"Resilience theory, first introduced by Canadian ecologist C.S. 'Buzz' Holling in 1973, begins with two radical premises. The first is that humans and nature are strongly coupled and co-evolving, and should therefore be conceived of as one 'social-ecological' system. The second is that the long-held assumption that systems respond to change in a linear, predictable fashion is simply wrong. According to resilience thinking, systems are in constant flux; they are highly unpredictable and self-organizing, with feedbacks across time and space. In the jargon of theorists, they are complex adaptive systems, exhibiting the hallmarks of complexity.

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In this fascinating article for Seed Magazine, Maywa Montenegro considers the potential use value of resilience theory as the globe becomes a more urban place


Merging complex systems science and ecology, resiliencescientists have broken new ground on understanding—and preserving—natural ecosystems. Now, as more and more people move into urban hubs, they are bringing this novel science to the city


Some should read this

Four-and-a-half years ago, Hurricane Katrina plowed into the coast of Louisiana, pummeling New Orleans for eight hours straight with high-speed winds and storm surges reaching 15 feet. Swollen beyond capacity, Lake Pontchartrain spilled into the northern part of the city, and the federal flood protection system, built to protect NOLA from a repeat of Hurricane Andrew, failed in more than 50 places. One day later, nearly every levee in the metro district had been breached, leaving 80 percent of the city underwater.
In the aftermath, Americans watched in disbelief as thousands of newly homeless poured into the Superdome for shelter and TV cameras captured those left behind clinging to rooftops, wading through the streets, and looting empty storefronts. Scenes of destruction, desperation, and poverty, made only more poignant by the overwhelming evidence of official negligence. New Orleanians themselves, as the New York Times put it, were left “terrified, stunned, gasping, speechless.”........

The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans About Pisco

The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans is a long-term ecosystem research and monitoring program established with the goals of:

understanding dynamics of the coastal ocean ecosystem along the U.S. west coast
sharing that knowledge so ocean managers and policy makers can take science‐based decisions regarding coastal and marine stewardship
producing a new generation of scientists trained in interdisciplinary collaborative approaches
Over the last 10 years, PISCO has successfully built a unique research program that combines complementary disciplines to answer critical environmental questions and inform management and policy. Activities are conducted at the latitudinal scale of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem along the west coast of North America, but anchored around the dynamics of coastal, hardbottom habitats and the oceanography of the nearshore ocean – among the most productive and diverse components of this ecosystem. The program integrates studies of changes in the ocean environment through ecological monitoring and experiments. Scientists examine the causes and consequences of ecosystem changes over spatial scales that are the most relevant to marine species and management, but largely unstudied elsewhere.

Findings are linked to solutions through a growing portfolio of tools for policy and management decisions. The time from scientific discovery to policy change is greatly reduced by coordinated, efficient links between scientists and key decision makers.


Read further ..

Why the Oil Spill May Be the Greatest Test of Obama's Presidency

Can the president seize this moment to move boldly on the biggest question facing the world: our endless addiction to fossil fuel.
May 5, 2010


For one thing, it's not his fault, even if he did agree a month ago to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. That bad judgment hasn't had time to do any damage yet.
And even if the administration was slow off the mark in responding, they're clearly pouring every asset they've got into the fight to save the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. That fight will be played out over many months, and in the end there may be simply nothing anyone can do to turn the tide......

Brazil and U.S. Ranked Worst for Environmental Impact

Oil spill to reach Europe, Arctic

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is gradually finding its way toward Europe and the Arctic to damage, endangering wider ecological basins, scientists say...