PRIMUS/Informed Cities: Making research work for local sustainability

The final report of a three year European Commission FP7 project

Carbon encounters: cognizing the calculus of climate change

Thesis (M.A. (Anthropology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, 2016.Governments, like South Africa, are implementing carbon tax and carbon credit programs to incent businesses to lower their GHG emissions. That is not to say there are not loftier motivations in the wider world, but in this study we have mostly encountered Homo Economicus. Our observations have noted that people either want to make money or save money by way of participating in the green economy. Earth’s threatening posture is yet to change our “habitus”. The changes so far are from economic coercion and not ecological conviction. And it’s primarily prompted through the scientific community, who are understandably, the first responders to a threat with slow and mostly imperceptible reverberations. The responses of those trying to make money, involve participating in the process of carbon commodification. CERs are a new form of currency available to those able to deploy labor and capital in efforts to capture carbon molecules and prevent their creation. The looming South African carbon tax has spurred organizations to lower their emissions so as not to effect bottom-line profitability. [Taken from the conclusion. No abstract provided]MT201

Transition in place: dynamics, possibilities, and constraints

The Transition Movement is a translocal phenomenon circulated through transnational grassroots networks. This study explores the geographies of the Transition Movement with a theoretical framework that perceives it as both a social movement and a grassroots innovation. Participant-observation of Transition Salt Lake (TSL), located in the suburban metropolis of Salt Lake City, Utah, was conducted, as the United States remains a largely understudied country in regards to this particular movement. In this pursuit, we asked: (i) how and what this transition initiative draws from geographically extensive and intensive relations, (ii) how it combines place-specific elements and generalized models (embeddedness), and (iii) how this impacts the success of the transition initiative and how these impacts (positive or negative) are generated. Place, space, and scale played a large role in defining the nature, dynamics, possibilities, and constraints of this transition initiative. Specifically, geographically intensive and extensive relations were critical for the mobilization of complementary resources. The Transition model was found to be flexible, allowing for the initiative to adopt those elements that worked in place and to focus on locally relevant topics. TSL faced many challenges identified by previous researchers regarding finances, participation, diversity, and intragroup competition. While networking with other similar groups, TSL demonstrated that fertile environments of activism are incubatory pools for grassroots innovations and social movements, and a trade-off was found with competition for resources between local groups

The Emergent Politics of Geoengineering

This thesis examines the role of science in the earliest stages of the political process. It does this by studying the emergence of ‘geoengineering’ on the political agenda. The term describes a set of ideas on how to stabilize global temperature by intervening into the Earth’s natural systems, and was subject to a strong taboo in the scientific community until the mid-2000s. Yet within a decade, it has become relevant to international climate politics. To understand how this transition took place, the thesis uses mixed methods to study the causal mechanisms by which geoengineering became an object of governance. Paper I describes the internal dynamics of a scientific community that helped transform geoengineering into a distinct, salient and malleable governance object. It explains how social cohesion, brokerage and diversity acted as important mechanisms in this process. Paper II studies the role of authoritative scientific assessments in making geoengineering a normal and relevant topic for research. It shows how such assessments act as a form of de facto governance in shaping the activities of a research landscape. Paper III identifies similarities and differences in the way that different sub-areas of climate change policy are governed. It suggests that, if a problem structure is perceived to be malign, this makes it less conducive to public governance. Conversely, if a problem structure comes to be perceived as more benign, this facilitates public governance. Paper IV examines the role of problem definition and ‘institutional fit’, evaluating how geoengineering matches with the expectations of government actors. It discusses three areas where such fit is lacking, and how this makes it difficult for government officials to form a political position on geoengineering. The results of this study flow into the description of a pattern that seems to be important at many different stages of the opinion-shaping process. This pattern includes the introduction of a topic to a new audience; the audience’s heated debate around this topic; the intervention of an actor with authority; and the streamlining of the audience’s debate according to the authoritative actor’s judgement. Found at many different levels of the political process, the pattern may explain why some topics become subject to political decision making, and others do not

Minutes of the CD-ROM Workshop

The workshop described in this document had two goals: (1) to establish guidelines for the CD-ROM as a tool to distribute datasets; and (2) to evaluate current scientific CD-ROM projects as an archive. Workshop attendees were urged to coordinate with European groups to develop CD-ROM, which is already available at low cost in the U.S., as a distribution medium for astronomical datasets. It was noted that NASA has made the CD Publisher at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) available to the scientific community when the Publisher is not needed for NASA work. NSSDC's goal is to provide the Publisher's user with the hardware and software tools needed to design a user's dataset for distribution. This includes producing a master CD and copies. The prerequisite premastering process is described, as well as guidelines for CD-ROM construction. The production of discs was evaluated. CD-ROM projects, guidelines, and problems of the technology were discussed

Crummer/Suntrust Portfolio: Analysis and Recommendations [2009]

The first consideration was determining the amount of risk that should be taken. At present, the portfolio has a defensive position, guarding against a turbulent economy. However, as the portfolio trades only once a year, the question facing the team was when the market will rebound. If we believe the market will rebound between now and May, 2010, it would be prudent to position the portfolio more aggressively than it is currently allocated. Conversely, if the market remains uncertain, continuing a defensive position is sensible. The determination of the team was to take a more aggressive position than the portfolio has in its current form, but to approach that added risk judiciously. The team still believes there is a relationship between risk and return; however, the fiduciary responsibility to provide scholarship funding dictates that the team remain conservative. The goal is to position the portfolio for success in the event of a market recovery while also guarding against significant losses in the event of a prolonged recession. To accomplish this, each company in the portfolio has been scrutinized regarding their fundamentals, cash positions, dividend policies, and overall risk of bankruptcy. Generally speaking, only companies with strong cash positions and consistent, sustainable dividend policies have been included. Additionally, a z-statistic was evaluated for the companies in the portfolio to quantify their risk of bankruptcy, and the companies we are keeping remain fundamentally sound. The portfolio will essentially be rebalanced toward market weighting. The key growth sectors in the portfolio will be healthcare and technology, with energy also being overweighted compared to the market. Financials, will potentially selling at a value, are still risky in the team’s opinion, and that sector has been cut to slightly below market weight. Finally, the team is reallocating some money from our fixed asset portfolio back into equities. The current portfolio consists of 70% equities and 30% bonds, representing roughly $580,000 for the total portfolio. The team is shifting 5 percent from bonds to equities for a 75-25 breakdown. The bond portfolio will also have a greater allocation in corporate bonds, moving away from low-yield treasuries. If the market does not begin to recover during the next year, the portfolio is still guarded against significant losses. However, if a recovery does occur, and no action is taken this year, there will be no opportunity to trade again until May, 2010, missing significant gains that may occur during that time. The suggested allocation takes sensible risks while maintaining the fiduciary responsibility needed in managing this portfolio

The UCF Report, Vol. 03 No. 26, February 25, 1981

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