As the fate of the Earth system becomes ever more intertwined with human systems, “thinking in systems” has become more essential than ever. I’ve read books on systems theory (e.g. Allen & Hoekstra 1993), but a refresher is always good, so when I came across Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows (Amazon recommends!), I thought- here’s a great […]
Acting locally: no problem. Thinking globally: big problem! To solve global problems, we need global understanding of local change. Yet no matter how hard we try, it remains extremely difficult to think globally. Even in a world where Earth’s entire surface is scanned daily by satellites and made available online. Even as all of human knowledge and most of humanity […]
By Jonathan Dandois Will the census of the future ask homeowners how many trees they have on their property? With humanity now faced with a changing climate under even the most stringent efforts to reduce carbon emissions, carbon accounting has become a hot topic for scientists, politicians and economists. While carbon accounting at the scale of individual households and their […]
by Jonathan Dandois The real world is 3-dimensional. And so is real ecology! To improve our ability to observe and measure the ecology of landscapes in 3D, we are exploring a variety of new tools that almost anyone can use. To see some examples, I’ve just updated our <OLD: 3D landscapes page; NEW content on Ecosynth.org page>- do have a look! […]
Now you can be your own remote sensing platform on the cheap – in 3D! Microsoft’s Photosynth application (installs in your browser) allows anyone to combine pictures taken from any angle from the ground or kite, balloon or radio-controlled airplane- what have you- and make a geometrically-corrected aerial view or 3D virtual world. Just upload your photos! The technology is […]
R software is creating an open-source statistics revolution. It is powerful, easy to use, popular and free! And it just keeps get better all the time! In many ways, it has already surpassed what can be done with any other purchased software. This post provides links to some useful resources for joining the R revolution – including a review of […]