ecology

From the Sacramento Bee Viewpoints: Fires can be restorative, unlike heavy logging

Katie Valentine and Ryan Koronowski of ThinkProgress uncover what oil companies (and snow) have been keeping secret. A Canadian oil company still hasn’t been able to stop a series leaks from underground wells at a tar sands operation in Cold Lake, Alberta. The first leak was reported on May 20, with three others following in the weeks after — making it at least 10 weeks that oil has been flowing unabated.

Observation and Ecology author Rafe Sagarin discusses art and the environment with poet Eric Magrane from the University of Arizona. Eric Magrane: Rafe, you write and speak about observation, most pointedly in your bookObservation and Ecology, with Aníbal Pauchard. I’d like to discuss the way that observation interacts as a hinge between science—and particularly environmental science—as a way of seeing and understanding the world, and art as a way of seeing.

Some of the best science stories seem to emerge in a three step process.  Step 1: Someone points out an error in your thinking, or you can’t let go of a nagging feeling that somehow you are wrong about what you think your data are telling you. Step 2: In a deep, and sometimes painful, exploration of what went wrong with your own analysis, you discover a systematic error in the way whole groups of researchers are thinking about the issue.  Step 3: The new story you are able to tell by looking at the data fresh turns out to be more interesting than the standard account.