Category Archives: ecology

a variety of bryophyte macrophotographs

Posted in ABLS, amateur science, American Bryological and Lichenological Society, biology, Botany, bryology, bryophytes, citizen data, citizen science, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ecology, field biology, Hale Reservation, macrophotography, mosses, National Phenology Network, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, sampling algorithms, statistical ecology | 1 Comment

Botkin’s Discordant Harmonies, a comment

The 1990 book Discordant Harmonies by Daniel B Botkin, professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, is a wonderful treatment of Ecology, the subject, and Ecology, the policy, as it should be seen. Professor Botkin is first and foremost a teacher, … Continue reading

Posted in ecology, quantitative ecology | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In the field

Posted in amateur science, bryology, bryophytes, citizen data, citizen science, computational photography, digital camera, ecology, Olympus Tough TG-6, quantitative ecology | Leave a comment

Discordant harmonies in views of natural systems by The Sierra Club and others

This essay was first publish at the blog of the Green Congregation Committee, First Parish in Needham, on the Parish Realm Web site and communications board. The views obviously are those only of its author, not of First Parish or … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Association to Preserve Cape Cod, biology, Buckminster Fuller, Carl Safina, civilization, coastal communities, conservation, Daniel B Botkin, discordant harmonies, ecological disruption, ecological services, Ecological Society of America, ecology, environment, field biology, field science, First Parish in Needham, forest fires, fragmentation of ecosystems, Gaylord Nelson, George Sugihara, invasive species, Lotka-Volterra systems, marine biology, Nature's Trust, Peter del Tredici, philosophy of science, population biology, population dynamics, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, riverine flooding, shorelines, stream flow, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, unreason, water, wishful environmentalism | Tagged | Leave a comment

Why I Retired

Today’s New York Times contains an article “For Some People, Working from Home Sped Up their Decision to Retire“, by Paul Sullivan. I also retired in 2020. But my motivation was quite different. Unlike many people, I had the option … Continue reading

Posted in American Bryological and Lichenological Society, bryology, bryophytes, ecology, retirement | 2 Comments

Discordant Harmonies: Goals for a Holiday in Retirement

Claire and I are lucky enough to have won “Escape to the Cape” at the annual auction of our congregation, First Parish in Needham, courtesy of Muriel and Tom Gehman. We’ll be Tesla-ing down to Hyannisport this week to indulge. … Continue reading

Posted in #youthvgov, catastrophe modeling, climate disruption, ecology, ecomodernism, zero carbon | 3 Comments

Bryophyta and the Importance of Sphagnum for the Carbon Cycle

Posted in American Bryological and Lichenological Society, biology, bryology, bryophytes, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, climate disruption, climate emergency, ecological disruption, ecology, global warming, mosses | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

New Meetup: Massachusetts Mosses and Lichens

I have started a new Meetup group: Massachusetts Mosses and Lichens. I am inviting anyone with an interest in mosses and lichens to join in, particularly if you live in the “greater Massachusetts area”. Because of pandemic, there’ll be no … Continue reading

Posted in ABLS, American Bryological and Lichenological Society, American Statistical Association, biology, Botany, Brent Mishler, bryology, bryophytes, citizen data, citizen science, ecology, field biology, field research, field science, Hale Reservation, Janice Glime, Jerry Jenkins, lichenology, lichens, longitudinal survey of mosses, macrophotography, maths, mesh models, mosses, Nancy G Slack, National Phenology Network, population biology, population dynamics, Ralph Pope, science, spatial statistics, statistical ecology, Sue Williams, the right to know, Westwood | Leave a comment

You want to know where we really are?

This is Professor William Moomaw, Tufts, really telling you like it is. Professor Moomaw also spoke on “Food & Climate” on 11th January 2021 at the Dedham-Walpole-Westwood League of Women Voters meeting of that day.

Posted in argoecology, being carbon dioxide, Botany, bridge to somewhere, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sequestration, clear air capture of carbon dioxide, climate mitigation, ecocapitalism, ecology, Ecology Action, extended producer responsibility, fossil fuel infrastructure, global warming, greenhouse gases, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Posidonia oceanica

Reportedly, Posidonia oceanica has a tremendous capability to produce Oxygen by photosynthesis. Confirmed. Someone ought to have a look at it. Some references: Inversion of acoustic waveguide propagation features to measure oxygen synthesis by Posidonia oceanica High Net Primary Production … Continue reading

Posted in agroecology, ecological services, ecology, oceanography, Oxygen, photosynthesis, WHOI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | Leave a comment

… [T]oo detached from my natural origins to see the problem …

The proprietor of the false progress blog which I mentioned in an earlier blog post made a comment about another one of my posts. Actually, that’s not quite right in three respects. I don’t really know if it’s really the … Continue reading

Posted in afforestation, Amory Lovins, being carbon dioxide, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate policy, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, degrowth, development as anti-ecology, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecology, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, extended producer responsibility, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Green New Deal, greenhouse gases, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, lichens, luckwarmers, luckwarmism, Mark Jacobson, Mary C Wood, mosses, Nature's Trust, nuclear power, NuScale, ocean warming, On being Carbon Dioxide, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, supply chains, technology, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Reanalysis of business visits from deployments of a mobile phone app

Updated, 20th October 2020 This reports a reanalysis of data from the deployment of a mobile phone app, as reported in: M. Yauck, L.-P. Rivest, G. Rothman, “Capture-recapture methods for data on the activation of applications on mobile phones“, Journal … Continue reading

Posted in Bayesian computational methods, biology, capture-mark-recapture, capture-recapture, Christian Robert, count data regression, cumulants, diffusion, diffusion processes, Ecological Society of America, ecology, epidemiology, experimental science, field research, Gibbs Sampling, Internet measurement, Jean-Michel Marin, linear regression, mark-recapture, mathematics, maximum likelihood, Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, multilist methods, multivariate statistics, non-mechanistic modeling, non-parametric statistics, numerics, open source scientific software, Pierre-Simon Laplace, population biology, population dynamics, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, R, R statistical programming language, sampling, sampling algorithms, segmented package in R, statistical ecology, statistical models, statistical regression, statistical series, statistics, stepwise approximation, stochastic algorithms, surveys, V. M. R. Muggeo | 1 Comment

Where we be : 2019 is hot

Posted in AMETSOC, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, atmosphere, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, climate mitigation, climate policy, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, corporate supply chains, corporations, Cult of Carbon, destructive economic development, development as anti-ecology, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecology, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, emissions, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fragmentation of ecosystems, global blinding, global warming, greenhouse gases, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene | Leave a comment

A response to a post on RealClimate

(Updated 2342 EDT, 28 June 2019.) This is a response to a post on RealClimate which primarily concerned economist Ross McKitrick’s op-ed in the Financial Post condemning the geophysical community for disregarding Roger Pielke, Jr’s arguments. Pielke, in that link, … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, Bayesian, climate change, ecology, Ecology Action, environment, evidence, experimental design, Frequentist, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, machine learning, model comparison, model-free forecasting, multivariate statistics, science, science denier, statistical series, statistics, time series | Leave a comment

`Pesticide Perspective`

(This is in the main a reblog of an opinion piece by Andrew Gottlieb, APCC) May 7, 2019 Pesticide Perspective by Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director, Association to Preserve Cape Cod Fresh off the taping of a Lower Cape TV segment … Continue reading

Posted in agroecology, Anthropocene, Association to Preserve Cape Cod, Cape Cod, conservation, development as anti-ecology, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecology, environment, environmental law, extended producer responsibility, fossil fuels, herbicides, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, invasive species, life cycle sustainability analysis, lifestyle changes, pesticides, public health, public welfare, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, risk, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, the right to know | Leave a comment

Handel, 2018, “As the seas rise, can we restore our coastal habitats?”

Professor Steven Handel presents: Hint, hint: A subtle plug for allowing evolutionary dominance to advance, including permitting hearty invasive species to Do Their Thing. Indeed, it is my opinion, that the supposed plague of “invasive species” and associated regulations is … Continue reading

Posted in agroecology, Aldo Leopold, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, argoecology, Botany, bridge to somewhere, Cape Cod, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, corporations, corruption, ecological disruption, Ecological Society of America, ecology, ecopragmatism, environment, environmental law, evolution, fragmentation of ecosystems, greenwashing, herbicides, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, invasive species, living shorelines, Nature, pesticides, Peter del Tredici, population biology, population dynamics, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, regulatory capture, shorelines, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, tragedy of the horizon, wishful environmentalism, yves tille | Leave a comment

Weekend break: Theme for Earth Day

By John Williams:

Posted in agroecology, Aldo Leopold, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Statistical Association, an uncaring American public, argoecology, biology, Botany, Buckminster Fuller, climate, David Suzuki, dynamical systems, E. O. Wilson, earth, Earth Day, ecological disruption, ecological services, Ecological Society of America, ecology, Ecology Action, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, Eli Rabett, environment, Equiterre, evolution, fragmentation of ecosystems, global warming, green tech, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, invasive species, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lotka-Volterra systems, marine biology, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, microbiomes, NOAA, oceans, Peter del Tredici, Peter Diggle, Pharyngula, physical materialism, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, rate of return regulation, scientific publishing, Spaceship Earth, statistical dependence, Stefan Rahmstorf, Tamino | Leave a comment

Result of our own fiddling: Bob Watson and climate risk

Professor Bob Watson, University of East Anglia, presents the summary risk, climate change: The question is not whether the Earth’s climate will change in response to human activities, but when, where and by how much. Human activities are changing the … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, attribution, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, catastrophe modeling, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, climate grief, climate justice, ecological disruption, ecology, Ecology Action, environment, global blinding, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, meteorology, National Center for Atmospheric Research, non-parametric model, Principles of Planetary Climate, radiative forcing, reasonableness, science, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Solpad, Sonnen community, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral, water, wind energy, wind power | Leave a comment

Legacy

It should be noted that, exponential growth is a plank in the theoretical framework of modern Ecology. See L. Pásztor, Z. Botta-Dukát, G. Magyar, T. Gzárán, G. Meszéna, Theory-Based Ecology: A Darwinian approach, 2016. Dr Suzuki points out that, objectively, … Continue reading

Posted in David Suzuki, ecology, exponential growth, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology | Leave a comment

The shelf-break front, fisheries, climate change, and finding things out

From Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Support them. Claire and I do.

Posted in biology, climate change, climate disruption, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecology, global warming, oceanography, oceans, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, WHOI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | Leave a comment

“About” section of this blog has been revised, and rules of commenting made more prominent

See the About section of this blog for a revision in the blog’s description and rules governing commenting made more explicit and prominent. In fact, I have copied these at the bottom of this post. The heading of the blog … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, blog, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, CleanTechnica, climate change, ecology, Ecology Action, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, engineering, global warming, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, ILSR, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, Mark Carney, reasonableness, secularism, solar democracy, solar domination, Stewart Brand, technology, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“From Single Use to Zero Waste: What’s New with Recycling”

Wednesday, January 30, 2019, 7:00-8:30 pm, at the South Shore Natural Science Center Map: The South Shore Natural Science Center and the South Shore Recycling Cooperative (SSRC) present: This event will be live-streamed at the SSRC Facebook page.

Posted in ecology, environment, environmental law, recycling, South Shore Recycling Cooperative | Leave a comment

Winter composting: How to make friends with microbes and defy weather (podcast, too)

(Slightly updated 2019-04-08, although the podcast has not been updated to be consistent.) (This blog post is accompanied by an explanatory podcast. See below.) Many people compost. It can be easy or hard, depending upon your tolerance for turning and … Continue reading

Posted in agroecology, argoecology, Botany, Carbon Cycle, composting, ecological services, Ecological Society of America, ecology, engineering, environment, fermentation, First Parish Needham, karma, local self reliance, Nature, science, solid waste management, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, Unitarian Universalism, UU, UU Humanists, UU Needham, water as a resource | Leave a comment

`If we don’t protect Nature, we cannot protect ourselves’

Harrison Ford‘s speech, at the Climate Action Summit, below: “… Don’t forget Nature.” “If we don’t stop the destruction of our natural world, nothing else will matter.” “We need to include Nature in every corporate, state, and national climate goal.”

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, Anthropocene, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, corporate responsibility, David Suzuki, ecology, Ecology Action, global warming, Harrison Ford, Hyper Anthropocene, science | Leave a comment

“All of Monsanto’s problems just landed on Bayer” (by Chris Hughes at Bloomberg)

See Chris Hughes’ article. Monsanto has touted Roundup (also known as Glyphosate but more properly as ) as a safe remedy for weed control, often in the taming of so-called “invasive species”. It’s used on playfields where children are exposed … Continue reading

Posted in agroecology, an uncaring American public, business, corporate responsibility, ecology, Ecology Action, environment, environmental law, epidemiology, evidence, invasive species, open data, Peter del Tredici, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, risk, statistics, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, the right to know, Uncategorized, unreason, Westwood | 1 Comment

`On Records`

This is a reblog from Eli Rabett, one of the post “On Records”, with additional comments and material from the author-moderator of this blog, 667-per-cm.net: A distinguishing mark of a new record in a time series is that it exceeds … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, civilization, climate change, climate disruption, Cult of Carbon, ecology, Eli Rabett, ethics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, liberal climate deniers, Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, meteorology, Our Children's Trust, planning, pollution, quantitative ecology, radiative forcing, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, Spaceship Earth, temporal myopia, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, Victor Brovkin, wishful environmentalism | Leave a comment

climate model democracy

“One of the most interesting things about the MIP ensembles is that the mean of all the models generally has higher skill than any individual model.” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all models are created equal, that … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, attribution, Bayesian model averaging, Bloomberg, citizen science, climate, climate business, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, Climate Lab Book, climate models, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, complex systems, differential equations, disruption, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, ecology, emergent organization, ensemble methods, ensemble models, ensembles, Eric Rignot, evidence, fear uncertainty and doubt, FEMA, forecasting, free flow of labor, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, Jennifer Francis, Joe Romm, Kevin Anderson, Lévy flights, LBNL, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, mathematics, mathematics education, model-free forecasting, multivariate adaptive regression splines, National Center for Atmospheric Research, obfuscating data, oceanography, open source scientific software, optimization, perceptrons, philosophy of science, phytoplankton | Leave a comment

Aldo Leopold

We end, I think, at what might be called the standard paradox of the twentieth century: our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides. … Continue reading

Posted in Aldo Leopold, dynamical systems, ecological services, Ecological Society of America, ecology, Ecology Action, fragmentation of ecosystems, Lotka-Volterra systems, population biology, population dynamics | Leave a comment

The elephant in the room: a case for producer responsibility

This is a guest post by Claire Galkowski, Executive Director, South Shore Recycling Cooperative. With so much focus on the recycling crisis, we tend to overlook the root cause of the problem: The glut of short lived consumer products and … Continue reading

Posted in affordable mass goods, Anthropocene, chemistry, citizenship, civilization, Claire Galkowski, CleanTechnica, climate economics, consumption, corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, corporate supply chains, demand-side solutions, design science, ecological services, ecology, Ecology Action, economics, environment, ethics, extended producer responsibility, extended supply chains, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, local self reliance, materials science, municipal solid waste, rebound effect, resource producitivity, shop, solid waste management, sustainability, temporal myopia, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, tragedy of the horizon, wishful environmentalism | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

What gives me hope … And it ain’t the small stuff

AS Arman Oganisian of Stable Markets writes “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” That is a fundamentally engineering attitude. It is fundamentally about the economics, and, in particular, the dramatic drop in levelized cost of energy for wind and renewables, … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, biology, bridge to somewhere, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, ecological services, ecology, Ecology Action, economic trade, economics, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, Green Tech Media, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, Sankey diagram, smart data, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Sonnen community, the energy of the people, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, wind energy, wind power, wishful environmentalism, zero carbon | Leave a comment