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ESA Policy News: December 10

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston.  Read the full Policy News here. HOUSE: GOP NAMES COMMITTEE CHAIRS House Republican leaders on Tuesday, Dec. 7 announced their roster of committee chairmen, all of whom have vowed to conduct vigorous oversight of the Obama Administration. Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), a noted climate…

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Talking Turkey as Thanksgiving Approaches

This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs In a few days, many of us will partake in the American tradition of Thanksgiving Day. Declared a national holiday in 1863 by President Lincoln, this annual feast with family and friends more often than not features a turkey. Most American Thanksgiving dinner platters feature a domestic turkey, a…

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Moving forward on environmental literacy

This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs Connect with gamers.  Connect with religious communities.  Work with public health professionals.  Explore.  Make the connection to a green economy.  Find champions in the private sector.  Engage with your community.  These were all messages those participating in last week’s Ecology and Education Summit heard from a wide range of…

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ESA’s 95th Annual Meeting Kicks off in Pittsburgh

Last night the Ecological Society of America’s 95th Annual Meeting was off to a rousing start as an audience of over 500 applauded Mayor John Fetterman of Braddock, Pennsylvania, this year’s winner of ESA’s Regional Policy Award.  The award recognizes a regional policymaker who uses ecological science to help inform policy decisions.  Since 2005, Mayor Fetterman has used innovative approaches—including encouraging…

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Scientists visit Capitol Hill to talk about funding for research, education

This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs. BESC CoFARM participants on Capitol Hill It may not seem as satisfying to talk about as an environmental issue, but talking to policymakers about federal investment in science is an important task.  That’s what over twenty ecologists, field biologists, agronomists, animal scientists, and resource economists did last week.  In town…

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Pondering the authority of science

This post contributed by Piper Corp, ESA Science Policy Analyst Who says we have to listen to scientists? When President Obama vowed in his inaugural address to “restore science to its rightful place,” where exactly was he talking about? The thou-shalts and self-evident truths on which Americans base so many decisions have little to say about consulting sound science. Still,…

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ESA Policy News: March 26

Here are some highlights from the latest Policy News.  See the full edition here.   AIR POLLUTION: CARPER PLANS FOR APRIL MARK-UP OF 3-POLLUTANT BILL–Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) said this week that he expects a mid-April markup of legislation to curb power plant pollution in the full Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. Carper, who chairs the Clean Air Subcommittee,…

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Tackling fiction with what he knows best

I was thumbing through my New Yorker magazine when the featured fiction story caught my eye. The accompanying graphic showed several silhouetted ants and the opening line of the story read: “The Trailhead Queen was dead.” I began reading and got pulled into the plight facing the colony, which was profoundly affected by the death of its long-lived queen.

Something about the fiction story was different though. While it kept my attention it also fed me detailed and fascinating facts (e.g. “…..ants are encased in an external skeleton; their soft tissues shrivel into dry threads and lumps, but their exoskeletons remain, a knight’s armor fully intact long after the knight is gone.”) Halfway through reading, it struck me that this was just the sort of story a biologist could write. I flipped back to check who authored the piece and was startled to see that it was a biologist.

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ESA Policy News: Feb 12

  Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by ESA’s Science Policy Analyst, Piper Corp.  Read the full Policy News here.    WHITE HOUSE BUDGET REQUEST FOR 2011 SHOWS STRONG COMMITMENT TO SCIENCE–President Obama’s $3.834 trillion 2011 budget request shows continued support for science, in spite of the three-year freeze on nondefense discretionary spending that he has…

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Look out for Loners

This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs   Personality traits that lead an individual to want to avoid crowds could actually be playing a role in biological invasions, says a recent study that appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences.  Julien Cote and colleagues at the University of California at Davis looked at…

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