Tag: Ecosystem Services
Strike of the Dzud: How Conservation Can Help Mongolia’s Herders
Written by Evan Girvetz | April 19th, 2010
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50% of all Mongolia’s livestock could be dead by spring — victims of a drought-freeze punch known as a dzud. How could grassland conservation help herders cope with such climate-change intensified phenomena?
World Water Day 2010: A River Runs Through It
Written by Jeff Opperman | March 22nd, 2010
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Monday was World Water Day — celebrate by learning more about the importance of water for our livelihoods…and how you can act on that knowledge.
Ecosystem Services: Enclosing Nature’s Commons?
Written by Rob McDonald | March 1st, 2010
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“Ecosystem services” is an exciting new buzz term in conservation — valuing nature for what it gives us. But when for-profit groups start privatizing nature, what happens to the poor?
Cool Green Morning: Wednesday, February 17
Written by Nicole Levins | February 17th, 2010
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Time for your daily dose of the day’s coolest, greenest news. Open wide:
- One way to make the Olympics greener: Hold them in the same place. (Grist)
- Riding in coach is generally less comfortable than business class, but it turns out the carbon footprint is way smaller. (Guardian)
- How much is nature worth in real, actual dollars? (GreenBiz)
- A 12-year-old American boy is working to save the okapi, one of Africa’s most elusive and unusual animals. (Mongabay)
- A research team is figuring out how we can abandon batteries– but will the substitute more be sustainable? (Spoiler alert: We don’t know yet.) (CleanTechnica)
What Should We Call What Nature Provides Us?
Written by Bob Lalasz | January 22nd, 2010
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We need one inspiring phrase that expresses everything nature gives to human beings — agriculture, drinking water, clean air, recreation, aesthetic pleasure and more. “Natural Capital?” “Nature’s Benefits?” “Natural Life-Support?” “Environmental Value?” Tell us — you could really help us convince others that nature is life itself!
Domesticating Nature…and Ourselves
Written by Rob McDonald | December 15th, 2009
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I work on the ecosystem services team at The Nature Conservancy, which strives to find ways to protect and strengthen the services that nature provides that are crucial to human well-being while also protecting biodiversity. But there are at least two definitions of “ecosystem service” floating around the conservation community. And within the tension between [...]
Wisdom from the Mouths of Babes: Feeling Better through Conservation
Written by Jeff Opperman | September 24th, 2009
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I was tucking my five-year-old daughter into bed and, as kids tend to do, she launched into a series of questions — part curiosity, part stalling tactic. Her topic that night was employment, and she asked why various people did what they did, such as: “Why is Aunt Amy a doctor?” I mustered a response [...]
Conservation? The Economy? People? It’s All the Same Conversation
Written by Rebecca Goldman | September 2nd, 2009
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There is a growing demand from science, from policy and from conservation itself to include people in conservation. In the meantime, conservationists are still trying to figure out how to best conserve habitats and species and now how to do this with climate change. Now we’re piling on people, too? But I would argue that [...]
Adapting to Climate Change? Don’t Forget People
Written by Rebecca Goldman | August 4th, 2009
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I am guessing that few if any people reading this would picture people when they think about an ecosystem. I know when I think ecosystems, I think plants, animals, rivers, etc., but not people. Ecosystems are about nature. People aren’t nature, right? But, by definition, there is nothing that excludes people from being part of [...]
Will We Repair Our Green Infrastructure?
Written by Rob McDonald | July 16th, 2009
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The Amtrak train sits idle in the station, as the passengers alternately make cell phone calls from the platform or drink warm beer from their seats. There’s a gas leak ahead along the tracks in Baltimore, and the whole Northeast rail corridor is shut down. Coming on the heels of the June crash in the [...]
