Climate Marching is not “foolishness”
The reasons for Climate Marching are to bring attention to a discourse that should be free of political ideology, but the critical reality is that ideology-free science has produced the incommensurable position that Climate change and more specifically global warming is empirically true — verifiable and testable
What is both disappointing and enervating for activism is the reactionary discourse legitimating RW media, citing unwarranted worry and suppressing research and action on serious malleable threats.
My interests currently are in environmental histories informed by the history of science as they become reflected in policy analysis and modeled by geospatial information science. This piece introduces an ecocriticism for one aspect of the climate change discourse beginning with polar bears and wind and generalizing to the need to discuss ecological history with respect to the intersection of human transgressions. The polar ice melt from Climate Change makes the polar bear not so much a canary in a coal mine as an iceberg in the Northwest Passage.
Conservative discourse, as virtue signaling, continues to frame science activism as unnecessary, because it should STFU and let the corporations decide what’s good for the world, private property being nine-tenths of the law.
For example, National Review’s Ben Shapiro (formerly of Breitbart Media of course) is no different, demonizing the progressive political basis for discussing climate change as a “leftist religion” and as though capitalismtm is exempt from criticism, and science had no social basis for its progress. Darn that Galileo.
Such is the pathological Trumpian branding, as though one can exempt RW virtue signaling and its racist ideology had no relationship to the nativist appeals of traditionalism. National Review is the go-to source for RW polar bear mockery, apparently, as that animal is their propaganda archetype for logical fallacies. So much RW wind, signifying nothing.
Some comments from National Review on polar bears:
No, not testable hypotheses and well-constructed experiments. Science™! You know, like gay rights and abortion and global redistributionism and dying polar bears ’n’ stuff…
That’s why the March for Science is such foolishness. If the march were simply focused on advocacy for increased EPA funding, that would be political, not scientific; if the marchers were demanding more funding for the NIH, that too would be political, but with a stronger scientific component.
But the March for Science was actually a march for Science™: The Leftist Religion — and that leftist religion isn’t interested in science in the slightest. It’s simplistic and simple-minded virtue signaling.
The culture is shot through with bear propaganda. Coca-Cola runs elegant Christmastime cartoons of polar-bear families celebrating the season. Never mind that polar bears don’t live in intact nuclear families. The males are cads who spend a few days with the single white females before scampering off to spend the rest of their lives as deadbeat dads. Also, if the supply of adorable (yet tasty!) seals runs low, the males have been known to eat bear cubs.
Steven Amstrup, chief scientist at Polar Bears International, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying polar bears, agreed and added that seeing a skinny bear in the wild is not altogether uncommon. “We know that animals in the wild don’t live forever,” he said. “Polar bears, they don’t have natural enemies, so when they die it’s of starvation.” There are several polar bear populations that aren’t very well studied, so it’s impossible to say that polar bears are generally struggling because of climate change, Rode said. “There has been no study that I know of that said more bears starve specifically as a result of climate change,” she added. “There have been models of that, but there has been no empirical data to support that.”
Armstrup does suggest that polar bears are starving at higher rates because of climate change, but “you can’t say that any one individual is starving because of climate change.”
This week’s Blogathon has hopefully given us a sense of the richness and the necessity to mobilize not only for Science, but for Climate Change because the threats are far more absolute and more serious than the reactionary rantings of those invested in the biopower of suppressing environmental policy dissent.
Critical realism and environmental histories are connected as interdisciplinary practices. Similarly, critical approaches to landscape aesthetics are less about beauty than they are about the object/subject relation of landscape ecology, particularly as a space of ecogovernmentality. In that same way it’s less about individual polar bear starvation or their population as it is their changing habitat, measured not by starvation but by the polar bear ‘s altered physiology as a sign that climate change alters arctic wind in a much larger scale and a systematic, ecological context.
The problem unconsidered by RW science is that there are differences between unwarranted worries and serious but malleable threats. Profits and their maximizable relation to wealth define how one thinks about polar bears, especially for conservatives, because their science seems more determined by cost/benefit and less about sustainability.
For the polar bear, it is not just about the actual shrinking of the ice but the changes to windscape since cross-wind searching is a key feature in their foraging. Those windscapes affect other wildlife and are symptomatic of changes in the shrinking polar ice.
The reason bears use smells on the hunt is “because winds can carry odours across the complex icescape,” according to the study. Experts have known that polar bears use scent to hunt but these findings quantify that idea. And it’s been proposed that other animals use similar hunting techniques.
But if climate change caused Arctic winds to blow faster, it may interfere with polar bears’ ability to hunt using their noses. There’s also less sea ice in their environment for the animals to rely upon.
“Because of changes that are occurring environmentally, the polar bears have a decreased body condition (and) lower fat reserves,” Togunov told the
Edmonton Journal. “This might be another thing that might lead to polar bears being in worse condition and more aggressive toward humans.”
- In the larger interdisciplinary project, windscape models for mapping ecogovernmentality are as essential as basic mapping.
- It is important to consider that the abstract windscape is not identical to concrete windscape, but shares unworrying effects as well as malleable threats including the disappearance of ice due to commerce and climate change.
- It includes not only observing the habitat change using wind change but thinking about wind in the larger context of energy sustainability. A “tunnel-vision” on policy allows for the creation of conscious contradictions most evident in Trumpian NIMBY-nationalism, as though a trade war over Canadian softwood might not have some other political economic implications.
- Windscapes are both habitat features and guides of a natural governmentality or an ecogovernmentality where climate change is a radical human transgression on global ecology.
- The ecological web is a complex system of spatial and temporal scale and dynamics, unappreciated by those concerned primarily with value extraction.
Why should you Climate March? Because the stupid people and their “alternative facts” even about polar bears have gained a temporary advantage with time running out.
Support the Daily Kos SciCli blogathon during the April 22-28 week of action promoting the April 29 People’s Climate March with stories on how science and climate change are affecting our lives and our planet.
For background on the SciCli Blogathon and the Week of action visit boatsie’s diary from 4/17, Besame’s from 4/20, and onomastic’s from 4/21.
Sign up for the Washington, D.C. march or find a march near you.
If you’d like to march with other readers of Daily Kos, visit Connect! Unite! Act! (7:30 AM Pacific) for march locations. Send navajo a Kos mail or leave a message in the comments.
On April 29, let’s march for jobs, justice, and the climate
- Saturday, April 22 all times are PDT
2:30 pm: Cracks in Greenland ice-sheet may link up and break off DarkSyde
5:00 pm: Peoples Climate March just one piece of the resistance against lethal eco-policies. Meteor Blades
9:00 am: People's Climate March next Saturday. Run on Sunday. RLMiller
2:30 pm: SciCli Blogathon: "I can't believe we're marching for facts" Edition (#ScienceMarchSF Photo Essay) citisven
5:00 pm: Climate change: Be Positive. It’s Important. John Crapper
2:30 pm: I Resist in Miami Because We Provide the 1st Glimpse Into Future Climate Mayhem Pakalolo
5:00 pm: Resist,Rebel, and Revolt for Earth, Wind, Water: Climate March on Sat., 4/29 2thanks
10:45 am: Toosdai Critters Speak Out Samanthab
5:00 pm: Had We But World Enough And Time . . . Besame
2:30 pm: Climate Change is Making the World Friendlier for Mosquitoes, Diseases, and Death Dartagnan
5:00 pm: There Is No Safe Place (not even Michigan) peregrine kate
2:30 pm: As of today, we’ve got a number to march for: 100% Renewable Energy Bill McKibben
5:00 pm: WarrenS Man With Sign — 85 Weeks on the Edge
2:30 pm: Tamar Why Is A Not Environmentally-Knowledgeable Person Writing This? Climate March 4/29
5:00 pm: annieli
Climate Hawks Vote is hosting a training for leaders of the climate movement who are considering running for office on April 30, the day after the People’s Climate March. Read more about the training at People's Climate March next Saturday. Run on Sunday.
Below is some of the harder stuff including the science and the theory
Below is some of the harder stuff including the science and the theory
Ecogovernmentality, (or environmentality), is the application of Foucault's concepts of biopower and governmentality to the analysis of the regulation of social interactions with the natural world.
Since about 2002, scholars have analyzed the discourses surrounding global climate change and related policies using ideas from Foucault and from ecogovernmentality.
This subfield or application of ecogovernmentality developed first by applying Foucauldean thought to analysis of national and international climate regimes, identifying categories and methodologies that work particularly well for climate change issues.
As the application of ecogovernmentality to climate change has evolved, the principles of the theory have also been applied — in appropriately modified ways — to studies of state and local government as well as private and nonprofit organizations.
Ecogovernmentality-grounded theories and methods of analysis have also begun to emerge as tools for examining climate change in fields outside political economy, such as communications and international relations…
Also in 2006, Maria Carmen Lemos collaborated with Agrawal on a comprehensive summary of environmental governance studies to that date.[5] They divided the applications of these studies into two categories: resource management and climate change. Among other useful insights, their work provided a clear schematic for classifying new, hybrid forms of environmental governance and identifying where these forms derive their power — that is, from combinations of the state, the community, and the market.
Ecogovernmentality where the human political economy in an ecology is an evolutionary economic superstructure interoperating with a environmental base. It is based in an interdisciplinary approach to ecological problems like the changing Arctic climate which is not only about ice but about wind.
When polar bears are looking for their next meal, the wind points them in the right direction. But climate change might one day take away that crucial tool in the bears’ hunt for seals to eat.
That’s according to a study in the journal Scientific Reports, for which researchers followed dozens of adult polar bears and studied wind patterns for more than 10 years at Canada’s Hudson Bay. That large body of water in the northeastern part of the country is just outside the Arctic Circle, above the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec and bordering Nunavut. Scientists say it is at risk if climate conditions on Earth change because, among other consequences, Arctic winds would pick up.
- The theoretical optimal olfactory search strategy is to move cross-wind. Empirical evidence supporting wind-associated directionality among carnivores, however, is sparse. We examined satellite-linked telemetry movement data of adult female polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from Hudson Bay, Canada, in relation to modelled winds, in an effort to understand olfactory search for prey. In our results, the predicted cross-wind movement occurred most frequently at night during winter, the time when most hunting occurs, while downwind movement dominated during fast winds, which impede olfaction. Migration during sea ice freeze-up and break-up was also correlated with wind. A lack of orientation during summer, a period with few food resources, likely reflected reduced cross-wind search. Our findings represent the first quantitative description of anemotaxis, orientation to wind, for cross-wind search in a large carnivore. The methods are widely applicable to olfactory predators and their prey. We suggest windscapes be included as a habitat feature in habitat selection models for olfactory animals when evaluating what is considered available habitat.
Surface wind speeds and directions were modelled by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and obtained from the NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution System (NOMADS) (http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/data/gfsanl/)57. Biases in the wind direction estimates were identified by comparing model outputs to empirical wind measured at the Churchill Airport, Manitoba (58.74°N, 94.07°W). Empirical wind data at six hour intervals were obtained from http://climate.weather.gc.ca/ (accessed on October 15, 2015).
NCEP generates gridded wind estimates at 6 hour intervals at 1° resolution (approximately 55 km longitude and 111 km latitude). To maximise the fit of wind data to movement data, only locations ≤4 hours apart were used. As the times and coordinates of both wind and movement data were not synchronized, wind data were spatially and temporally interpolated to match coordinates of bear locations.
First, the wind was spatially interpolated to the location of the bear using inverse-distance weighting both before and after the time of a bear location58. Because wind estimates are both uniformly distributed in space (across a 1° grid) and have low resolution, the four wind estimates adjacent to a bear’s location were used.
Second, the two spatial estimates were linearly interpolated to match the time of the location fix.
Birds are also part of the construction of a windscape
In conclusion, our study shows higher flight costs in northern
gannets while foraging compared with travelling. Yet we also clearly
identify windscape as a component strongly shaping the flight costs
of northern gannets. Travelling at low wind speeds can therefore be
more costly than foraging at high wind speeds. This clearly
illustrates how wind speed and direction shape the seascape of
marine predators, just as landscape affects the movement costs of
terrestrial animals (Wall et al., 2006).
jeb.biologists.org/...
Advanced technology allows the more precise mapping of wind
Wind field data is essential for the accurate prediction of forest fire spread. For the accurate prediction of local wind field we developed computational fluid dynamics simulation procedure. Using terrain and wind information as input data three dimensional computational mesh is automatically generated. GIS data of the format DEM(Digital Elevation Map) is directly converted to quad surface mesh and full hexahedral space mesh is automatically generated. Around this mesh we made extended computational domain.
Open source CFD program, OpenFOAM is used for the flow solver. Atmospheric flow boundary condition is used at inlet and roughness length is considered at terrain by rough wall function. Simple Graphic User Interface of mesh generation is developed for user convenience. Hill named Saebyul-Orum in Cheju Island is simulated and we compared the results with measured data. The validation cases shows high quality grid, easy of use, good robustness and accuracy.
This program can be applied to wind environment analysis and forest fire spread prediction. For better accurate result Large Eddy Simulation will be studied in future research. And for more convenience, development of direct interface among this CFD program and GIS database program.
The political economy of wind can be viewed from an energy perspective, but like wind power’s relation to a grid, it is a larger system of resources made complicated by late capitalism.
Ecology (from Greek: οἶκος, "house" or "living relations"; -λογία, "study of") is the scientific study of the distributions, abundance and relations of organisms and their interactions with the environment.[1] Ecology includes the study of plant and animal populations, plant and animal communities and ecosystems. Ecosystems describe the web or network of relations among organisms at different scales of organization. Since ecology refers to any form of biodiversity, ecologists research everything from tiny bacteria's role in nutrient recycling to the effects of tropical rain forest on the Earth's atmosphere. The discipline of ecology emerged from the natural sciences in the late 19th century. Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, or environmental science.[1][2][3] Ecology is closely related to the disciplines of physiology, evolution, genetics and behavior.[4]
Like many of the natural sciences, a conceptual understanding of ecology is found in the broader details of study, including:
- life processes explaining adaptations
- distribution and abundance of organisms
- the movement of materials and energy through living communities
- the successional development of ecosystems, and
- the abundance and distribution of biodiversity in context of the environment.[1][2][3]
Ecology is distinguished from natural history, which deals primarily with the descriptive study of organisms. It is a sub-discipline of biology, which is the study of life.
There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agriculture, forestry, fisheries), city planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, basic & applied science and it provides a conceptual framework for understanding and researching human social interaction (human ecology).[5][6][7][8]
environment-ecology.com/...
Modern ecological theory
Opinions differ on who was the founder of modern ecological theory. Some mark Haeckel's definition as the beginning,[208] others say it was Eugen Warming with the writing of Oecology of Plants: An Introduction to the Study of Plant Communities (1895).[209] Ecology may also be thought to have begun with Carl Linnaeus' research principals on the economy of nature that matured in the early 18th century.[73][210] He founded an early branch of ecological study he called the economy of nature.[73] The works of Linnaeus influenced Darwin in The Origin of Species where he adopted the usage of Linnaeus' phrase on the economy or polity of nature.[211] Linnaeus made the first to attempt to define the balance of nature, which had previously been held as an assumption rather than formulated as a testable hypothesis. Haeckel, who admired Darwin's work, defined ecology in reference to the economy of nature which has led some to question if ecology is synonymous with Linnaeus' concepts for the economy of nature.[210] Biogeographer Alexander von Humbolt was also foundational and was among the first to recognize ecological gradients and alluded to the modern ecological law of species to area relationships.[212][213]
Critical Realism and Climate Change
...the conceptual framework developed by Bhaskar and Danermark, and that of critical realism generally (including not only basic or original critical realism, but also dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality) can cast illuminating light on contemporary problems of understanding and dealing with climate change.
Chapter 1, ‘Contexts of interdisciplinarity’, by Roy Bhaskar, argues that only a comprehensive and articulated interdisciplinary approach can do justice to pressing questions of climate change; and that the philosophical approach of critical realism, or something equivalent to it, is required to intellectually sustain and practically develop such an interdisciplinarity.
That is to say, critical realism is uniquely capable of situating the weaknesses of actualist, reductionist, monodisciplinary accounts of science, and the necessity for interdisciplinary work in dealing with complex concrete phenomena such as climate change.
In the first part of the chapter, after elucidating the basis of disciplinarity in science, Bhaskar rehearses the progressive argument for multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and cross-disciplinary understanding. The resulting concept of a laminated system pinpoints the meshing of explanatory mechanisms at several different levels of reality and possible orders of scale.
The chapter then goes on to consider the articulation of laminated systems, making use of the expanded conceptual frameworks of dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality.
Turning to the social domain, the chapter argues for the necessity of a conception of four-planar social being, at potentially up to seven orders of scale, and for a view of social life as concept dependent but not concept exhausted, so paving the way for critical discourse analysis.
Having developed the concepts necessary for the reconstruction of contemporary discourse on climate change, Bhaskar turns to the forms of its critique, including immanent, ommisive and explanatory critique and rearticulates a standpoint of concrete utopianism, arguing that a key role for intellectuals consists in the envisaging of alternative possible futures for humanity.
Support the Daily Kos SciCli blogathon during the April 22-28 week of action promoting the April 29 People’s Climate March with stories on how science and climate change are affecting our lives and our planet.
For background on the SciCli Blogathon and the Week of action visit boatsie’s diary from 4/17, Besame’s from 4/20, and onomastic’s from 4/21.
Sign up for the Washington, D.C. march or find a march near you.
If you’d like to march with other readers of Daily Kos, visit Connect! Unite! Act! (7:30 AM Pacific) for march locations. Send navajo a Kos mail or leave a message in the comments.
On April 29, let’s march for jobs, justice, and the climate
- Saturday, April 22 all times are PDT
2:30 pm: Cracks in Greenland ice-sheet may link up and break off DarkSyde
5:00 pm: Peoples Climate March just one piece of the resistance against lethal eco-policies. Meteor Blades
9:00 am: People's Climate March next Saturday. Run on Sunday. RLMiller
2:30 pm: SciCli Blogathon: "I can't believe we're marching for facts" Edition (#ScienceMarchSF Photo Essay) citisven
5:00 pm: Climate change: Be Positive. It’s Important. John Crapper
2:30 pm: I Resist in Miami Because We Provide the 1st Glimpse Into Future Climate Mayhem Pakalolo
5:00 pm: Resist,Rebel, and Revolt for Earth, Wind, Water: Climate March on Sat., 4/29 2thanks
10:45 am: Toosdai Critters Speak Out Samanthab
5:00 pm: Had We But World Enough And Time . . . Besame
2:30 pm: Climate Change is Making the World Friendlier for Mosquitoes, Diseases, and Death Dartagnan
5:00 pm: There Is No Safe Place (not even Michigan) peregrine kate
2:30 pm: As of today, we’ve got a number to march for: 100% Renewable Energy Bill McKibben
5:00 pm: WarrenS Man With Sign — 85 Weeks on the Edge
2:30 pm: Tamar Why Is A Not Environmentally-Knowledgeable Person Writing This? Climate March 4/29
5:00 pm: annieli
Climate Hawks Vote is hosting a training for leaders of the climate movement who are considering running for office on April 30, the day after the People’s Climate March. Read more about the training at People's Climate March Saturday. Run on Sunday.