Categories: Alaska · ES&H · Eskimo · digest · environmental change · more than thought · rural · teachers
Tagged: 13C4, Bumsted, careful thought etc
environmental change] New WWF Report Available – Arctic Climate Impact Science
Categories: Alaska · ES&H · anthropology · digest · environmental change · health · more than thought · organizational culture · planning · rural · sanitation · solid waste
Tagged: 13C4, Biocultural Science, Bumsted
[In process]
Background*
Part 1**
Part 2*** From a follow-up to the newslist discussion about anthropology and climate change–
Q. “So…what can we do to solve this problem? Can we think like engineers?”
Please, don’t. Not even anthropological engineers. For example, see this — (more…)
Categories: AI/AN · Alaska · Eskimo · Kuskokwim · NZ · New Mexico · Pueblo · anthropology · communities · environmental change · planning · public involvement · sanitation · sciencing · solid waste
Tagged: 13C4, Biocultural Science, Bumsted
[In process]
Background*
Part 1**
Part 2*** [separate post]
I think there is a need for anthropological perspective in any issue of human existence.
It is a sad irony that the discipline (science) which is most comprehensive and fundamental (science is a human activity and the basic science of human activity is anthropology) has often seemed through its profession association to be narrowly focussed and consequently irrelevant.
Last month, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) accompanied the chairwoman of the Disaster Recovery subcommittee, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) to another hearing, in Anchorage, about the few places in Alaska designated for US Army Corps of Engineers environmental management [sic].
The anthropologists are about to have their annual conference in Washington DC and will be exercised about the U.S. Army recruiting anthropologists (Human Terrain Systems). On the other hand, Barack Obama is hip to Margaret Mead “Obama demonstrated that he understood the reasons why America for decades (think of the Bay of Pigs invasion) has made gravely serious national security decisions based on laughably inaccurate intelligence.”
Meanwhile, none of our western Alaska or Mississippi deltas is taken seriously. “Rush Limbaugh adds Alaskan to polarizing efforts.”
The best the state of Alaska has done so far is issue an official pass to a non-existent mass disease shelter in the region’s pandemic preparedness exercise this year (flu shot clinic).
I think if Governor Palin actually had a scientific advisor to her environmental sub-cabinet especially from rural Alaska or if Landrieu and Stevens could earmark enough funding out of the millions for the Corps mission in Alaska to pay for scientific support for the Unorganized Borough [over half of Alaska's area, 970,500 km² (374,712 square miles), an area larger than France and Germany combined], this actually would be more effective than the endless photo-op and news stories about polar bears without ice.
How do we bring attention to the need for comprehensive analysis, assessment, and action on environmental change? No one would think of building a levee without an engineer, why are we doing relocation and reconstruction of communities — in Alaska and Louisiana / Mississippi — without a human scientist / human ecologist (anthropologist)?
[This analogy would work better if I didn't already know that someone in DC thought of managing emergencies with a horse show announcer.] At the very least we need to aggregate the existing knowledge that we know full well must be included, whether for a northern or a southern delta.
It may not be a direct plus for NOLA– my records precede Katrina and I read Voices of New Orleans. If all the people and power and money there can’t get trailers that the Feds are allowed to inspect — but I think the imaginative scale in Alaska would be easier to actually test many of these concepts and approaches.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (more…)
Categories: Alaska · Kuskokwim · LANL · anthropology · communities · environmental change · nuclear · organizational culture · planning · public involvement · sciencing
Tagged: 13C4, Biocultural Science
Mercury used to be part of the preservation technique in museums, as a bug killer. This makes analyzing museum specimens for environmental change difficult (pre- and post-industrial; regional ecological change in water, temperature, etc over time using stable nuclides; etc.) There was an interesting study on Berlin museum specimens (feathers) for mercury pollution in the urban environments some 20 years ago. [References in deep storage, I'm afraid. And NIH, DOE, and NSF have never been interested in funding chemical ecology modelling of long-term human environmental change made possible via stable nuclides.] I have another reference I will find about the hazards of handling museum specimens which have been curated in the outmoded manner for pest control and not for environmental heritage.
CDC: Antiques Can Pose Mercury Hazard from the Miami Herald (Registration Required)
ALBANY, N.Y. — Careful with that antique clock. It could pose a mercury hazard. The silvery, skittering, and toxic liquid can be found in some antiques. Mirrors can be backed with mercury and tin; Clock pendulums might be weighted with embedded vials of mercury; and barometers, thermometers and lamps may have mercury in their bases for ballast.
The problem is that mercury in old items can leak, particularly as seals age or when the items are moved, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ask Ann Smith, whose heirloom clock’s pendulum leaked mercury onto the carpet of her gift store in rural Delhi, N.Y., as a cleaner moved it. An attempt to vacuum the tiny silver balls off the carpet only made things worse, requiring a hazardous materials team to be dispatched to Parker House Gifts and Accessories last summer.
To read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/144213.html Or: http://tinyurl.com/3aym8u
Site Search Tags: CDC, mercury, hazardous, museum, antique, Hg, stable+nuclides
Categories: HazArt · environmental change
First inhabitants were told by the first people not to set up a permanent residence on this bank. They didn’t listen then or now. Many people still think throwing heavy metal contaminated vehicles into a river will save their skivvies.
| Where is… Bethel coastline 22nd century |
Beautiful Bethel postcard courtesy of Tom Sadowski and Jimmie Froehlich
Go to TomSadowski.com where you can click on the “postcards” link.
There, I would like to say would be many postcard stories with which to regale yourself. However, the postcard link does not work because I haven’t even started on that page!
Site Search Tags: Bethel+Alaska, erosion, cars, riverbank, rip-rap, Tom+Sadowski, Jimmie+Froehlich, On+the+Road+to+Tok, SWMP, trash, melt-rush
Categories: Alaska · Kuskokwim · environmental change · solid waste
Tagged: 13C4, Biocultural Science, Bumsted
It’s amazing just how many languages (and dichos) would fit this. I first ran across this in New Mexico in 1991 very apropos at that time RE: women in the highway and environment departments. The specific source is in deep storage (still) but I’m hoping the creator will recognize it and let me know.
In Alaska I’ve heard, “you’re too thoughtful” and “you can’t expect them to understand…”
View the comments for other suggestions or to add your own. Also, the comments contain trackbacks to interesting sites.
Please note that this image has a copyright, for non-commercial distribution with attribution.
Click the title below to enlarge. It should print well on 8.5 by 11 paper for handouts.
50ReasonsNot2
If you’d like to display a thumbnail, copy the thumbnail below to your site and code it like this
<a href="http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/" title="50 reasons not to change source"><img src="http://yoursite.com/50-reason-notto2.thumbnail.jpg/> click to see original</a>
<p><a href="http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/">http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/</a>from MP Bumsted, Biocultural Science & Management</p>
Site Search Tags: culture+change, organizational+change, organizational+culture, directed+cultural+change, biocultural+adaptation, public+involvement, community+based+participatory+research, CBR, CBPR, 50+Reasons+Not+to+Change
Categories: 50 Reasons Not to Change · New Mexico · environmental change · organizational culture · public involvement
Tagged: 13C4, Biocultural Science, Bumsted
What is supposed to work in schools, similarly with alcohol control and Wall Street, seems to operate on belief rather than an examination of what is and then formulating testable ideas on what, if anything, needs doing. Belief is an important factor in “what works”. However, critical thinking and careful use of statistics, among other attributes of sciencing such as multiple working hypotheses, are important to keep us all honest. In the situation of pandemic fatal or crippling disease, wishful thinking or “denial” won’t keep us, at all.
Schools
Advocates of using pay to improve teacher performance grow excited over the addition of federal money to supplement local district pay incentives. But maybe they shouldn’t. Contrary to other provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), there is little research to demonstrate that paying a few teachers more will improve student performance. [...]
Alaska perspective
Understanding what is right and wrong with the current institutional environment would seem, therefore, to be the key to understanding why spending and performance are not positively correlated.
- Additional spending is no fix for school -
http://www.adn.com/money/story/8614922p-8507446c.html
Binge drinking, not alcoholism
* Many people assume that most people who drink to excess are probably alcoholics.
* A recent survey of 4,761 New Mexico adults found that while 16.5 percent drank alcohol in excess of national guidelines, only 1.8 percent met criteria for alcohol dependence.
* This suggests that a majority of persons at risk for alcohol-related problems are not alcohol dependent.Most people realize that too much alcohol can lead to multiple health problems, injuries and violence. Numerous statistics support the accuracy of this perception. Many people also assume that a substantial proportion of people who drink to excess are probably alcoholics. This may not be accurate. A recent study of the general population in New Mexico reveals that, in fact, most alcohol-related problems may be due to excessive drinking – especially binge drinking – among persons who are not alcoholics.
The irresistible power of magical thinking
New research demonstrates that habits of so-called magical thinking — the belief, for instance, that wishing harm on a loathed colleague or relative might make him sick — are far more common than people acknowledge.
even at Los Alamos National Laboratory (UC-LANS UC-LANL) and Congress
The representatives love to lash out at Los Alamos without ever addressing the really important problems facing the lab.
They call for more security, more bureaucracy, more procedures, more manuals and more oversight. This was a tradition started by former director Pete Nanos who shutdown the lab for six months to “fix it”. Somehow this culture of “more” is meant to lead an efficient, lean lab.
Site Search Tags: NCLB, performance, schools, statistics, magic, H5N1, alcohol+control, binge
Technorati Tags: NCLB, performance, schools, statistics, magic, H5N1, alcohol+control, binge
Categories: LANL · environmental change · organizational culture · sciencing · teachers
This really belongs with the post but I only just located it.
mpb
DATE: May 8, 1986
IN REPLY TO: CHM-1/86-349-MPB
Chemistry Division
NAME, ADDRESS
The enclosed document, NUCLEAR WINTER: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF HUMAN SURVIVAL, may be of interest to you as a professional in [public communication] [or public policy] . These proceedings result from an invited session of the American Anthropological Association annual meetings held in Washington, DC, December 6, 1985. The scientific session was an interdisciplinary discussion among senior anthropologists, a physical scientist involved in global climate modelling, and myself of the contributions anthropology can make to the scientific discussion of the long-term consequences of nuclear war.
Current scientific discussions of the long-term environmental consequences of nuclear war only partially evaluate the impact on human existence and continuity. Anthropologists are generally not participants in the institutional communities or other sciences which provide the scientific and technical advice on issues of national defense. Anthropology can contribute its expertise concerning the cultural and biological adaptability of humans and the comprehensive nature and evolution of human existence.
An audience of approximately 100 anthropologists and others participated in the discussions. This session is the first and remains the only discussion of Nuclear Winter to focus explicitly on impacts to humans. Other discussions have focused on the non-human environment or on limited aspects of human society which can result in misleading or inaccurate conclusions about effects on human biological and cultural systems.
Discussion also ranged over whether such matters should be discussed at all, the roles of science and policy in contemporary US society, the nature of uncertainty, the need for anthropological models of nuclear winter comparable to the physical models, and the value of anthropological assessment and input to discussions of nuclear war.
We consider our discussions beginnings, not conclusions, to an anthropological assessment of Nuclear Winter. There are as yet no formal, integrative studies of the long-term consequences of Nuclear Winter for humans by public or private agencies.
If you wish further information on this topic, please contact the authors.
Sincerely,
M. Pamela Bumsted
Categories: LANL · anthropology · environmental change · published
Tagged: 13C4, Analytical Anthropology, Biocultural Science, Bumsted
I’ve put the set of photos up on Flickr. These can be used to illustrate problems and solutions to solid waste management and sanitation. I have not finished the annotations, but Flickr members may go ahead and comment. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a good way for non-Flickr members to add to the discussion there. I think what I can possibly do is to post here about sub-groups of photos and diagrams, with thumbnails, so readers may discuss here.
revised 2008-10-13 I set up a group for others to contribute to at Toilets and Trash in the Last Frontier (Alaska) – http://flickr.com/groups/786092@N20/ (I can’t afford to renew the Flickr Pro account yet, but I think the group should be accessible to other Flickr members to add to and for the non-Flickrs to view).
Neither trash nor toilets are insurmountable problems, despite what many believe. However, sanitation takes thought in order for the solutions to age-old problems to be sustainable for eons to come. In particular, whether for the arid and semi-arid regions of Alaska or New Mexico, the low-relief coastal areas of the south Pacific or of the south Bering, we must devise systems which are self-sufficient and appropriate to our communities and ecology. In addition, it is likely to involve some hard choices in how we live, especially as our population grows and our environment changes.
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, An Alaskan Challenge: Native Village Sanitation, OTA-ENV–591 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, May 1994).
NTIS order #PB94-181013
GPO stock #052-003-01372-0
available in pdf format here
or here
Categories: AI/AN · Alaska · New Mexico · communities · environmental change · health · planning · rural · sanitation · solid waste
In 1985 I put together a panel of scientific experts to identify what the human effects of a nuclear weapons exchange might mean (as far as I know, still the only such report) and then assisted in the discussion in New Zealand.
I moved from the antipodes to the antipodes.
Star Wars or the Strategic Defense Initiative of the Reagan era moved north to Alaska (“north to the future” or the last gasp of yesterday?)
Missile defense system alters an outpost
Four years after President Bush ordered a limited missile defense system to be built and nearly a quarter century after Ronald Reagan first proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, this sub-Arctic outpost, once a Cold War training site and still a cold-weather training site, is where progress on the long-embattled missile system is perhaps most evident, military officials say….Eleven interceptor missiles are installed in underground silos here, buried beneath the snow and a former forest of black spruce. This summer, when North Korea signaled that it planned to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, Fort Greely, which has never fired a test missile, was put on alert status, ostensibly ready to respond if necessary….
Fort Greely’s missile defense system has not been declared fully operational.
Even as questions persist about capability, the missile defense program is pushing forward at a cost of at least $9 billion a year…. Fort Greely is better situated to interrupt the likely flight path of a missile from Asia or the Middle East….
FORT GREELY: About 1,700 troops, contractors and families will make it their destination. By WILLIAM YARDLEY, The New York Times, Published: December 11, 2006
- http://www.adn.com/news/military/story/ 8484552p-8378247c.html
As noted previously, southwestern Alaska and the Aleutians are the (only) areas of the USA which are within range of missiles which might be tipped with the newest set of nuclear weapons.
Two updated research reports on the global effect of even a regional nuclear weapon explosion or exchange has been released. The original report was known as the TTAPS report, after the initials of its authors. The climatic effects were known then as Nuclear Winter. Two of those authors contribute to this newest modelling report. The first set of references below are to the three, slightly different press releases. Below them are how these press releases were followed up by the news media.
Like all models (even our own idea of how winter should progress each year) they are only good as predictors as our assumptions. However, most models, like our idea of winter weather, are designed to help us plan and be ready; to see the larger picture; to play experiment beyond our imagination. Modelling in the natural world isn’t causative; doesn’t cause the event to happen just because we think about it [despite what some academics believe.]
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Regional nuclear war would trigger mass death, devastating climate change
Even a small-scale regional nuclear war could produce as many fatalities as all of World War II, disrupt the global climate for a decade or more and impact nearly every person on Earth, according to two new studies by University of Colorado at Boulder, Rutgers University and University of California, Los Angeles researchers.
Presented at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco Dec. 11 and published Nov. 22 in the online journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, the two studies represent the first quantitative assessment of the consequences of a nuclear conflict between small or emerging nuclear powers, said CU-Boulder Professor Owen “Brian” Toon. Toon led the studies, working with UCLA Professor Richard Turco, Rutgers professors Alan Robock and Georgiy Stenchikov, CU-Boulder doctoral student Charles Bardeen and former Rutgers student Luke Oman, now a postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University.
“Considering the relatively small number and yields of the weapons, the potential devastation would be catastrophic and long term,” said Toon, chair of CU-Boulder’s atmospheric and oceanic sciences department….
The results represent the first comprehensive analysis of the consequences of a nuclear conflict between smaller nuclear states, said Toon, who noted even the smallest nuclear powers today likely have 50 or more Hiroshima-sized weapons. In addition, about 40 countries possess enough plutonium, uranium or a combination of both to construct substantial nuclear arsenals. “A small country is likely to direct its weapons against population centers to maximize damage and achieve the greatest advantage,” Toon said….
The second paper, titled “Climatic Consequences of Regional Nuclear Conflicts,” looks at the effects of the smoke produced in a regional war between two opposing nations in the subtropics, said lead author Robock. The researchers modeled the effects on each country using 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons to attack the most populated urban areas of an enemy nation.
Because of the complexity of the problem and limited amount of data available, the research team assessed uncertainty factors at each step in their analysis and emphasized further research is needed to improve the paper’s predictions.
Regional nuclear war could devastate global climate
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Even a small-scale, regional nuclear war could produce as many direct fatalities as all of World War II and disrupt the global climate for a decade or more, with environmental effects that could be devastating for everyone on Earth, university researchers have found.As in the case with earlier nuclear winter calculations, large climatic effects would occur in regions far removed from the target areas or the countries involved in the conflict.
When Robock and his team applied their climate model to calibrate the recorded response to the 1912 eruptions of Katmai volcano in Alaska, they found that observed temperature anomalies were accurately reproduced.
The papers are: “Atmospheric Effects and Societal Consequences of Regional Scale Nuclear Conflicts and Acts of Individual Terrorism,” O. B. Toon, R. P. Turco, A. Robock, C. Bardeen, L. Oman and G. L. Stenchikov, and “Climatic Consequences of Regional Nuclear Conflicts,” A. Robock. L. Oman, G. L. Stenchikov, O. B. Toon, C. Bardeen and R. P. Turco.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regional nuclear war could spark climate change
12 Dec 2006 Source: Reuters, By Adam Tanner
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 11 (Reuters) – New scientific modeling shows that a regional nuclear conflict between countries such as India and Pakistan could spark devastating climate changes worldwide, a team of researchers said on Monday.
“We are at a perilous crossroads,” said Owen Toon of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. “The current combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability and urban demographics form perhaps the greatest danger to the stability of society since the dawn of humanity.”
Toon was one of the scientists who warned in the 1980s of a “nuclear winter” should the United States and Soviet Union engage in a nuclear conflict.
The demise of the Soviet Union has reduced such a threat, but using supercomputing analysis not available two decades ago, the team calculated a devastating impact from the exchange of 100 nuclear weapons — an amount they said represented the potential of India and Pakistan….
“This is not a solution to global warming because you have to look at the devastating climate changes,” said Alan Robock of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers, who has studied the impact of climatic change from regional nuclear war.
“The main point here is that while most people think that we are on a path of reduced probability of war with the build down of the superpowers and we are on a trend toward a peaceful century, we actually have the opposite situation going on.”…
Scientists say even a regional nuclear war could do severe environmental damage
(2 comments; last comment posted Today 04:26 pm) By ALICIA CHANG | Associated Press, December 11, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Some of the scientists who first advanced the controversial “nuclear winter” theory more than two decades ago have come up with another bleak forecast: Even a regional nuclear war would devastate the environment…. Using modern climate and population models…Some climate experts not connected with the research questioned some of the assumptions made in the studies.
For example, the studies assume that smoke is mostly made up of soot. But other organic particles could cause smoke to scatter and not stay aloft in the atmosphere as long, lessening the impact…
The late astronomer Carl Sagan and four colleagues developed the nuclear winter theory…
The cooldown would shorten the growing season by about a month in parts of North America, Europe and Asia. Normal rainfall patterns such as summer monsoons in Africa and Southeast Asia would be disrupted, possibly causing huge crop failures.
In addition, the ozone layer, which keeps out harmful ultraviolet radiation, would shrink more than 20 percent, with the poles seeing a 70 percent reduction.
Small nuclear conflict could affect globe, report says
By John Johnson Jr., Times Staff Writer, December 12, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO — Even a small nuclear conflict could have catastrophic environmental and societal consequences, extending the death toll far beyond the number of people killed directly by bombs, according to the first comprehensive climatic analysis of a regional nuclear war…
While a small nuclear exchange might not trigger a life-ending “nuclear winter,” it could cause as much death as was once predicted for a nuclear war … “These results are quite surprising,” Toon said…. Regional nuclear conflicts “can endanger entire populations” the way it was once thought only worldwide conflict could…
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There are other papers, too at the “ACPD – Papers in Open Discussion”, including one on Asian dust composition (which also reaches southwest Alaska
American Geophysical Union
Technorati Tags: nuclear+war, nuclear+winter, climate+change, war, disaster, adaptability, biocultural, planning, Carl+Sagan, LANL, Bateson, Nader, Armelagos, Los+Alamos, Star+Wars, Strategic+Defense, missile+defense, anthropology, TTAPS
Categories: anthropology · environmental change · nuclear · planning
Tagged: 13C4, Analytical Anthropology, Biocultural Science, Bumsted
Anthropological Aspects of “New Zealand after Nuclear War” [1987-1988]
Comments on the findings of the book, NZ after NW, are due to the Minister of the Environment by 27 November 1987. Written ideas for an anthropological submission to the Ministry are needed by 5 November to M. Pamela Bumsted.
References and background material are located in the Piddington library, main library, or UGRR.
- Green, Wren, Tony Cairns, and Judith Wright (NZ Planning Council) 1987 New Zealand After Nuclear War ISBN: 0 908601 56 5
Several copies are available in the department. [See also http://www.soundarchives.co.nz/search
/search-results.asp?form=adsearch&Keyword=NUCLEAR%20WAR]- newsclips of reports in New Zealand (in the biological anthropology media file in Piddington)
- Bumsted, et al. 1986 Nuclear Winter: The Anthropology of Human Survival (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
- Bunzel & Parsons 1964 In Current Anthropology 5:430ff [see http://www.publicanthropology.org/Archive/Ca1964.htm
At the Women and Anthropology Group open meeting three reasons were identified for including anthropology in policy discussions
Categories: NZ · anthropology · communities · environmental change · nuclear · planning · public involvement
Tagged: 13C4, Analytical Anthropology, Biocultural Science, Bumsted
Stable carbon isotopes do not date but nevertheless lead full lives. mpb
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