{"id":9236,"date":"2013-08-06T09:53:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T13:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=9236"},"modified":"2013-08-06T09:53:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T13:53:59","slug":"john-foley-climate-change-is-a-civilization-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2013\/08\/06\/john-foley-climate-change-is-a-civilization-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"John Foley – climate change is a ‘civilization problem’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Terence Houston, ESA policy analyst<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jon<\/a>

Jon Foley at ESA 2013. Credit: N. Lymn<\/p><\/div>\n

In the face of what he called an \u201cinflection point in history,\u201d on issues such as climate change and natural resources consumption, opening plenary speaker John Foley<\/a> called on Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting attendees to reexamine and build upon the traditional methods of public engagement.<\/p>\n

Noting that traditional modes of governance (such as Congress<\/a>) are \u201cbroken and inadequate,\u201d Foley suggested that we reexamine our theories and methods of influencing policy changes, asserting that relying on grassroots activism, international support or free markets alone are \u201ctheories of change\u201d that need to be re-evaluated in favor of a new frameworks. He stated that we should not \u201cpigeon-hole\u201d an issue like climate change as an environmental problem, but as a \u201ccivilization problem \u2013 do you get to have one?\u201d<\/div>\n
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We often get stuck focusing on the aspects of climate change that are more polarized, namely the 60 percent of carbon emissions generated from energy production, said Foley. He suggested mitigating global warming through a focus on the 35 percent of carbon emissions that come from agricultural production. Addressing human diets, biofuels and food waste would put a significant dent in what we need to grow, putting a dent in the greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming. He noted that China, India and the United States contribute 60 percent of the world\u2019s nitrogen oxide from fertilizer and make up 77 percent of irrigation water use.<\/div>\n
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Foley called on scientists to \u201cget out of your bloody cage\u201d and interact with individuals with different areas of expertise, such as people in the business community or governance. He applauded the work of ESA and other scientific societies to engage their members in policy, referencing the work of the Leopold Leadership program<\/a> in helping scientists gain skills to better share their scientific information with the media and decision-makers.\u00a0 Referencing author Barbara Kingsolver, he reminded attendees not to forget to hope: \u201cThe very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\"ESA<\/a>

ESA president Scott Collins and Ellen Anderson. Credit: N. Lymn<\/p><\/div>\n

Foley\u2019s message was a refrain on 2013 ESA Regional Policy Award recipient Ellen Anderson<\/a>, Energy and Environment Senior Advisor to Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton<\/a>. She touted the role scientific understanding has in helping us as a society gain understanding and wisdom so we can \u201cfear less\u201d and\u00a0asserted there is hope for the future, given that a majority of millennials when surveyed, stated that they are unlikely to support a candidate who does not believe the scientific consensus regarding human-influenced climate change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Terence Houston, ESA policy analyst In the face of what he called an \u201cinflection point in history,\u201d on issues such as climate change and natural resources consumption, opening plenary speaker John Foley called on Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting attendees to reexamine and build upon the traditional methods of public engagement. Noting that traditional modes of governance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":9244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1565,10],"tags":[60,1597,1580,1566,474,1077,1598,1599],"class_list":["post-9236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-esa-2013-annual-meeting","category-ecology-in-policy","tag-climate-change","tag-esa-opening-plenary","tag-esa-regional-policy-award","tag-esa2013","tag-global-warming","tag-greenhouse-gas-emissions","tag-resource-consumption","tag-theories-of-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}