Assignments

You have two parts to this assignment leading into your “final exam” (the final is due May 8th). This first part is to consider a variety of “world views” (also called zeitgeist in German), and then describe your own (in a paragraph or two). To be able to do this, please look at some definitions and descriptions of “zeitgeist” and “world views” on your friendly local internet. I could give you my own, but before I do that I want to tell you about the second part of the assignment because it is related... though different.

The second part asks you to look at your “ontological” position relative to these big and small issues that we have been considering this semester. Ontology is the study of how humans (is there any other species?) find meaning. Philosophers are very familiar with this word, but probably not too many natural scientists. I would also recommend a quick journey to your local library to find out a bit more about ontology. This relates to my question about evaluating your “ontological” position relative to conservation. I think that it is very important to understand your own ontological position relative to specific projects that you may be engaged in. Is this just a fancy, academic way of asking “what is your perspective” on an issue, or “where are you coming from?” Perhaps, but I think that separating “where are you coming?” from into world view and ontology, helps deconstruct a complex set of feelings, values, perspectives, knowledge, and contradictions that invariably arise if you really get deeply involved in a project.

A small example may help with understanding what I’m asking you to do. Some of you are involved in developing an assessment and recommendations for a parcel of land in South Burlington and Shelburne. A group of residents want to develop this as a place to education children in both communities about where their food comes from and how important of local foods are in the local economy. This group has incorporated itself as “Common Roots,” a non-profit, educational organization [501(c)(3) tax status]. Their world view (and I know that many of you are sympathetic with it) is that growing food has been industrialized, commercialized, and globalized to the extent that people eating the food are disconnected from its origins. In addition, the quality of the food (both its nutritional value and its toxic load) is an issue with the Common Roots folks suspecting that declining food quality is an accompanying cost of this indus-commer-globalization process.

Is this a fact, or a world view? Many degreed nutritionist, EPA toxicologists, and agronomists would argue that these are not facts. Some sociologists might argue that 21st Century urbanites are only DIFFERENTLY connected to the origins of food. Rural residents see a shorter “food chain” for some of the products that they eat, and urban residents don’t often get to see the actual farm. What you see (or what data you collect), and how you tell the story, varies as a function of your world view. Do you see an impersonal industrial system delivering genetically uniform food, or do you see an incredibly efficient and productive technological food system feeding billions with pest-free, safe and nutritious food. What story do you want to tell your children? The goal here is not to critique anyone’s world view, but only to suggest that we all need to be aware of it and how it changes the stories that you tell. World view is certainly part of “bias” but it doesn’t end here.

Food does indeed come from a refrigerator as a sociological reality. What part of the food chain we value more -- from the carbon atoms in the air, to the planting of seeds, through the photosynthesis of organic carbon, to the living tissue or fruits, to the transport to distribution centers, to the delivery to the supermarket, to the grocery cart, to the car bringing it home to the refrigerator -- varies from person to person. So while our world view biases how we see and understand something, our ontological position describes more about what we find important about any phenomena or activity. We may find meaning in being close to the earth and watching our food grow, or we may find meaning strolling the isles of food-filled shelves choosing colorfully packaged and tasty products from a myriad of countries. It may surprise and make you feel special that this attractive bit of food has traveled thousands of miles, touched by many hands, just for your pleasure. We may find meaning in our local social context and connections to people providing products in our local community, or in the power of reaching out all over the planet to get what you want. This is also “bias” but the root of the bias is not our world view, but our ontological position.

Finally, our world view and ontological position are not entirely separate, but are connected in complex ways. Our world views are not simple and clear, but contain multiple contradictions (replace the “or” in the above with “and”). Our many ways of finding meaning are also complex and not without internal inconsistencies. Articulating all of this is tough, but it shouldn’t prevent us from trying. Hence your task.

WHERE should you put your ramblings on world view and ontological position? I’ve set up a place on the WIKI, and called it “Zeitgeist.” https://conservation21.wikispaces.com/ Just start out with your name and then write (you might want to cut and paste so that someone doesn’t steal your lock if you take too long. I think it would be helpful to put all of our paragraphs on the same page so we can scroll through the whole in a single document. I also didn’t make this assignment on the blog, because the Wiki is “private” and the Blog is readable by everyone with an internet connection. Some of your thoughts may be more private (just for our little circle of students). Due by Friday PM, Saturday AM Beijing time. THIS DUE DATE IS IMPORTANT AS I WANT YOU TO START YOUR FINAL EXAM ON MONDAY.

By 9 AM Wednesday (Apr. 29) Beijing time, Tuesday (Apr. 28) 9 PM Vermont time, please examine “Living in an increasingly connected world” (Peters2009.pdf in the folder Apr27). In addition, you should download and listen to the podcast “ContinentalConnectivity.mp3.” These scientists provide some persuasive evidence that continental-scale connections in ecological processes are being impacted by human activities. One question that comes to mind is then “Is there a continental-scale conservation that must arise to counter or mitigate these impacts?” In the Blog post I will ask additional questions, and then we can all wonder how we operate at this large scale to effectively conserve natural processes? Remember to comment under Group A or B.

If you have time, take a look at the NEON project (National Ecological Observatory Network) at http://www.neoninc.org/ . While it is not a management or policy effort, it should provide some of the data necessary to convince us to do something.... sooner or later.

Between Wednesday 9 AM (Beijing time)/Tuesday 9 PM (Vermont time) and 9 AM Thursday (Beijing time)/9 PM Wednesday (Vermont time), read the student comments in the Blog for your group and summarize and synthesize under the Blog title: “Continental Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

The concept maps I put together on the wikispace
   

You can identify them by holding your mouse button down on the image. For example if you do this on the first one, the browser should tell you “ZhuZhang.jpg.” If that doesn’t work then hold the or windows key down and click on the image. It should ask if you want to copy or save it and also tell you the file name. If none of that works this is the order: ZhuZhang, DavidJenCait, XiongWang, NatAmandAut, LydiaEmKim. If I left your name out (pretty hard to tell who put up the maps), please let me know.

As I indicated in my earlier email, be thinking about why they look different, and what threads are common among them.  I'm sure you recognize that "conservation" is perhaps more complex than you originally suspected. See if you can connect the ideas that you expressed in the concept maps into some value frameworks as well (democracy, equity, community, deep ecology, etc.).

Questions? Just email me.

By 9 AM Wednesday (Apr. 22) Beijing time, Tuesday (Apr. 21) 9 PM Vermont time, please examine “Islands and Introduced Herbivores: Conservation Action as Ecosystem Experimentation” (ConservActionAsExperiment.pdf in the folder Apr20). Skim (5 minutes max.) through the article to understand how it is organized, and to figure out what it is about (that is, what one sentence you can write to describe what the paper is about). Start your comment for the Blog with this one sentence. In the Blog post I will ask additional questions and try to help you read this paper more efficiently.

Remember to comment under Group A or B.

Between Wednesday 9 AM (Beijing time)/Tuesday 9 PM (Vermont time) and 9 AM Thursday (Beijing time)/9 PM Wednesday (Vermont time), read the student comments in the Blog for your group and summarize and synthesize under the Blog title: “Reading Science Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

For the rest of this week, please work with your group to complete your concept map. Some of your work seems quite helpful in organizing related concepts. If there are just two of you working on the wiki, that’s fine. If you find yourself lonely, just jump in with another group (use email to connect as well as comments on the wiki).

NOTE: There will be NO Blog Discussion for the Wednesday April assignment, so you should have some time to interact on the wiki and in person (cell phone, Skype, or whatever you need to do to interact). I hope that you can meet in person once this week.

Remember to make your efforts more comparable, put nature conservation, biodiversity conservation, land conservation closer to the center, and energy conservation, water conservation, soil conservation, more to the outside. Use thick lines for stronger linkages/connections, and thinner lines for weaker or more indirection connections. One way of thinking about connections is feedbacks. Make the distances proportional to the relatedness, and the size of the “bubble” reflect how important you feel the topic is. You can use a concept mapping software, powerpoint, word, or just a paper and colored pencil... then take a digital picture of your map.

I’m looking for a combined group map that you can post on the wiki by Friday April 17th.

The groups are at PKU working on conservation in China:
• PKU1: Lu Zhongming, Zhu Dan, Zhang Yue,
• PKU2: Deng Shuxin, Chen Dexian, Fan Mingming
• PKU3: Liu Qiaoling, Wang Tao, Xu Xiaojie, Xiong Fulizi


At UVM working on conservation in the US:
• UVM1: Autumn Foushee, Nathaly Filion, Amanda Garland
• UVM2: Kim Hoffman, Lydia Menendez, Emily Stone
• UVM3: David Jaffee, Jennifer Wright, Caitlin McDonough

AGAIN.... Questions? Just email me.

By 9 AM Wednesday (Apr. 15) Beijing time, Tuesday (Apr. 14) 9 PM Vermont time, please read the first 5 pages of abstract of “Poverty-Conservation Linkages: A Conceptual Framework” (PovertyFramework.pdf in the folder Apr13). Skim (10 minutes max.) through the rest of the report to get a sense of how the report is organized and what topics it addresses. Then pick one of the seven hypotheses to read. Critique the hypothesis and the discussion and conclusion (e.g., “This hypothesis is true: poor people do...” then why is this a hypothesis?). NOTE: The file PovertyConsvDirectory.pdf is for your reference. Briefly take a look at it (2-3 minutes max.) so that you will remember that you have seen it. This list of organizations may be useful to you in the future.

Remember to comment under Group A or B. I have also asked some thought questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

Between Wednesday 9 AM (Beijing time)/Tuesday 9 PM (Vermont time) and 9 AM Thursday (Beijing time)/9 PM Wednesday (Vermont time), read the student comments in the Blog for your group and summarize and synthesize under the Blog title: “Poverty Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Just the rest of the week to catch up (see previous assignment Apr. 1) without penalty. Just 10 to 15 minutes per assignment does the trick!

There will be NO Blog Discussion for the Wednesday April assignment.

Instead, we will try to make sense of the diversity of ideas around “conservation.” The goal is not to come up with a definitive definition (I don’t think that is a very productive effort), but rather to organize your own personal thoughts about conservation in a coherent way. In addition, I am going to suggest that this organizational process is relevant to any complex and ambiguous concept or term that you will run into during your professional career.

Here’s the task: reading your history of conservation (history1 through history5) and then also revisit the definitions (1-7) noting key words and concepts (less about people). Then create a “concept map” that pays attention to conservation history, but really focuses on current ideas.

Type “concept map” into Google and look at the images for examples, or click here:

http://images.google.com/images?q=concept+maps&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=KgjcScnECpPslQettez5DQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=5&ct=title

To make your efforts more comparable, put nature conservation, biodiversity conservation, land conservation closer to the center, and energy conservation, water conservation, soil conservation, more to the outside. Use thick lines for stronger linkages/connections, and thinner lines for weaker or more indirection connections. One way of thinking about connections is feedbacks. Make the distances proportional to the relatedness, and the size of the “bubble” reflect how important you feel the topic is. You can use a concept mapping software, powerpoint, word, or just a paper and colored pencil... then take a digital picture of your map.

Here’s the HARD PART. I want you to do this in groups, and I want you to meet in real space, so you’ll have to arrange some times to meet. To help with this process, I’m going to insist that you make a very rough first draft by yourself by Thursday morning April 9, and meet once this week and once next week with your group so you can come up with a combined group map that you can post on the wiki by Friday April 17th.

The groups are at PKU working on conservation in CHINA:

• PKU1: Lu Zhongming, Zhu Dan, Zhang Yue
• PKU2: Deng Shuxin, Chen Dexian, Fan Mingming
• PKU3: Liu Qiaoling, Wang Tao, Xu Xiaojie, Xiong Fulizi

At UVM working on conservation in the US:

• UVM1: Autumn Foushee, Nathaly Filion, Amanda Garland
• UVM2: Kim Hoffman, Lydia Menendez, Emily Stone
• UVM3: David Jaffee, Jennifer Wright, Caitlin McDonough

I’ve started a spot on the wiki for you. Questions? Just email me.

If conservation is critical to create a sustainable future, then should we use science as a guide to action? This weeks reading critiques policy-based decision-making as a poor substitute for evidence-based decision-making.

By 9 AM Wednesday (Apr. 8) Beijing time, Tuesday (Apr. 7) 9 PM Vermont time, please read the abstract of “Policy-driven versus Evidence-based Conservation: A Review of Political Targets and Biological Needs” (PolicyVSevidenceBasedConservation.pdf in the folder Apr6). Skim (10 minutes max.) through the rest of the paper to find items of interest to comment on. Then take a look at the website: http://www.cebc.bangor.ac.uk/evidencefamily.php?catid=&subid=6368. One of the links points to the Center for Evidence-based Conservation (http://www.cebc.bangor.ac.uk/). Take a quick look at the website and some of the resources there. Remember to comment under Group A or B. I have also asked some thought questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

Read the student comments in the Blog for your group and by 9 AM Thursday Beijing time/9 PM Wednesday Vermont time, summarize and synthesize under the Blog title: “Evidence Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

There will be NO Blog Discussion for the Wednesday April assignment. Instead, I offer this advice for those of you that need to catch up with the rest of the class.

1) You can take two approaches to catching up with assignments that you haven’t turned in.... with full credit for the first, and 75% credit for the second. Be realistic about what you can achieve... but please catch up. On Monday (April 6) I will expect everyone to submit timely responses. I will also provide some advice on how to respond efficiently and effectively. After Monday, each response will be worth 4 points. If a response is one day late it will start with 3 points before applying the “rubric.” Two days late, and it starts as 2 points, etc. So I’m really hoping that you can just catch up, and then take one day at a time after that. I think it will be much more manageable.

Option A for making up past assignments (for full credit): Take 15 minutes to skim the assigned reading, and then write for 5 minutes. Try to discuss the questions asked in the Blog, but if you don’t get to all of them, don’t worry. For the Synthesis, take 15 minutes (maximum) to skim the other students responses. Pick out one major idea from each in that 15 minutes. Then take 5 minutes to write. IF YOU NEED TO write in Chinese as that is more efficient, do that (I’m hoping that the Blog will take those characters, but if not - email). This means that each assignment takes 20 minutes and you can do 3/hr. 3 hours in the next week, and even those of you the furthest behind are not caught up.

Option B for making up past assignments (for 75% credit): Take 5 minutes to skim and 5 minutes to write (6/hr). Figure out what the major point is and react/discuss that.

IMPORTANT: You just need to let me know which option you took. Put it at the end of your post, e.g., “[option A]” -- this is an “honor system.”

2) After you have caught up with all your comments, take 20 minutes to review all the assignments and remind yourself what was it about, and then write down somewhere, what you think you should remember about each reading 10 years from now. Be realistic and practical. If the answer is “nothing” then just take a few sentences to defend that conclusion. I think if you think about a course that you took 10 years ago and wonder about what big important thing you should remember, you’ll probably see that if you get one thing out of each assignment, that’s probably ok. HOWEVER, this is not to encourage you to ignore or dismiss future assignments. The reason that I want you to comment in the Blog and read other students’ response AND work in the Wiki -- is that processing and interacting with the conservation content is a process/thinking goal. We all need practice honing our thinking. This like physical exercise, is something that takes practice - practice - practice. If you never remember the exercise you did to get in shape, that’s ok. The goal was to get you in shape. That is why I want you to CATCH UP, and then participate (exercise) along with the rest of us. PLEASE CATCH UP! We need to sweat through this together.

This week we examine an important aspect of “Inclusive Conservation.” As the title suggests, inclusive conservation seeks to involve a broader spectrum of society in the values and activities of conservation. The presumption of this title is that some sectors of society have not been represented well, either in the benefits of conservation (e.g., enjoyment of national parks) or in the workforce involved in conservation (e.g., national park employees, NGO staff). The term has arisen more directly around issues of involvement of local people in planning and decisions around protected area development and management -- both people in the protected area and around it.

The reading for this week is about the conservation workforce in the U.S. The situation is probably similar in other countries with different groups being involved and mostly excluded from the workforce. In this assignment, the questions arise out of the various kinds of conservation that you have been considering in your Blog comments and Wiki work. Who is being included and excluded in what kinds of conservation? See the introduction to the topic in the Blog (Inclusive Conservation) and then comment.

By 9 AM Wednesday (Apr. 1) Beijing time, Tuesday (Mar. 1) 9 PM Vermont time, please read the Executive Summary, the Introduction, the Overview of Findings, and the Recommendation in the report “Diversity Developments: Representative Diversification Activities in the Conservation Field (CCDReportFinal.pdf in the folder Mar30). Skim through the rest of the document to find items of interest to comment on. Remember to comment under Group A or B. I have also asked some thought questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

Read the student comments in the Blog for your group and by 9 AM Thursday Beijing time/9 PM Wednesday Vermont time, summarize and synthesize under the Blog title: “Inclusive Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

This is a group assignment to work on the class Wiki. Let’s stick with the “Buddy” groups as listed under “Getting Started” but I’ll be putting two groups together. The instructions for the Wiki assignment are on the Wiki (linked from “Wiki” on the class homepage or https://conservation21.wikispaces.com).

Before 9 AM Friday Mar. 27 Beijing time (9 PM Thursday Vermont time), please go to the Class Wiki under the link: “China and the US” and follow the instructions to begin working together in your “Buddy” group. Please revisit your work at least twice a day to catch up with what your group participants maybe contributing.

By Saturday/Friday VT -- I hope you will have some preliminary outlines prepared on the wiki.

There will be NO Blog Discussion for the Wednesday March 25 assignment.

Make sure to see the New Announcement on the Class HomePage “Half-way There.”

As you have further reinforced in your minds through your reading so far and your work with other students, “conservation” is a broad and ambiguous term. To deal with this, researchers invent more narrow, modified concepts by adding adjectives in front of the word to warn their readers to “pay attention,” this may mean something different than you think. We will be considering “inclusive conservation,” “evidence-based conservation,” “collaborative conservation,” “land conservation,” etc.

This week we examine “Systematic Conservation Planning” -- a way to organize conservation planning at any scale. Part of their critique is that past efforts at conservation have not been as systematic as they could have been, and without this systematic perspective, perhaps are not as efficient or effective as they could be. The 6-part framework suggested can help with this process. So what do the authors mean by “conservation?” What subset of what you have been thinking about (blog comments and wiki) does their reference to “conservation” include? The article by Buntaine et al. described some work on conservation planning in China. Does it seem like part of this systematic approach? Is this systematic framework relevant in China and Vermont? Can conservation action be this “strategic?”

By 9 AM Wednesday (Mar. 25) Beijing time, Tuesday (Mar. 24) 9 PM Vermont time, please look at (skim) Systematic Conservation Planning, and Human Use and Conservation Planning... (MargulesSystematicConsPlan2000.pdf, and Buntaine2007.pdf, in the folder Mar23). Comment on the relationship of these two papers in the Class Blog “Systematic Conservation Planning.” Remember to comment under Group A or B. I have also asked some thought questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

Read the student comments in the Blog for your group and by 9 AM Thursday Beijing time/9 PM Wednesday Vermont time, write some of your thoughts (quick freewrite) in the Class Blog “Systematic Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

This is a group assignment to work on the class Wiki. You will be revisiting the work that the PKU students did while the UVM students were on Spring Break, and then working on a definition of your own by buddy groups. This is going to be a communication challenge across thousands of miles and a 12 hour time difference, so please give it a try.

The instructions for the Wiki assignment are on the Wiki (linked from “Wiki” on the class homepage or https://conservation21.wikispaces.com).

Before 10 AM Friday Mar. 20 Beijing time (10 PM Thursday Vermont time), please go to the Class Wiki under the link: “Conservation Definition” and follow the instructions to begin working together as small groups. Write something just to get started. To develop a coherent paragraph will probably take multiple iterations of entries and comments.

By 10 AM Saturday Beijing time (10 PM Friday Vermont time), complete your first draft of this definition. You can not all work on the same pages at the same, so if the Wiki tells you that someone is already working on the page, just wait a few minutes and come back to it. Also, if you are not working on a page, save it and go back to the “view” mode (that is exit the “edit” mode). I will also ask you to work on this a bit next week after I find out how well this group work is going. Thanks for trying this!

There will be NO Blog Discussion for the Wednesday March 18 assignment.

By 10 AM Wednesday (Mar. 18) Beijing time, Tuesday (Mar. 17) 9 PM Vermont time, please look at Conservation Reconsidered (KrutillaConsReconsider.pdf, in the folder Mar16). This paper, published in 1967, considers the social utility of conservation in a period when the economic rationale for public policy decisions was important. In some ways it is a difficult paper to read, so just skim it and get the general idea of the paper. If there are terms or concepts that you do not understand, list and write about them. In the “Synthesis” section of this assignment for Thursday PKU/Wednesday UVM, I am going to ask you to consider the questions we listed in the Comments, and then ask you to do some research to explain some of these questions. Comment and ask your questions on the paper in the Class Blog “Conservation History.” Remember to comment under Group A or B, depending on your Group (see Assignments on the Class Homepage for group assignments). I have also asked some thought questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

After 10 AM Wednesday Beijing time/ 9 PM Tuesday Vermont time, read the student comments in the Blog for your group.

By 10 AM Thursday Beijing time/9 PM Wednesday Vermont time, pick some questions to answer, and put your answers in the Class Blog “History Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

This is the link for the Global Situation Slide Show

By 10 AM Thursday (Mar. 12) Beijing time please go to the Class Wiki under the link: “How does "conservation" translate and what does it mean in China?” Start your own paragraph (remember to let us know who you are) and write down as many words and phrases that you think represent “conservation” ... both directly and indirectly. I know that there is no direct translation of “conservation” in Chinese, so think about Chinese words that collectively might mean conservation.

For example, if I were doing this exercise for “ecosystem health,” my paragraph might look like this:

Direct: ecosystem health = intact ecosystem functioning = ecosystem integrity = absence of ecosystem disease

Indirect: disease prevention, limiting pest outbreaks, maintaining nutrient flows, anthropogenic fire prevention, functional redundancy through biodiversity protection, maintenance of productivity, insuring natural disturbance regimes, etc. (the list for conservation should be longer than this). (From Deane)

After 10 AM Thursday Beijing time read all the different paragraphs and try to come up with a paragraph describing “conservation.” You should write this paragraph in three collaborative groups:

• Group 1: Lu Zhongming, Zhu Dan, Liu Qiaoling
• Group 2: Deng Shuxin, Zhang Yue, Wang Tao
• Group 3: Fan Mingming, Xiong Fulizi, Xu Xiaojie, Chen Dexian

By 10 AM Saturday Beijing time, complete your work on this single paragraph. You can not all work on the same pages at the same, so if the Wiki tells you that someone is already working on the page, just wait a few minutes and come back to it. Also, if you are not working on a page, go back to the “view” mode (that is exit the “edit” mode by clicking on "save" or "cancel").

There will be NO Blog Discussion for this Wednesday's assignment.

By 10 AM Wednesday (Mar. 11) Beijing time please SKIM “Five S Framework for Site Conservation (FiveSforCons.pdf, in the folder Mar9). This is a long document which is why I am emphasizing SKIM. Look through the Table of Contents and try to understand how the document is organized. Then look at a few of the sections to see what they are about. Remember specific detail is not important here, but rather focus on the overall approach. I have asked some questions about this document in the Class Blog for you to discuss. In addition, please also look at the brief document “Conservation by Design” which describes the Nature Conservancy’s broader approach to conservation. There is NO Group A and B, so everyone should comment on the single Blog post titled “Site-scale Conservation” (just PKU students).

After 10 AM Wednesday Beijing time, read the student comments in the Blog.

By 10 AM Thursday Beijing time summarize and synthesize the comments that you have read and post as a comment in the Class Blog “Site-scale Synthesis.

By 10 AM Friday (Mar. 6) Beijing time, Thursday (Mar. 5) 9 PM Vermont time, please read “General management principles and a checklist of strategies to guide forest biodiversity conservation” (LindenmayerPrinciples2006.pdf in the folder Mar4). Comment on the paper in the Class Blog “Management Principles.” Remember to comment under Group A or B. PLEASE NOTE: to better balance Groups A and B, I have moved Chen Dexian and Deng Shuxin from Group B to Group A. This way each group now has 9 people. Sorry for the inconvenience. I have also asked some questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

After 10 AM Friday Beijing time/ 9 PM Thursday Vermont time, read the student comments in the Blog for your group.

By 10 AM Saturday Beijing time/9 PM Friday Vermont time, summarize and synthesize the comments that you have read and post as a comment in the Class Blog “Principles Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

By 10 AM Wednesday (Mar. 4) Beijing time, Tuesday (Mar. 3) 9 PM Vermont time, please read da Fonseca et al.’s paper on “Defying Nature’s End” (daFonsecaLandscapeScale.pdf, in the folder Mar2). Comment on the paper in the Class Blog “Landscape Conservation.” Remember to comment under Group A or B, depending on your Group (see Assignments on the Class Homepage for group assignments). For more information on the term “landscape” see http://www.eoearth.org/article/Landscape_ecology . I have also asked some questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

After 10 AM Wednesday Beijing time/ 9 PM Tuesday Vermont time, read the student comments in the Blog for your group.

By 10 AM Thursday Beijing time/9 PM Wednesday Vermont time, summarize and synthesize the comments that you have read and post as a comment in the Class Blog “Landscape Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

By 10 AM Friday (Feb. 27) Beijing time, Thursday (Feb. 26) 9 PM Vermont time, please read a paper in the Journal Nature and the associated Press Release for the article (ExtinctRiskClimate.pdf, ExtinctRiskPressRelease.pdf in the folder Feb25). Comment on the paper and press release in the Class Blog “The Panda and the Polar Bear.” Remember to comment under Group A or B, depending on your Group (see Assignments on the Class Homepage for group assignments). The summary from the IPCC 2007 report (IPCC2007impacts.pdf) is for your reference if you need a reminder what climate change is about. I have also asked some questions in the Class Blog for you to discuss.

After 10 AM Friday Beijing time/ 9 PM Thursday Vermont time, read the student comments in the Blog for your group.

By 10 AM Saturday Beijing time/9 PM Friday Vermont time, summarize and synthesize the comments that you have read and post as a comment in the Class Blog “Panda/Polar Bear Synthesis (Group A)” or Group B, depending on what group you are in.

NOTE, REVISED SCHEDULE: By 10 AM Wednesday (Feb. 25) Peking time, Tuesday (Feb. 24) 9 PM Vermont time, please read and comment on Norman Myers and Andrew Knoll's article (MyersN_KnollA2001.pdf) on the "biotic crisis." The location of the readings were emailed to you. In addition, you have the option of reading a) Norman Myers' piece on "Conservation of Biodiversity: How are We Doing?" (MyersN2003.pdf), or listening to a discussion of Conservation in the 21st Century held at the recent conference of the US National Council for Science and the Environment at http://ncseonline.org/Conference/Biodiversity/Video/2008biodiv03_PlenaryRT02.cfm. This link to the conference plenary is also included in the reading list on the web. Both try to evaluate our progress in protecting biodiversity on the planet. Is conservation just a delay tactic slowly the inevitable loss of species as human numbers increase and climate changes? For the long term (100-200 years from now), what strategies today will pay off most effectively for then (e.g., the $30,000 used to save beached whales might be better spent buying coastline)? Should conservation of biodiversity be the "umbrella" strategy for conservation efforts?

Post a comment responding to these questions by Wednesday at 10 AM (Beijing) or Tuesday 9 PM (Vermont). Review everyone’s comments and post a summary and/or synthesis by Thursday at 10 AM (Beijing)/Wednesday 9 PM (Vermont). REMEMBER, Group A should respond and synthesize in the Blogs labeled "A" and Group B should respond and synthesize in the Blogs labeled "B."

Some time between 9 AM Monday and 10 AM Wednesday (Feb. 18) Peking time, which is 9 PM Vermont time, please respond to the introductory blog post with a Comment that introduces yourself briefly. I have commented to my own post with my introduction as an example. In addition, please listen to an ESA podcast on what some professors at Cornell University feel are the most important issues for the globe. You do not need to write anything about this, but these concerns will be present in the "background" as we discuss conservation in the 21st Century.