ေၾသာ္...စစ္ေခြး

သက္ကရာဇ္ ၂၁၀၀ ျမန္မာကေလးတစ္ေယာက္သမိုင္းဖတ္စာက်က္ေနသည္။ ထိုဖတ္စာမွာကား `၁၉၈၈ ခုႏွစ္မွ ၂၀၀၇ ခုႏွစ္ အထိ ျမန္မာျပည္တြင္ မ်ိဳးမစစ္ေသာ ေခြးတသင္းတို႕ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္မႈေနရာသို႔ အတင္း အဓမ ၀င္လုကုန္ေလသည္။ ထို ေခြးတသင္းတို႔ လက္ထပ္ ရဟန္းရွင္လူ ျပည္သူအေပါင္း မီးကဲ့သို႔ ပူ၏။ ထိုတသင္းတို႕ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ႀကီးသည္ ပညာရွိစကားနားမယူ။ အမွန္ကို အမွန္မသိ။ ျပည္သူျပည္သားအေပါင္းကို ေက်းကၽြန္ကဲ့သို႔ ျပဳ၏။ လိမ္လည္ လွည့္ျဖား၏။ ေကာက္က်စ္ယုတ္မာ၏၊ မင္းက်င့္တရား (၁၀) ပါးကိုမသိ။ အဂတိလိုက္၏။ အမ်က္ႀကီး၏။ ဗုဒၶသာသနာေတာ္ကို မခ်ီးေျမွာက္ မိစာၧဒိဌိ ကို အားေပးကာ.. ရဟန္းတို႕ကို သတ္၏ ရိုက္၏ ျငင္းပန္းႏွိပ္စက္၏။ တိုင္းျပည္တြင္ပညာရွိတို႔မေန တျခားသို႔သာသက္ၾကကုန္၏။ ထိုမင္း၏ တပည့္ လက္သား ေခြးသရမ္း တို႔ကား ျပည္သူဘ႑ာကို ခိုး၀ွက္၏ သူမ်ားသားမယားကို ဖ်က္ဆီးသိမ္းပိုက္၏။ သူတို႕ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေခြးခ်ဳပ္ၾကီး ကို ဆန္႕က်င္သူတို႕ကို သတ္၏။ ဖမ္းဆီးၾက၏။ အက်င့္ သိက္ခါမရွိ။ ရမ္မက္ၾကဴးေသာဘီးလူးကဲ့သို႕ျပဳမႈ၏။ ရဟန္းမွန္းမသိ။ ပညာရွိမွန္းမသိ။ ပစ္မွား၏။ ထိုတသင္းတို႔၏ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ၾကီးအား ထိုထိုေသာ အရာတို႔သည္ မွား၏ .. သည္အရာ တို႔သည္ မလုပ္သင့္ေပ.. ဤအရာသည္ အမွန္သို႔ေရာက္ေအာင္ေျပာင္းလဲရမည္ ဟုဆိုေသာ ေကာင္းမြန္ေသာ အၾကံျပဳစကား၊ ျပည္သူႏွင့္ တိုင္းျပည္ ဖြ႔ံျဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေစလိုေသာ စကားတို႕ကို ေျပာသူတို႕အား ေထာင္သြင္းအက်ဥ္းခ်၏.. သတ္ပစ္၏။ ျငင္းပန္းႏွိပ္စက္၏။ ထိုတသင္း၏ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ၾကီးသည္ ေက်းဇူးကိုေက်းဇူးမွန္းမသိတတ္.. ရဟန္းကို ရဟန္းမွန္း မသိတတ္.. ရဟန္းစစ္ ကို ရဟန္းတုဟုစြပ္စဲြ၏.. ထိုေခါင္းေဆာင္ႀကီး၏ သားသမီး ေျမးျဖစ္တသိုက္ ျပည္သူ႕ဘ႑ာကို မိမိ ဟာ ကဲ့သို႔မွတ္ယူကာ အလိုရွိတိုင္းခိုး၏.. သုံးစြဲပစ္၏။ ထိုမင္းလက္ထပ္ ရဟန္းရွင္လူျပည္သူအေပါင္းတို႔သည္ ေႏြအခါ မြန္းတည့္ခ်ိန္၌ မီးဖိုေပၚထိုင္ရသကဲ့သို႔ .. ေဆာင္းအခါ အ၀တ္မပါ ႏွင္းေတာထဲ ယက္ခပ္ ခံေနရသကဲ့သို႔ .. မိုးအခါ ထီးမေဆာင္းဘဲ လြင္ျပင္ထဲ ရပ္ေနရသကဲ့သို႔ ရဟန္းရွင္လူျပည္သူအေပါင္းတို႔သည္ ဆင္းရဲ ႏႊံထဲ သက္ဆင္းခဲ့ၾကရေလသည္။

Management of biodiversity

Biodiversity refers to the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are part. This includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species and of ecosystems. (GEO3, Pg 120)
While the idea of conserving the environment has steadily gained political acceptance over the past few decades, people still misunderstand and ignore the goods and services that nature, biodiversity and ecosystems provide to us.
For example, 16,119 species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction and many ecosystems – wetlands, forests – are being degraded and destroyed, while we know that natural ecosystems provide humans with a large range of highly valuable services. (IUCN)
Reduce biodiversity will lead to loss of livelihoods and unfavorable socioeconomic impacts. (Coates et. Al. 2003). In the management of biodiversity, the level of awareness and understanding of the public, the leadership of both public and private agencies, a balance between the use of modern technologies and local indigenous knowledge, the country’s level of economic development, national policies and institutional structures and international commitments are important considerations.
Dear Participants, what are your opinion about this management of biodiversity??

Global and Ecological Disaster

In the last decades more than two billions people have been affected by disaster. The loss of lives and livelihood is immense, and the economic effect on a country’s development is considerable. Economic losses attributed to natural disaster have risen to more than 100 millions US dollars per year in the last few years from only one billion dollars per year in the 1960’s according to the natural hazards report, about 40 to 50 billion at the start of 1960’s.

Nearly three-quarters of these losses result from storms, floods and drought. While there is evidence that disaster losses can be attributed to climatic and environmental change due to human actions, rising population number and migration to areas at greater risk is contributing to the ever increasing loss of life and livelihood in the frequency of disaster, particularly in the last decades.

Disasters are routinely divided into natural and man-made, although complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries. A specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact.

A natural disaster is the consequence of; when a potential natural hazard becomes a physical event (e.g. volcanic, eruption, earthquakes, and landslide …) and this interacts with human activities. Human vulnerability, caused by the lack of planning, lack of appropriate emergency management (disaster management) or the event being unexpected, leads to financial, structural, and human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability”.

Disasters having an element of human intent, negligence, error or the ones involving the failure of a system are called man-made disasters. Man-made hazards are in turn may be categorized as technological. Technological hazards are results of failure of technology, such as engineering, infrastructures failures, transport accidents or environmental hazard. Green house gasses which are producing by human activities which is a major cause of global warming. This has a dramatic direct and indirect effect on the every components of ecosystems specially water resources. However we exactly don’t know how global warming will affect water resources, it is clear that water resources are already stressed. Some areas are badly flooded because of heavy rain and some places are suffering from drought because of less raining is an everyday hot news in the world, which are reasons of current instability of water regimes and it is serious impact and proved evidence of global warming. Due to production of greenhouse gasses and other human activities and that all are caused for a natural and man-made hazard. And flooding is prevalent in every corner of the world today.

As mentioned above that disasters are unwanted event and it has many kinds and it will happen every where due to geographical, geological location and ever increasing human population and their activities. What is very important that how we can manage global and ecological disaster, specially flooding?
Hope the Blogger participants will share their understanding, ideas and experiences.

Response to Miss Sandya

Problems with trees in urban area

Green areas for every city are necessary, and it is part of urban engineering. But we have to consider the following before plantation;

1. Study the Master Plan of city.
2. Plantations of some ornamental trees disturb traffics, transmission lines after some years?
3. Whether the city needs trees for shadow or aesthetic values?
4. Concerning to the merging of roads and sub- roads and streets
5. Are irrigation facilities for plantation area available? It may be detrimental to sewage systems.
6. Age and resistance of plantation t harmful gasses.
7. Selection of trees for specific location. Specific places may need specific tree species in urban area.
8. Understanding of tree species due to geographic location
9. Need of light to those area and building that trees will grow in front of them.
10. Root system of trees need not disturb roads and pavements.

In my opinion above mentioned points are very important factors for plantation inside the cities and must be considered. Otherwise plantation in the city will bring many problems to the city as you can see in pictures below.

Urban Agriculture focus on equitable sustainability

Rapid urbanization takes place together with a rapid increase in urban poverty, urban food security and a number of environmental problems.
By 2020 the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America will be home to some 75% of all urban dwellers. It is expected that by 2020, 85% of the poor in Latin America, and about 40-45% of the poor in Africa and Asia will be concentrated in towns and cities.
Most cities in developing countries have difficulties to cope with this development and are unable to create sufficient formal employment opportunities for the poor. They also have increasing problems with the disposal of urban waste and maintaining air and river water quality.
(RUAF,IDRC,IIRC,2006)
Urban agriculture provides a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty and food security and enhance urban environment. It plays an
Important role in urban waste management, local economic development, social inclusion of the urban poor. Specially urban agriculture leads to greening and cleaning of the city by turning derelict open spaces into green zones free of housing with positive impact on micro climate
(Shade, Temperature, sequestration of Co2).
Urban agriculture is embedded in- and interacting with the urban ecosystem, being influenced by urban policies and plans. It s an integral part of the urban system. A global estimate is that 15-20% of the world’s food is produced in urban areas(Margaret Armar-2000)
The most important that the use of urban waste(household-commercial-institutional)and waste water in farming cities, gives number of benefits to farmers, urban authorities and to city environment. Other end that improper use of urban waste/waste water leads to serious health hazards in human.
Next fact, which more people argued and recently found that the agricultural crops cultivated in roadside also contain unfavorable chemical compounds for human health.(Kampala city,Uganda-2007)
Urban soils which is closer to roads with high traffic, often contain high concentration of heavy metals, including lead, Cadmium and zinc, which seriously affect on human health, specially in children. Direct link has been proved between distance from roads and heavy metal concentrations in soil. Researchers argued that fuel exhaust are the most serious source(New Agriculturist, July 2007 )
Many challenges in farming cities,…”.How to overcome the problems in use of urban waste and road side farming in cities??”
Dear participants, What are your opinions ,to find the right balance between benefits and health risks presented by urban farming,.. to achieve productive and sustainable cities in future.

(This Topic is posted by SANDYA)

Managing Protected Areas with Buffer Zone Management Initiatives in Nepal

Managing Protected Areas with Buffer Zone Management Initiatives in
Nepal

Ever growing population is one of the major causes that exerts pressure
in natural resources. This is a major set back in sustainable and
effective management of biodiversity conservation.

Buffer zone - International Perspective:

Buffer zone can reduce the damaging effect of human activities on
totally protected areas if we practice biodiversity conservation in buffer
zone around the protected area.One good example of a success storey is
the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in Northern Congo.The key to success is
engaging the local communities and assisting them in their efforts to
improve their economic, social and political status.

In Thailand, International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) is
establishing a working model for effective buffer zone management at Kaeng
Krachan National Park.

In Nepal, with financial and technical support of UNDP, the Department
of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation implemented Park and People
Progrmme (PPP) and a follow - up Participatory Conservation Programme
(PCP) since 1995.The program has been phased out in December, 2006.The
programme has resulted in the improvement of park - people relationship
thereby leading to living in harmony with nature.Strengthening of
buffer zone institutions and promoting targeted community development
activities along with capacity development of the communities and protected
area staff.The buffer zone programme was grounded on the reality that
the community based participatory biodiversity conservation can only be
successful if people's participation is ensured in natural resource
management.The participatory conervation approach is entirely rooted on
the acceptance by the people making them the real stewards of
conservation.

Like in Nepal, most protected areas lie in world's poorest
countries.Most poverty is rural and protected areas lie in the same part of the
country.So the question rises as if the protected areas are for the rural
poor or for the rich urban elite or for the noted environmentalist who
always raise voice for environmental conservation !!??

Respected Aajans, dear bloggers and all my classmates, what are your
opinion ?? what is the situation in your respective countries?? Please
comment and suggest for better pro-poor protected area management tools
and practices from your own experiences as well..........

(note: This blog is posted by Bhoj, but shows alexk as blogger)

Men Talk about Weapons, Women about Food and Orphants

My close colleague who is an anthropologist told me the other day about the work of a group of anthropologists. Story goes like this:

They divided themselves into two groups to work (to just listen) in the two waring fractions in Africa somewhere. Both groups found out that what men talked about were the kind of weapons to be used and developed. As for women, their conversation was about food for their families: where are food sources available, and how to get them for my children and the family?

You can all make your own conclusion, I guess.

Women and Environment: Partners in Life

“Environment” totally uses in our life and our living needs. The importance of environment surrounds women – the family, the home and the locality because worldwide, women are the primary users and providers of natural resources for basic survival such as cooking, collecting fuel, wood, and water as well as agriculture and harvesting.

According to The Greenbook, National Assembly of Women and the Environment, “Why women and environment? Because women, as approximately half of the world’s population, through both action and inaction in environmental management, are critical determinants in advancing a sustainable future. Women, as managers, producers, and consumers are “managing” ecosystems, whether for good or ill. Throughout history women have operated as integrators, connectors, converters and managers of natural, and often limited, resources. Linking children and the elderly, homes and markets, production and domestic resource uses, and often converting raw materials to usable products, women are practitioners, major uses, consumers and experts in myriad ways that in the aggregate, determine many ecological capacities and qualities.

In your opinion, what do you think about the role of women in environment? And how are they related to each other?

How can we solve Global Land Degradation!

Land sources are finite, fragile and non-renewable. They include soil, which is mainly important for agriculture; land cover, which is important for the environment; and landscapes which are an important component of human habitat and welfare(GEO 3, Pg-62). Land degradation caused by human activities, has been a major global issue during the 20th century will remain high on the international agenda in the 21st century. Land degradation leads to a significant reduction of the productive capacity of land. Human activities contributing to land degradation include unsuitable agricultural land use, poor soil and water management practices, deforestation, removal of natural vegetation, frequent use of heavy machinery overgrazing, improper crop rotation and poor irrigation practices. It has been estimated that 23 per cent of all usable land(excluding mountains and deserts, for example) to reduce it productivity( UNEP 1992, Oldeman, Hakkeling and Sombroek 1990).

In the early 1990s about 910 million ha of land were classified as ‘moderately degraded’, with greatly reduced agricultural productivity. A total of 305 million ha of soils ranged between ‘ strongly degraded’(296 million ha) and ‘extremely degraded’(9 million ha, of which more than 5 million ha were in Africa). ‘Extremely degraded’ soils are beyond restoration(Oldeman, Hakkeling and Sombroek 1990).

Despite these compelling statistics on land degradation, some studies are beginning to question the data, arguing that degradation estimates are overstated. A major reason suggested for the over estimation of land degradation has been underestimation of the abilities of local farmers that ‘……experts need to discriminate more carefully between a naturally bad state, a temporary bad state and a degraded state of land’.

Distinguished Participants, what are your opinion about this debate and haw do you think, is land degradation inevitable? Why?

Global warming and our consciousness

Today, human beings are facing with global warming issue. That is, many reports were claimed and strictly alarmed about global climate change and its negative consequences (typhoon, sea level raising, drought, etc). We, human beings, have been strongly intervening in natural world. The marked increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) since 1750 is the result of human activities; IPCC say “The global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased from a pre-industrial value of about 280 ppm to 379 ppm3 in 2005” (IPCC 2007; Climate change report). The average increase of carbon dioxide is 26.4 gigatons in 2005 compared with 23.5 gigatons in 1990s. The world’s average surface temperature has increased by around 0.74°C over the past 100 years (1906-2005). Temperature will increase about 0.1oC of the next decade, it is accompanied with sea-level rise due to ocean expansion and glacier melts by the end of the century. Sea level will be 1 m in length by 2100 if global temperature will be continuously increased; Snow cover has decreased in many regions. Hurricanes are happening stronger and more frequently as well. Nations, environmentalists as well as environmental considered people have been contributing their efforts in order to reduce GHG (Green House Gases), for instance, Kyoto Protocol and the other positive activities in term of global warming resistance.
However, some nations have not ratified Kyoto Protocol yet. Four nations are yet to sign the Kyoto Protocol limiting carbon dioxide emissions: the US, Australia, Monaco and Liechtenstein (Tim Fannery, 2005; The Weather Makers). Paradoxically, The US is the largest emission maker in the world.
Why do these nations do not want to ratify Kyoto Protocol, even though nowadays we have all the technology to achieve a carbon-free economy and the others accepted it?
In my understanding, I think there is a lack of understanding and the pessimism and confusion generated by interest groups that is stopping us from going forward. And the awareness of people among communities about climate change is not strong enough to push high pressure to the political system on the right way. Furthermore, I think there are some differences in philosophy between The US as well as Australia and the Europe (Tim Fannery, 2005 The Weather Makers).
The US and Australian governments say they refuse to ratify Kyoto because of prohibitive cost. A strong economy, they believe, offers the best insurance against all future shocks, and both are hesitant to do anything that may slow economic growth. In The US and Australia, the citizens of both nations hold a deep belief about the benefits of endless growth and expansion. Both have large immigration programs and thus high population growth rates and this leads to enormous difficulties in adhering to the emission reductions required under Kyoto Protocol.
The second, people whose reluctance to tackle climate change think that Global warming creates an illusion of a comfortable. Moreover, cold has long been our greatest enemy from the beginning of humanity. In human being’s thinking, warmth is the essence of everything good - love, comfort and life itself. Our deep psychological is that warm might be good that brings about us to be deceived about the nature of climate change. Additionally, some interest groups who have exploited human blind spot to put many people into confusing consciousness.
In The US, with the election of Bush, the fossil fuel lobby became even more powerful, and it has been able to corrupt processes within the US bureaucracy and the soliciting of scientific advice. Basically, The President of The US, Gorge Bush, is descended from oil industrial company in Texas before elected in 2000. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/profile/george_w_bush.shtml).
Can his career affect his decision making in term of cutting down energy consumption and economic? If we were him, how do we think?
Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal .Humorously, Dr Robin Batterham who was a chief technologist of Rio Tinto which is the world’s largest mining company was appointed as a chief scientist of Australia government, and in this capacity advised on issues such as climate change.
Finally, the effect of energy corporations on political system is considerable as well as public’s awareness that “Global warming” is “business as usual”.
Fortunately, global warming is being seemly considered as a threat for human being at the moment and the future as well. “George Bush has recently recognized - at the G8 Gleneagles meeting - that climate change is caused by humans and is a problem which needs to be addressed. And in admitting that it is a problem, he is admitting to the existence of a very large problem indeed” (Tim Fannery, 2005 The Weather makers).
PS: Based on my understanding about this topic, I would like to receive your advices.
Posted by Mr. Kien-FERS, Mahidol University.

How can we move toward equitable and sustainable water resource management?

Why is water so important? It is vital for all living organisms and major ecosystems, human health, food production, and economic development. Despite its importance, water is one of our most poorly managed resources.

In Principles of Water Management for People and the Environment[1], Michael Acreman, of the United Kingdom Institute of Hydrology, notes that the lives of people and the environment are profoundly interlinked, especially in terms of water resources. He also presents ten principles of water management:

1. Value water (not just economically, but including other ecosystem and societal values)

2. Use water sustainably (use must be less than rate of replenishment)

3. Develop sustainable institutions to manage water (From international to local scales, noting that all stakeholders must contribute to ensure equitable allocation of water)

4. Collect and disseminate information (effective management requires sound information)

5. Maintain a social and cultural perspective (decision making must also take into account ethical, aesthetic and religious values)

6. Ensure equitable access to water (water resource development actions can benefit the few served directly, and penalize the many who are not served, or denied access due to water diversion)

7. Use appropriate technology (traditional approaches may be more suitable to the environments in which they were developed than some “modern” technologies transferred from other countries)

8. Try to solve causes not symptoms (but accept practical solutions)

9. Take an ecosystem approach (holistic approach must include integrated regional planning and conservation of critical habitats)

10. Work as multidisciplinary teams (a truly integrated holistic approach requires a wide range of expertise)

The author concludes that water management should “focus on the global ecosystem” (including people) “and not as a conflict against nature to supply water for people.”

Do you agree with the author’s conclusion? Why?

Please rank the ten principles in terms of what you feel are the most important and add any principles you feel are missing.

---

[1] In Water and Population Dynamics: Case Studies and Policy Implications, Alex de Sherbinin and Victoria Dompkha, eds., American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington, D.C., 1998.

A New Way of Knowing (how to know)

Come and join this blog in a journey to explore a different way to "learn how to learn" about nature and reality out there. As the World in which we live is ever highly complex, rapidly changing, and full of crises, the "old" ways of knowing/learning must be challenged. As Einstien's widely cited argument states:
"Problem can not be solved at the same level of awareness that created it."

Challenging an Issue of Global Warming

In response to the challenges posted by Akompab below, your need to use scientific evidences to support your discussion. On this particular subject, you should be familiar with widely cited reports such as the Stern Report, and IPCC (International Panel for Climate Change) report No. 3 (the latest).

For myself, I find the environment section on the Independent, a leading UK newspaper, very useful. It has kept all reports and comments in the form of articles. I recommend you to look through these sources.

Additional request: I would like to ask each of you to please place your own photo in any comments you make.

The threats of glabal warming

Though the existence of a rise in average temperature since the 19th century is not disputed. Some people regard it as pseudoscience. The controversy focuses on specific cause of the recent warming and concentrates of the warming after the second world war.

Some see that it has not yet been asserted whether humans are the primary cause of global warming, while others attribute global warming to natural variations such as solar activities, ocean current, cosmic waves or unknown natural causes,with no related impact.

This issue has led to what is called Global Warming "YES"[for global emision reduction] and Global Warming" NO"[on business as usual] and is based on the "don't worry be happy"phylosophy.Fellow participants what are your opinions about this debate and why , also which strategy do you strive for and what are your reasons?

Posted by Akompab

How to Write a Good Academic Paper

How To Write a Good Academic Paper

For those who take Global Environmental Issues, you are reminded tha t you need to write one paper on the topic provided in the course syllabus. This is in addition to your facilitation in the Blog.

Some tips for writing an academic paper:

· Give a nice and attractive title of the paper (Good titile should reflect your thesis statement below);

· State your thesis (a thesis is a statement of your main argument, purpose, and goal of your paper);

· Give proper citation of sources where appropriate;

· Use headings and sub-headings to keep readers' constant attention;

· On introduction or background, state the central debate of the issue or topic you are discussing;

· State your position under the debate (i.e., agree or disagree, support or argue, etc.);

· In total, it should not exceed 12 pages of A4 in double space; and

· Try to meet the dateline set by your lecturer.

Opart Panya, Ph.D. MU. July 2007

If you want change, you've got to show it!

Jareya (below) has raised a very good question: how can we influence the government to change, meaning to by applying scenarios. Why don't you think about taking this further. Why don't you demonstrate how it can be done. This is a good thesis topic: how can scenarios be applied in a small-scale management of environment and natural resources?

How to get a community, nation, region, world as a whole to accept a preferred scenario?

How to get a community, nation, region, world as a whole to accept a preferred scenario?

UNEP proposed the multiple scenarios as several alternatives. I think UNEP offered the opportunities;

• to give more sense of how different trends and countertrends might unfold and interact
• to allow for some test of the robustness of policy and strategy conclusions across different paths of development
• to challenge received wisdom by demonstrating the plausibility of several diverse futures
• to introduce substantially different "worldviews" concerning what drivers of change are and how they are related together.

I think four scenarios; Market first, Security first, Policy First, Sustainability first, are interesting scenarios. But, the question is how to get a community, nation, region, world as a whole to accept the policies necessary for a preferred scenario?

As Steven Pinker said “The world’s staggering problems won’t be solved by singing pop songs, denouncing villains, or adopting the proper moral tone, but by figuring out which policies have the best chance of doing the most good.”

For example, if the Thai Government wants to implement policy toward a Sustainability First scenario (which is the preferred scenario in term of decreasing CO₂, atmospheric concentrations of CO₂, temperature, for example), how the Thai government could persuade business sector, which prefer a Market First scenario (current trend; if every country follows this scenario CO₂ emissions is the worst).

If I were one of the Thai Government members, I would discuss the good and bad of both scenarios with the representative of different sectors and policy options to achieve an agreed approach.

What is your preferred scenario? How can you persuade your community, nation, region, world to follow policies under that scenario?

Noosphere Scenario

The principal problem with the scenarios posed under GEO3, is that the UN still remains a relatively weak organization which is primarily dominated by the US and other developed nations. The scenarios in GEO3 are posed under a world order where there is some ability to govern globalization through a strong international organization.  The UN has not been able to effectively enforce very basic policies and programmes.  The report mentions the Global Compact, which is a voluntary initiative.  In Thailand and in many nations it has essentially accomplished nothing, but a rewriting of corporate social responsibility activities relative by member companies.  It also may be viewed as the UN supporting various multinational corporations.

I propose a scenario with the Noosphere as a driver, that is global consciousness or intelligence which surrounds the ecosphere.  In this scenario, the world recognizes evidence of GAIA, that is a living earth (Lovelock) becomes central to our thinking about development policies as we move towards 2032.  We recognize that all living things are equal and have a great importance to the health of the ecosystem and furthermore ourselves.  On a more practical note, we as individuals evolve to understand the similarities behind the world's religions and move towards a global consciousness.  Under this paradigm corporations will be directly responsible for their product impacts.  That is a so called massive takeback programme for all manufactured products such as televisions, computers, cars and other physical products.  Energy companies will also be responsible for the impacts of their fuels not just emissions from the production of these fuel sources.

ENRM students, do you agree or disagree?

scenario

A scenario is an account or synopsis of a projected course of action, events or situation.In other words,it is a synthetic description of an event or series of actions and events.Scenario is widely used by corporations,companies,army organigations to help understand different ways that future events unfold.According to the Forecasting Dictionary a scenario is "a storey about what hapened in the future".Scenario is known facts about the future.Scenario should not be used to forecast what will happen.(Wikipedia,17 June2007)

Sudents on Global Environment Forum

May I give suggestion to you students in trying to contribute to academic and scientific discussion. Let's make a case of "scenario" as an example:
1) You should state a conceptual definition/meaning of the term "scenario."
2) You should present a philosophical assumption or position upon which "scenario" is based;
3) You should use a real case study or good practice to show how scenario is applied and how it works or does not work; in some cases, just name as many as you could find in literature those companies and institutions that were successful in the use; and
4) From all three above, you form your own conclusion as whether to be critical about or supportive of the use of scenarios.

Can all of you try again? May I also suggest that you should write your comments or postings first on "WORDPAD" then use copy and paste to blogs. In this way you could save your WordPad documents, make directory, and accumulate it for further use. Just like keeping your own journal, you could in later dates use it as a platform for a full paper.

scenario planning

Scenario planning provides an analytical framework and process for understanding complex issues and responding to change.Communities are participating actively in planning and thus a consensus is built up for improved management of increasingly unlimited resources.So we have to apply scenario planning to shape our future environmentally and economically sound for our future generation.

Get serious about addressing the scenario issue

But what is "scenario" planning different from the conventional planning?

Can anybody answer the following questions?:
1. What is the main philosophical assumption of "scenario" uses?;
2. What are "good practices" of the application of scenario planning?

So far I received from those who used the "hear-say" comments about scenario. Can you do it better?

What is so important about "scenario"?

As you might have completed your initial annotated bibliography focusing on "scenario" planning/technique/approach, can we discuss it now?. How and why has it become important in the literature? Who can tell me?

Fourth World

Graduate Students on "Global Environment and National Resource Forum

Adjusted Method of Study

Global Environmental and Natural Resources Forum (June - October 2007)

Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, Thailand

10 June 2007

Objective:

The main objective of the adjusted method of study of this course is to develop an approach more effective to learning about global environmental issues and sustainable solutions explored. It can be coined the approach to creating "Collective Intelligence" (CI). Basically, it revolves around students both individually and collectively.

Students are expected to:

1 Select one topic related to the global environmental issue currently are high on public agenda and debate;

2 Take turn on a weekly basis to facilitate discussion on the group BLOG given, by posting and raising questions and issues important enough to generate responses and comments from other students from the class;

3 Contribute to the debates and issue posted by the individual student facilitator in a form of reflection and/or critique or of providing new information and thoughts

4 Be sure that questions and issues posted (by facilitator) and responses (from participating students in class) must be well searched and well conceptualized in a scholar tradition;

5 Give a mark or "vote" to comments from other students.

Grading:

• Facilitators will be marked on the number of fellow students who participate in the debate or issue posted; high marks will be given to those who could bring outside participants and experts to contribution to the discussion of the issue;
• Each student will be graded on the number of contributions made to issues and debates posted by student facilitators;
• This also applies to all Ph.D. students (under my supervision)
  

Course Coordinator: Fourth World; teopy@mahidol.ac.th

Testing

Just testing!

Learning how to know

Nature and our World are ever too complex and rapidly changing for our our capacity to understand and appreciate her. Shall we take a new adventure: to learn how to know.

Is Nature really in our eyes or our eyes create Nature?

Is Nature too complex and mysteriously wonderful than our current method of knowing to understand, to respect and to appreciate her.

Our Mother gave us our lives, isn't it our turn now to take care of her?

Hello!

We are here to give, to share, and to create collective intelligence.