Reading+Notes

__Values Are a Good Thing in Conservation Biology:__
Key Points:
 * 1) Should scientist be involved in public policy debates?
 * 2) Personal Bias and areas of study
 * 3) Scientific advocacy
 * 4) Credibility
 * 5) Nonhuman vs human beings

Quotes:
 * //"Too few scientists openly acknowledge experiential and emotional factors that attracted them to their science in the first place."//
 * //"The key to honest advocacy is the willingness to question our own assumptions and change our opinions when compelling evidence suggests we should."//
 * //"an interactive, social activity in which multiple forms of reasoning and evidence, together with critical discussion, take place among a diverse scientific community”//
 * //"The right-wing, wise-use Web sites are full of claims that conservation biology is not a science, but a religious crusade.We will never change these people’s minds, no matter how cautious we are. And it would be a mistake to take these fools too seriously."//
 * //"the status quo is producing the sixth great mass extinction in the history of Earth. This is unacceptable"//

Questions
 * 1) How did political science begin as an educational degree? Did that mark the beginning of the separation of political figures having expertise/ occupations outside of politics?

__ National Science Foundation Advisory Committee For Environmental Research and Education, Transitions and Tipping Points in Complex Environmental Systems, 2009. __
Key Points: --- Massive pdf froze my browser twice. Wait for class discussion. Quotes: Questions:

__Religion and Environment__
Key Points: Quotes: Questions:
 * 1) Religion and ecology is a growing field
 * 2) Change in religious tradition
 * 3) Science and Religion
 * (THESIS) "The field is usually called “religion and ecology,” although not without controversy. Since 1991, that has been the name of the American Academy of Religion’s program group in the area."

__Hot Spots and Hot Moments in Scientific Collaborations and Social Movements__
Key Points: Keywords: Quotes: Questions
 * 1) Emotions are essential but little understood components of research
 * 2) Tension between originality and tradition when it comes to science
 * 3) Study of coherent groups can advance understanding of the relationship between ideas and emotions in civic social movements
 * 4) Resilience Theory
 * 5) Emotion, Commitment, and Creativity
 * 6) RA size, personality, discipline, background, ego, and interests
 * 7) The Malta Incident: the divide on the approach of interpreting systems
 * 8) Getting big while remaining small
 * **SIMs**: Scientific and intellectual social movements
 * **Resilience Alliance (RA)**: high profile research network operating as a coherent group in eco systems
 * **Coherent Groups**: small, tightly woven groups of researchers oriented toward common intellectual goals who work together in opposition to current intellectual trends
 * **Resilience Theory**:
 * the amount of change a system can absorb while maintaining its structure and function
 * its capacity for self organization
 * its capacity for learning and adaptation
 * "Any thinking, to be emotionless, must be independent of monetary and personal mood, and flow from the average mood of the collective. This concept of absolutely emotionless thinking is meaningless." - Ludwik Fleck ([1935] 1979;49)
 * "Study of coherent groups can therefore advance understanding of the relationship between ideas and emotions in civic social movements"
 * "they were very, very knowledgeable, experts in their field. They were curious about and enjoyed efforts to mutually discover something...And third, they had fun."
 * "Social movements occur in two ways (1) critical communities develop new ideas and values regarding a social problem and a prescription for fixing it; then (2) movement leaders from outside the group spread this conceptual framework and recruit adherents into a mass social movement."
 * [Clarification] collaboration is not the same as an RA?
 * Data: when they say they 'coded' for emotional energy, what is this exact process of coding? What is the method used?
 * Using N Vivo - a qualitative analysis software program
 * Sociologist reviews
 * By removing the political aspects could the UN potentially form an effective RA? Is removing the political even necessary? Is the political barriers towards initiating a SIM simply a necessary part of the discussion?

__Thinking "Resilience"__
Key Points: Quotes: Questions:
 * 1) Shift to the ideal that humans control their environment (exploitation) led to global issues
 * "Resilience which is defined as the capacity of a system to withstand disturbance while still retaining its fundamental structure, function, and internal feedbacks"