This first report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment describes the conceptual framework that is being used in the MA. It is not a formal assessment of the literature, but rather a scientifically informed presentation of the choices made by the assessment team in structuring the analysis and framing the issues. The conceptual framework elaborated in this report describes the approach and assumptions that will underlie the analysis conducted in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The framework was developed through interactions among the experts involved in the MA as well as stakeholders who will use its findings. It represents one means of examining the linkages between ecosystems and human well-being that is both scientifically credible and relevant to decision-makers. This framework for analysis and decision-making should be of use to a wide array of individuals and institutions in government, the private sector, and civil society that seek to incorporate considerations of ecosystem services in their assessments, plans, and actions.

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Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment

Modern management theory is constricted by a fractured epistemology. which separates humanity from nature and truth from morality. Reintegration is necessary if organizational science is to support ecologically and socially sustainable development. This article posits requisites of such development and rejects the paradigms of conventional technocentrism and antithetical ecocentrism on grounds of incongruence. A more fruitful integrative paradigm of “sustaincentrism” is then articulated, and implications for organizational science are generated as if sustainability, extended community, and our Academy mattered.

http://ingenieroambiental.com/inf/elparagigmadeldesarrollosustentable.PDF

Shifting Paradigms for Sustainable Development: Implications for Management Theory and Research

Since anthropogenic climate change first emerged on the public agenda in the mid-to-late 1980s, public communication of climate change and—more recently—the question of how to communicate it most effectively have witnessed a steep rise. This paper synthesizes what is known, presumed, and still unknown about how to effectively communicate this problem. An introductory historical overview of climate change communication is followed by a discussion of the challenges that communicators face in trying to convey the issue (invisibility of causes, distant impacts, lack of immediacy and direct experience of the impacts, lack of gratification for taking mitigative actions, disbelief in human's global influence, complexity and uncertainty, inadequate signals indicating the need for change, perceptual limits and self-interest). The core of the paper focuses on key aspects of the communication process (purpose and scope of the communication, audience, framing, messages, messengers, modes and channels of communication, and assessing the outcomes and effectiveness of a communication). These elements are placed in relationship to several contextual factors that affect the communication process. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on climate change communication. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Communicating climate change: history, challenges, process and future directions

/pdf/a-comparison-of-soil-quality-indexing-methods-for-vegetable-2zhgmj82t1.pdf

A comparison of soil quality indexing methods for vegetable production systems in Northern California

The Estuarine Quality Paradox, Environmental Homeostasis and the difficulty of detecting anthropogenic stress in naturally stressed areas

Ecosystem Health brings together leading ecologists, philosophers, and economists to analyze the issues surrounding the concept of health as it relates to ecosystems. Both theoretical and practical aspects of what constitutes a healthy ecosystem are examined -- philosophical and ethical underpinnings as well as implications for public policy and ecosystems management.

Benjamin D. Haskell

Papers

Ecosystem Health: New Goals for Environmental Management

Structural factors driving benthic invertebrate community structure on historical shipwrecks in a large North Atlantic marine sanctuary.