Return to Home Page Return to Home Page April 7, 2014 Introduction to GEOG 370: Problems of Resource Management

Return to Home Page Return to Home Page "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." - Abraham Lincoln, 1864 April 7,, 2014

Steps of a System Analysis A) Definition of system and objectives 1) Identification of decision maker(s) 2) Definition of system boundaries and components 3) Quantification of objectives B) Generation and evaluation of alternatives 1) Construction of an (optimization / system dynamic) model a) Definition of variables b) Relationships between/amongst variables 2) Solution of the (optimization / system dynamic) model C) Selection of an alternative

The Human Night Sky: Our electromagnetic signature to the universe! Ecosystem Concepts & Principles

Sources: Most of the following slides having illustrations (excluding the ones I have made with text and simple graphics) and Figure numbers are from various editions (5 th and later as I remember) of G. Tyler Miller, Jr., LIVING in the ENVIRONMENT: An Introduction to Environmental Science, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.Most of the following slides having illustrations (excluding the ones I have made with text and simple graphics) and Figure numbers are from various editions (5 th and later as I remember) of G. Tyler Miller, Jr., LIVING in the ENVIRONMENT: An Introduction to Environmental Science, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Key Ecosystem Concepts:

Major Ecosystem Processes The two major processes of any ecosystem are: 1) chemical cycling 2) one-way flows of energy An ecosystem maintains overall stability by three chief mechanisms: 1) controlling the rate of chemical or material cycling within the system 2) controlling the rate of energy flow through the system 3) maintaining a diversity of species and wood webs so that system stability is not affected seriously by the loss of some food web links and / or species.

Ecosystem problems can arise by: 1) Disruption of essential materials/nutrients cycles a) changing the rate of cycling by material overloads or leaks in the system in the system b) breaking of the cycle c) introduction of human-made chemicals into the system, especially those which have no natural decomposition chain those which have no natural decomposition chain 2) Disruption of energy flow(s) a) entropy or heat build-up in the system by consumption of too much energy by human society energy by human society b) changing properties and/or composition of the atmosphere leading to an increase or decrease in the solar energy input or output to an increase or decrease in the solar energy input or output from the earth-atmosphere system from the earth-atmosphere system 3) Disruption of the ecosystem by destruction of species diversity and/or the food web

Ecologic-Environmental principles Your can’t get something for nothing, or there is not such thing as a free lunch (first law of thermodynamics). If you think things are mixed up now just wait, or you can’t even break even (second law of thermodynamic, energy degradation “up and along” the food web ). Everything must go somewhere, or there is not away (law of conservation of matter, biological magnification??). Everything is connected to everything, but how? In most cases the greater the diversity of a system the greater its stability. Nature frequently but not always “knows” best. Up to a point the bigger the better; beyond that point, the bigger the worse (negative externalities, negative “emergent properties,” threshold effects) Existence of non-linear and threshold effects

Monday, April 7, CM group exercise

Conceptual Content Cognitive Mapping (3CM) exercise or (Confounding Climate Change Messaging??) April 7, 2014

Conceptual Content Cognitive Mapping (3CM) exercise We are going to use a process called Conceptual Content Cognitive Mapping (or 3CM). Here we use it as both a team-building exercise and as a way for participants to explore and share the structure, content, beliefs, values, and perceptions of their knowledge and/or concern about a specific topic or concern, in this sample case problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change. We will create individual 3CM posters by responding to a set of questions about problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change by writing down our responses on sticky notes and pasting these notes on our individual 11x17 inch sheets of papers. Let us begin a warm up by having you write on separate “sticky notes” what are the first 5 things (thoughts, ideas) that come to you mind when you think of problems of energy use & management or problems of climate changes. [5 minutes] When I say “begin” start writing down your 5 things!

4 Questions 4 Questions [15 minutes] Question set 1 [use blue sticky notes] How do you define “problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change”?How do you define “problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change”? What are specific things that you think of when you think of “problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change”?What are specific things that you think of when you think of “problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change”? Question set 2 [use yellow sticky notes]Question set 2 [use yellow sticky notes] What does “problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change” mean to you?What does “problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change” mean to you? How do you personally approach energy use and management or problems of climate change research, what is your approach, your paradigm?How do you personally approach energy use and management or problems of climate change research, what is your approach, your paradigm? Question set 3 [use green sticky notes]Question set 3 [use green sticky notes] What are the important disciplines that make contributions to problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change?What are the important disciplines that make contributions to problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change? What are the most important methods and tools to use in problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change research?What are the most important methods and tools to use in problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change research? Question set 4 [use red sticky notes]Question set 4 [use red sticky notes] What do you think are the most important issues surrounding the field of problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change?What do you think are the most important issues surrounding the field of problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change? What do you think are the most important under-researched issues/problems in energy use & management or problems of climate change?What do you think are the most important under-researched issues/problems in energy use & management or problems of climate change?

PHASE II: Ranking [10 minutes]. Now we will begin the second phase of our 3CM process. Group, categorize, or organize your answers in ways that are meaningful to you and use a new WHITE sticky note to label each group or category of responses. Next within each of your groups or categories rank them from most important to least important by giving them ascending numbers where the number “1” represents the most important, etc.

PHASE III: Sharing and Viewing MAPS [15 minutes] Okay now spend the next 15 minutes moving around the room looking at the other 3CM map sheets, take notes, and compare to your own 3CM poster sheet. PHASE IV: Self-Selecting Teams [10 minutes?] Find the three to six other classmates with the posters that you most clearly agree or identify with and form a 3 to 6 member team.

PHASE V: Constructing a TEAM-based 3CM [30 minutes]. PHASE V: Constructing a TEAM-based 3CM [30 minutes]. The fifth phase of this process involves working with you own individual interdisciplinary team to see if it is possible collaboratively to construct a team-based 3CM vision of problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change. First, assemble into your teams with your individual 3CM poster sheets, get a new 11x17 sheet, and see if you can generate a new team-based 3CM of problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change, either making use of sticky notes already written by your team members or new notes which reflect consensus views of your team. I will tell you after 25 minutes have elapsed. Use any needed class time this Wedneday to develop a short oral report for a concluding plenary session which focuses on the three questions of 1) what were the strongest areas of agreement about problems of energy use & management or problems of climate change to emerge from your group, 2) what were the most important unresolved issues to emerge, 3) what were the most important things you learned about your team, e,g., did people agree easily, with difficulty, not agree and why, was/where there common focus/foci,what was most surprising, etc.

QUESTIONS to address in short plenary report: 1) What were the strongest areas of agreement about energy use & management or climate change issue / problem to emerge from your group? 2) What were the most important unresolved issues to emerge? 3) What were the most important things you learned about your team? PHASE VI: Final Phase General Discussion [10 minutes]