Cultivating Trust in GMO Science: Moving past the deficit model to productive and participatory science education

Most scientists believe GMOs are safe for human consumption, but a majority of the American public remains unconvinced. I argue that this lack of trust stems from scientists\u27 outdated approach to science communication, namely the deficit model. Instead of seeing the public as empty vessels waiting to be filled with scientific knowledge, the scientific community must recognize that many strongly held beliefs about science issues are socially situated. Only through genuine attempts at participatory, two-way conversations with the public can the scientific community come to understand how public values influence GMO acceptance. While these actions will necessitate a redefining of the GMO scientific community and are sure to be difficult and intimidating, they are vital for ensuring GMOs will be available as a tool to address the needs of a growing global population and a changing climate

Tasmania together and growing Victoria together : can state plans deliver environmental sustainability?

Sustainability has always been a contested term, environmental sustainability in particular. It presents challenges and opportunities for policy making at all levels. This paper suggests that state plans have a key role to play in the pursuit of sustainability. It argues that, in theory, sustainability requires well integrated, interactive, informed and informing, as well as institutionalised policy processes. It reviews state plans in Tasmania and Victoria to analyse their capacity for delivering sustainability. Tasmania Together and Crowing Victoria Together are very different plans, so very different conclusions are drawn here, however we find that both of them lack the explicit political and policy commitment to sustainability that is required to turn rhetoric into state planning practice.<br /

Lesson Plan For Teaching Tobias Wolff\u27s That Room

Developed by a Swarthmore College student, Kate Crowley, with feedback from Professor Peter Schmidt, as a final assignment in English 71D, The Short Story in the U.S., fall 2014

Delivering Public Services: Locality, Learning and Reciprocity in Place Based Practice

Policymakers across myriad jurisdictions are grappling with the challenge of complex policy problems. Multi-faceted, complex, and seemingly intractable, ‘wicked’ problems have exhausted the repertoire of the standard policy approaches. In response, governments are increasingly looking for new options, and one approach that has gained significant scholarly interest, along with increasing attention from practitioners, is ‘place-based’ solutions. This paper surveys conceptual aspects of this approach. It describes practices in comparable jurisdictions – the UK, the EU and the US. And it explores efforts over the past decade to ‘localise’ Indigenous services. It sketches the governance challenge in migrating from top-down or principal-agent arrangements towards place-based practice. The paper concludes that many of the building blocks for this shift already exist but that these need to be re-oriented around ‘learning’. Funding and other administrative protocols may also ultimately need to be redefined

Silver Linings at the Dawn of a ‘Golden Age'

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank the editors at Frontiers for their support and patience, and the careful consideration two reviewers gave to this manuscript. MJW would like to acknowledge that, at Fairbanks, he is working on the ancestral land of Troth Yeddha’, home of the Lower Tanana people. He would also like to acknowledge that the lands on which he does his work are the ancestral lands of the Dené people who stewarded those lands for thousands of years and continue to steward those lands, further he would like to thank them and respect their enduring relationship to their homelands.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Editorial: A Golden Age for Strontium Isotope Research? Current Advances in Paleoecological and Archaeological Research

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cultural Heritage and Urban Resilience in Scotland: Co- Designing Extreme Rainfall Impact Assessment Tools for Adaptation

No abstract available

Flagship individuals in biodiversity conservation

Flagship species are an important tool for mobilizing support for conservation. Here, we extend this concept to include individual organisms, whose characteristics, fates, and connections to people can garner public attention, attract conservation support, and spur activism. Flagship individuals typically share a similar suite of characteristics, including (1) species-level traits associated with charisma; (2) individual traits that are unique or distinctive; (3) a high degree of exposure to humans; and (4) a known, noteworthy life history or fate. The interplay between these characteristics and human agency establishes unique connections between flagship individuals and people, and generates widespread media attention. We discuss how the selection and promotion of flagship individuals can inspire empathy and, ultimately, conservation action. Finally, we identify the limitations of the flagship individual approach, while arguing that, if carefully and strategically implemented, it has the potential to produce substantial benefits for conservation policy and practice

An Example of How Community Participation can be Successfully Incorporated into the Disaster Risk Assessment Process, Aotearoa-New Zealand

During disasters, exposed communities bear the brunt of impacts and are first to respond. People of these communities obtain local and/or indigenous understanding of locally-specific challenges and opportunities, which no external expert could derive alone. Community-based, participatory disaster risk assessments involve participation of people who may be directly impacted by disasters, to: encourage sharing of valuable local knowledge, empower communities and local authorities to reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen capacities, and to form Disaster Risk Reduction initiatives that are well-informed and invested in by those involved. Kristie-Lee Thomas, a Master of Disaster Risk and Resilience student at the University of Canterbury and her supervision cohort set out to assess tsunami risk to her tūrangawaewae, Wharekauri - the Chatham Islands. This assessment was carried out for, with and by the Chatham Islands community to engender community-led action to reduce future tsunami impact. The study involved: a) Hazard assessment, including an investigation of historical tsunami impacts and inundation extents preserved in local archives and Māori knowledge. b) Assessment of potential impacts on infrastructure, to evaluate resultant levels of services based on expert judgment from local infrastructure personnel to form a credible high-impact tsunami scenario. c) Sharing this information with the community to co-develop actions to reduce future tsunami impact through participatory tools during workshops. Participation of the Chatham Islands community throughout the risk assessment process produced useful and usable outcomes. The study provides a demonstrable application of how community participation can be successfully incorporated into the disaster risk assessment process