The MAHB, the Culture Gap, and Some Really Inconvenient Truths

Humanity's failure to take adequate actions to stem a likely environmental collapse calls for extraordinary measures to understand and alter human behavior, argues Paul Ehrlich. His Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB) aims to chart the path to a sustainable future

Habitat conversion and global avian biodiversity loss

The magnitude of the impacts of human activities on global biodiversity has been documented at several organizational levels. However, although there have been numerous studies of the effects of local-scale changes in land use (e.g. logging) on the abundance of groups of organisms, broader continental or global-scale analyses addressing the same basic issues remain largely wanting. None the less, changing patterns of land use, associated with the appropriation of increasing proportions of net primary productivity by the human population, seem likely not simply to have reduced the diversity of life, but also to have reduced the carrying capacity of the environment in terms of the numbers of other organisms that it can sustain. Here, we estimate the size of the existing global breeding bird population, and then make a first approximation as to how much this has been modified as a consequence of land-use changes wrought by human activities. Summing numbers across different land-use classes gives a best current estimate of a global population of less than 100 billion breeding bird individuals. Applying the same methodology to estimates of original land-use distributions suggests that conservatively this may represent a loss of between a fifth and a quarter of pre-agricultural bird numbers. This loss is shared across a range of temperate and tropical land-use types

Notification of pesticide poisoning in the western Cape, 1987 - 1991

There is a paucity of data on pesticide-related morbidity and mortality in South Africa. A review of notifications to the western Cape office of the Department of National Health and Population Development from 1987 to 1991 was undertaken to describe the epidemiological profile of pesticide poisoning in the region. Two hundred and twenty five cases of pesticide poisoning were identified, of which the majority were from rural areas. Farmers, farm workers and their families were most frequently involved in poisoning events, which included accidents arising outside of workplace production (44%), self-inflicted injury (35%) and direct occupational contamination (11%). Farm pesticide stores were the most frequent source of pesticide and a seasonal variation in the trend of poisoning events could be discerned; this corresponded to agricultural spraying practices in the region. The mortality rate was significantly higher among those with self-inflicted injury, particularly farm workers. A concurrent review of hospital admissions for 1991 found that 78% of cases had not been notified. In view of the key role of surveillance in reducing pesticide-related morbidity and mortality, a call is made to improve notification of pesticide poisoning so as to facilitate control of an important potential public health problem

Bunge’s Mathematical Structuralism Is Not a Fiction

In this paper, I explore Bunge’s fictionism in philosophy of mathematics. After an overview of Bunge’s views, in particular his mathematical structuralism, I argue that the comparison between mathematical objects and fictions ultimately fails. I then sketch a different ontology for mathematics, based on Thomasson’s metaphysical work. I conclude that mathematics deserves its own ontology, and that, in the end, much work remains to be done to clarify the various forms of dependence that are involved in mathematical knowledge, in particular its dependence on mental/brain states and material objects

Demanding stories: television coverage of sustainability, climate change and material demand

This paper explores the past, present and future role of broadcasting, above all via the medium of television, in shaping how societies talk, think about and act on climate change and sustainability issues. The paper explores these broad themes via a focus on the important but relatively neglected issue of material demand and opportunities for its reduction. It takes the outputs and decision-making of one of the world’s most influential broadcasters, the BBC, as its primary focus. The paper considers these themes in terms of stories, touching on some of the broader societal frames of understanding into which they can be grouped. Media decision-makers and producers from a range of genres frequently return to the centrality of ‘story’ in the development, commissioning and production of an idea. With reference to specific examples of programming, and drawing on interviews with media practitioners, the paper considers the challenges of generating broadcast stories that can inspire engagement in issues around climate change, and specifically material demand. The concluding section proposes actions and approaches that might help to establish material demand reduction as a prominent way of thinking about climate change and environmental issues more widely. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’