In a Future Tense article, David Biello explores the reasoning behind American farmers' climate change disbelief. Most farmers in the U.S. are affected by the changing weather, however, they don't view it as a by-product of climate change, rather something that has been happening since the dawn of time.

It's too bad; farming is the second-largest contributor to climate change, with the increased use of fossil-fueled equipment and nitrous oxide-filled fertilizers. But there has been a shift to more fuel-efficient machinery and low-impact farming techniques not because of climate change, but because of money.

"It's cheaper to farm that way, and you still get the same type of crop, if not a bit better," says Oregon wheat farmer Kevin McCullough.

Future Tense is a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and Slate.

School of Sustainability associate professor Arnim Wiek and his international colleagues were recognized by the journal “Sustainability Science” for their paper, From complex systems analysis to transformational change: a comparative appraisal of sustainability science projects, which the journal called its Paper of the Year for 2012.

“Science in general,” says Wiek, “is largely dominated by describing and explaining the world, and only little inspired by transforming the world. The question is then: How do sustainability scientists move from ‘only’ describing and analyzing sustainability problems to actually contributing to sustainable solutions?”

“The article shows that it is not easy to do solution-focused research, and it explores some of the reasons for this,” says Wiek. “We cannot just continue doing research we used to do – describing and explaining the world – and hope that the results will lead to real impact and progress towards sustainability.”

The Algae Testbed Public-Private Partnership (ATP3), a project led by Arizona State University and the U.S. Department of Energy, will be part of the second algae training workshop on the University of Texas at Austin’s campus.

"We are excited to spread the wealth of knowledge that ATP3 has as a collaboration," says Gary Dirks, director of ATP3, ASU LightWorks, and the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability.

The informal workshops are open to students, researchers, and faculty interested in algae formation, cultivation, and research. Algae experts will lead modules on culture monitoring, sample collection, chemical composition, and growth measurement. To sign up, visit atp3.org/education/. The program fee is $1,600 and includes training, materials and three lunches.

Wednesday, July 10th marked the 100th anniversary of Earth's hottest temperature—recorded in Death Valley, California at 134 degrees Fahrenheit. Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability Randy Cerveny celebrated with fellow weather experts at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Museum in Death Valley.

"I was really happy looking out in that auditorium as we spoke," said Cerveny, also a President's Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. "There were a lot of weather tourists who are very interested in this."

Cerveny was part of the World Meteorological Organization team that re-certified Death Valley's record after investigating a falsely recorded highest temperature in El Azizia, Libya.

Phoenix's long battle to supply its growing population with enough water is discussed in an article part of USA Today's "Weathering the Change" series. Phoenix, the fifth-largest city in the U.S., joins other Southwest cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego that are preparing for dwindling water supplies due to climate change.

Arizona state climatologist and Sustainability Scientist Nancy Selover says, "Water is our biggest issue. You can never have enough water." The most recent National Climate Assessment shows that Phoenix's drought has been "unusually severe."

We've sustained ourselves for so long thanks to the Colorado, Salt, and Verde Rivers and underground water. However, increasing temperatures pose health risks, especially for the elderly, homeless, and underprivileged.

In a Co.EXIST article by Stan Alcorn, Arizona State University researcher Kevin Gurney discusses his tool, the Ventus Project, an online portal that allows everyday citizens to record nearby carbon-emitting power plants.

People around the globe can identify power plants and then input data like location and name into Ventus. About 90 percent of carbon emissions from power plants is recorded, but that other 10 percent is what Gurney's team is after.

"We try to do this ourselves in Google Earth and it can be done," says Gurney. "It’s just so unbelievably labor intensive; it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack."

In conjunction with Arizona Project WET, the Water Sustainability Program, and UA’s Water Resources Research Center, DCDC hosted 35 teachers at the eighth annual workshop. The theme of this year’s workshop was, "Using Models to Simplify the Complex Interactions of Water in the Valley."

Educators joined us to enhance their knowledge about how scientists and engineers develop and use models to solve problems and ask questions about water in the city. After completing this workshop educators understood how:

• models are used to explain phenomena, analyze systems, and solve problems
• decision-makers deal with uncertainty in models
• modeling is an iterative process
• to use modeling in your classroom

Workshop materials are available here.

Science and Public Policy, published by Oxford Journals, is a leading international journal on public policies for science, technology and innovation. It covers all types of science and technology in both developed and developing countries.

DCDC publications having an impact include the following articles published in Science and Public Policy in 2010 and 2011 that were most cited during 2012.

Dave D. White, Amber Wutich, Kelli L. Larson, Patricia Gober, Timothy Lant and Clea Senneville.2010. Credibility, salience, and legitimacy of boundary objects: water managers' assessment of a simulation model in an immersive decision theater. Science and Public Policy 37(3):219-232.

Abstract

The connection between scientific knowledge and environmental policy is enhanced through boundary organizations and objects that are perceived to be credible, salient, and legitimate. In this study, water resource decision makers evaluated the knowledge embedded in WaterSim, an interactive simulation model of water supply and demand presented in an immersive decision theater. Content analysis of individual responses demonstrated that stakeholders were fairly critical of the model’s validity, relevance, and bias. Differing perspectives reveal tradeoffs in achieving credible, salient, and legitimate boundary objects, along with the need for iterative processes that engage them in the co-production of knowledge and action.

Sonia Talwar, Arnim Wiek and John Robinson. 2011. User engagement in sustainability research. Science and Policy (38)5:379-390.

Abstract

User engagement, stakeholder involvement, and public consultation in sustainability research have received increased attention over the last decade. Key driving factors behind this are that social outcomes, policy relevance, and user engagement have all become requirements for securing research funding. Many articles have provided compelling arguments for the need to reconsider why, when and how users are engaged within the research process. We propose a typology of user engagement strategies in research, focusing on the actual research process and emphasizing types of engagement in research. We illustrate these types with a comparative analysis of empirical examples from three interactive sustainability research projects, based in Canada and Switzerland. The article discusses the challenges that require a reconfiguration of institutional and organizational structures to seize the full potential of interactive sustainability research.

As one of four study abroad experiences offered by the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives’ Global Sustainability Studies Program this summer, School of Sustainability students joined several professors in Dubai to meet His Excellency Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Minister of Economy.

There, the students discussed tourism, governance, economics, and other local issues with His Excellency and several regional industry and business leaders.

"The students learned how to behave in a different culture and in the presence of high-ranking officials," says David Manuel-Navarrete, a senior sustainability scholar in the Global Institute of Sustainability and a professor in the School of Sustainability. "The Emiratis we encountered provided a lot of insight and personal experience for the students."

Rajesh Buch, a practice lead with Sustainability Solutions Extension Service under the  Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, graduated from the School of Sustainability last year. He is now applying his background in mechanical engineering, energy systems, and business in the Extension Service, a unique consulting group that pairs student analysts with faculty members who guide sustainability projects.

As a practice lead, Buch organizes the student groups and collaborates with the faculty to implement projects such as greenhouse gas inventories, waste recycling programs, and biofuel evaluations.

"Sustainability is a way to correct our way of developing," he says. "We can start by taking baby steps. I contribute by assisting those private and public organizations that are willing to recognize the importance of sustainability."

"Our world is on a collision course with environmental realities and we're quickly running out of runway to take meaningful corrective action," writes Bruno Sarda in an article published in the Guardian's Sustainable Business section. Plenty of leaders have told us how to alleviate climate change, but yet we still go day by day making no change. So what do we need? Sarda says leadership.

Sarda, the director of Global Sustainability Operations at Dell and a consultant for the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, says true sustainability leaders can enact change if their plans are long-term; aligned with the strategy of a company or organization. Deliberate action will come from set goals co-administered by leaders and participants.

"Our world needs a 'shock and awe' campaign executed by highly trained sustainability warriors who can effectively lead change, set strategy and execute on goals, be awesome communicators and keep up with a rapidly evolving global context," writes Sarda.

In an AZ Central opinion article, Senior Sustainability Scientist and School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning professor Mike Pasqualetti reflects how the Navajo Generating Station is a larger symbol for our growing dislike of coal. The Navajo Generating Station, located near Page, has been a heated topic since its future has been up for discussion with tribal nations, energy providers, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Will it close or be retrofitted?

"Coal is also losing momentum nationally," writes Pasqualetti. "It dropped from 50 percent in 2005 to 35 percent in 2012, driven by cheap natural gas. Fifty-two gigawatts (about 16 percent of the existing coal fleet) has been announced for retirement by 2025."

If Arizona is to keep coal, the state has to find a way to severely cut emissions and compete with growing renewable and natural gas markets.

Research and development of cleaner sources of energy is becoming increasingly more important in our society. Last week, President Barack Obama announced new measures to tackle climate change which included the need for new energy sources to reduce the nation’s increasing carbon footprint. The potential of cyanobacteria as a producer of biofuel is currently being supported as a cleaner fuel source with promising benefits. Researchers at Arizona State University are looking at how this very versatile and ancient organism and can help build a sustainable energy future.

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Arizona State University researchers will be featured on the cover of the June 28 edition of Science for their work in studying what most people ignore: dirt.

The international team funded by the National Science Foundation and led by School of Life Sciences professor Ferran Garcia-Pichel found that temperature determines where soil microbes can live and form crusts that prevent erosion and provide energy for surrounding vegetation. Unfortunately, the scientist say that in 50 years, higher temperatures due to climate change may change the abundance of different microbes in colder U.S. deserts with unknown consequences.

"Our study is relevant beyond desert ecology," says Garcia-Pichel. "It exemplifies that microbial distributions and the partitioning of their habitats can be affected by global change, something we’ve long known for plants and animals. This study tells us clearly that we can no longer neglect microbes in our considerations."

Normally, the Earth maintains a balance of carbon outputs and inputs. However, since the Industrial Revolution, we've been putting more carbon into the atmosphere than Earth can handle.

Luckily, the ocean absorbs a quarter to a third of our carbon outputs. Part of that comes from really small algae called phytoplankton that turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. When ocean animals eat phytoplankton, they eventually pass fecal pellets, some of which sink to the deep ocean and may even get buried in the sea floor, effectively removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

This is "the only mechanism that can actually permanently bury organic carbon," says Susanne Neuer, a plankton ecologist in ASU ‘s School of Life Sciences and a senior sustainability scientist at the Global Institute of Sustainability. "The carbon is buried on geological time scales, so that’s gone for a very long time."

Oceanographer Neuer is studying this process and phytoplankton's role in climate change mitigation in her lab with undergraduate and graduate student researchers.

On average, 18,000 new species are discovered each year. Senior Sustainability Scientist Quentin Wheeler and his colleague Sara Pennak recognize the top 10 of these species each year in their Top 10 New Species List. In the past, these new organisms have included night-blooming orchids, glow-in-the-dark cockroaches, kite-shaped jellyfish, and sneezing monkeys.

These lists are now compiled in a new book, "What On Earth? 100 of Our Planet’s Most Amazing New Species" by Wheeler and Pennak.

"One thing that makes us human is our innate curiosity about ourselves, our origins, and our place in the universe," says Wheeler. "A critically important part of the answer lies in the complex story of evolution. As we piece together the history of Earth’s species, we begin to appreciate our status as a species within evolutionary history."

McGraw-Hill Professional introduces the second edition of "Charter of the New Urbanism," a seminal book originally published in 1999 that covered the urban sprawl issue. Senior Sustainability Scientist and School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning professor Emily Talen edited the second edition.

Urban and suburban landscapes have certainly changed since 1999, and the new edition boasts up-to-date case studies, plans, and examples for design professionals, architects, developers, planners, officials, and community members. The book aims to educate on how we can "conserve environmental assets and preserve our built legacy."

Emily Talen is also a professor in the School of Sustainability. She is the director of the Phoenix Urban Research Lab (PURL) at ASU and co-editor of the Journal of Urbanism.

A Thought Leader Series Piece

By Patricia Reiter

Note: As the Director of the newly established Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, Patricia Reiter is responsible for overseeing the success and impact of eight programs that use evidence-based knowledge to deliver solutions to today's complex sustainability issues.

On occasion, Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael M. Crow draws similarities between the fields of medicine and sustainability. ASU Senior Sustainability Scientist and United Nations Champion of the Earth Sander van der Leeuw developed the idea further in a diagram (see below) that describes the domain of medicine as the health of the individual in relationship to their environment and the domain of sustainability as the health of societies interacting with their environment. This analogy between medicine and sustainability is useful in explaining the intent of the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability's Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives.

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Katja Brundiers, ASU's School of Sustainability community-university liaison, led educational sessions at Portland State University's Institute for Sustainable Solutions Living Learning Lab workshop. Teams of university administration, facilities, and education members developed their own ideas of a Living Learning Lab on their campus—a place where research turns into campus and community projects that improve sustainability.

"We took a very outcome-oriented approach and facilitated conversations among the three key groups that were represented in the room—faculty, operations and students," Brundiers said. "Some universities were small, some were big, and all were at different levels of developing their Living Learning Labs."

The workshop was presented by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and drew attendees from national universities including Penn State and University of California, Santa Cruz.

By Ian Johnson via The New York Times

BEIJING — China is pushing ahead with a sweeping plan to move 250 million rural residents into newly constructed towns and cities over the next dozen years — a transformative event that could set off a new wave of growth or saddle the country with problems for generations to come.

The government, often by fiat, is replacing small rural homes with high-rises, paving over vast swaths of farmland and drastically altering the lives of rural dwellers. So large is the scale that the number of brand-new Chinese city dwellers will approach the total urban population of the United States — in a country already bursting with megacities.

This will decisively change the character of China, where the Communist Party insisted for decades that most peasants, even those working in cities, remain tied to their tiny plots of land to ensure political and economic stability. Now, the party has shifted priorities, mainly to find a new source of growth for a slowing economy that depends increasingly on a consuming class of city dwellers.

The shift is occurring so quickly, and the potential costs are so high, that some fear rural China is once again the site of radical social engineering. Over the past decades, the Communist Party has flip-flopped on peasants’ rights to use land: giving small plots to farm during 1950s land reform, collectivizing a few years later, restoring rights at the start of the reform era and now trying to obliterate small landholders.

Across China, bulldozers are leveling villages that date to long-ago dynasties. Towers now sprout skyward from dusty plains and verdant hillsides. New urban schools and hospitals offer modern services, but often at the expense of the torn-down temples and open-air theaters of the countryside.

"It’s a new world for us in the city," said Tian Wei, 43, a former wheat farmer in the northern province of Hebei, who now works as a night watchman at a factory. "All my life I’ve worked with my hands in the fields; do I have the educational level to keep up with the city people?"

China has long been home to both some of the world’s tiniest villages and its most congested, polluted examples of urban sprawl. The ultimate goal of the government’s modernization plan is to fully integrate 70 percent of the country’s population, or roughly 900 million people, into city living by 2025. Currently, only half that number are.

The building frenzy is on display in places like Liaocheng, which grew up as an entrepôt for local wheat farmers in the North China Plain. It is now ringed by scores of 20-story towers housing now-landless farmers who have been thrust into city life. Many are giddy at their new lives — they received the apartments free, plus tens of thousands of dollars for their land — but others are uncertain about what they will do when the money runs out.

Aggressive state spending is planned on new roads, hospitals, schools, community centers — which could cost upward of $600 billion a year, according to economists’ estimates. In addition, vast sums will be needed to pay for the education, health care and pensions of the ex-farmers.

While the economic fortunes of many have improved in the mass move to cities, unemployment and other social woes have also followed the enormous dislocation. Some young people feel lucky to have jobs that pay survival wages of about $150 a month; others wile away their days in pool halls and video-game arcades.

Top-down efforts to quickly transform entire societies have often come to grief, and urbanization has already proven one of the most wrenching changes in China’s 35 years of economic transition. Land disputes account for thousands of protests each year, including dozens of cases in recent years in which people have set themselves aflame rather than relocate.

Continue reading at The New York Times.