Enhancing #Scientificliteracy
Public engagement in science is a hot topic highlighted by the ‘Nation of Curious Minds’ project and the National Objectives Framework component of the Freshwater Reform package. For both, the […]
Category Archives: Environment & History
Common Ground?
Who or what is ‘the community’? It’s another one of those terms that seems to be a catch-all for ‘everybody else’. I’ll also confess to frequent use of community without […]
He Tangata, he tangata, he tangata – the people, the people, the people
Wetlands are often referred as the barometer catchment health, but their function as barometer of the health of the people is often overlooked (or frankly, just ignored). The biennial National […]
James Cook & his ‘Wild Musick’
In 1770, botanist Joseph Banks described the cacophony of austral bird sounds as almost imitating “…small bells but with the most tuneable silver sound imaginable…” It must have been extraordinary, […]
Seed – Flower – Fruit
An almost overwhelming number of dialogues underway from government agencies to volunteers are exploring the overlay between community groups, science-based tools and data generation. If the ‘seeds’ are the groups […]
Diffusion
Recently I decided to enter a competition which required summarising the nuts and bolts of my PhD into a 3 minute presentation with a single fixed slide. No fancy props, […]
(Citizen)Science culture
The more I think about the broad topic of citizen science, the more questions are raised around the notion of culture. In both the US and UK, nationwide projects harness […]
Water, Wasser, L’eau
Looking through the twin lenses of water quality and water use in two European landscapes highlights a lengthy history of reshaping the environment. The German town of Freiburg (pop. […]
Landscape language
The language we overlay on to our surroundings reveal our cultural biases. The words assigned to landforms describe positive and negative states of being. Mountains. Reaching the pinnacle of success. […]
Flat chance – Farming our environment
Domestic flights (when the opportunity comes up) bring the landscape back into focus, and help stitch together visual fragments collected from road travel through the region. The absolute flatness of […]
monicalogues 