kids to the ASTC tables were engaged by the activity and learned a little bit of science. “Sound sandwiches” may be a long way from socio-environmental synthesis, but it illustrates how science can be incorporated into the public sphere and how interest in science and inquiry can be encouraged early and often. This is critical to all science.

by MARY SHELLEY
Digital Information Research Specialist

and MELISSA ANDREYCHEK
Communications Coordinator

Recently, a diverse group that included marine scientists, governance scholars, database developers, and management experts convened at SESYNC to address the question of under what conditions do designated marine protected areas (MPAs) improve the ecological and social conditions in coastal communities. Funded under SESYNC’s Ecosystem Services Theme, this pursuit aims to document and explain the impacts of MPAs at local, regional, and global scales and to generate scientific insights that can be used to inform both academic research and marine policy deliberations.

SESYNC appealed to the project’s principal investigators, Dr. Helen Fox of the World Wildlife Fund and Dr. Robert Pomeroy of the University of Connecticut, as the right opportunity for their research proposal because of our transdisciplinary integration of social and natural approaches to environmental problem-solving. Participants in this group are all experts in their respective fields, but, as one participant commented, no one person can possible know all available data in all fields—collaborative, integrated synthesis amongst scientists and practitioners from different disciplines can help fill knowledge niches and lead to meaningful, actionable results.

The participants’ varied backgrounds and perspectives meant that an important first step was to develop a cross-disciplinary understanding of their meeting, as well as overall research, goals. During the three-day gathering, the team coalesced around a common framework, shared vocabulary, and possible data sources and analytical approaches. They then identified the next steps to be undertaken by four interconnected, self-selected subgroups that formed in response to the broad tasks identified by the team.

We were excited to see this group make full use of our provided resources. They found our teleconferencing capabilities easy to use and were able to share screens, notes, and video with colleagues on the West Coast and in Europe. Small breakout groups frequently formed in our common area, then reconvened in plenary in our large conference room. One participant found the atmosphere of collegiality created by the physical space so appealing that he asked for the blueprints to inform a redesign at his home institution!

Our cyberinfrastructure resources will continue to support this team in accomplishing its goals between on-site meetings. The team is already making good use of the collaborative workspace and file share we provide to all groups. In addition, our IT staff is ready to support the complex data discovery and synthesis efforts of the project by advising on database design and providing remote access to our database and GIS servers.

We look forward to welcoming this group back to SESYNC for its second meeting later this year.