Manifolds covered by Euclidean space

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22106/1/0000533.pd

Impacts of land use/land cover change on climate and future research priorities

Several recommendations have been proposed for detecting land use and land cover change (LULCC) on the environment from, observed climatic records and to modeling to improve its understanding and its impacts on climate. Researchers need to detect LULCCs accurately at appropriate scales within a specified time period to better understand their impacts on climate and provide improved estimates of future climate. The US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) can be helpful in monitoring impacts of LULCC on near-surface atmospheric conditions, including temperature. The USCRN measures temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and ground or skin temperature. It is recommended that the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and other climate monitoring agencies develop plans and seek funds to address any monitoring biases that are identified and for which detailed analyses have not been completed

Facing up to Complexity: Implications for Our Social Experiments

Biological systems are highly complex, and for this reason there is a considerable degree of uncertainty as to the consequences of making significant interventions into their workings. Since a number of new technologies are already impinging on living systems, including our bodies, many of us have become participants in large-scale “social experiments”. I will discuss biological complexity and its relevance to the technologies that brought us BSE/vCJD and the controversy over GM foods. Then I will consider some of the complexities of our social dynamics, and argue for making a shift from using the precautionary principle to employing the approach of evaluating the introduction of new technologies by conceiving of them as social experiments