Thanks. Maybe check Open Culture. It lists about 1,000 free courses. There’s also Youtube/Education, where universities post free lectures.
Update: KnowledgeAndLove points to Academic Earth.
What is Resilience? is a nifty, free, 20page, visual ebook overview defining resilience. It’s free, and published by the researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. (Free ebook is free.)
Resilience is the capacity of a system, be it an individual, a forest, a city or an economy, to deal with change and continue to develop. It is about the capacity to use shocks and disturbances like a financial crisis or climate change to spur renewal and innovative thinking.
This publication presents the major strands within resilience thinking and social-ecological research. It describes the profound imprint we humans have had on nature and ideas on how to deal with the resulting challenges.
The publication is based on three scientific articles that were prepared for the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on global sustainability, which took place in Stockholm in May 2011. The articles were later published in the scientific journal Ambio. They represent a mix of necessary actions and exciting planetary opportunities. They also illustrate how we can use the growing insights into the many challenges we are facing by starting to work with the processes of the biosphere instead of against them.
Chapter One describes in detail the complex interdependencies between people and ecosystems. It highlights the fact that there are virtually no ecosystems that are not shaped by people and no people without the need for ecosystems and the services they provide. Too many of us seem to have disconnected ourselves from Nature. A shift in thinking will create exciting opportunities for us to continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.
Chapter Two takes us through the tremendous acceleration of human enterprise, especially since World War II. This acceleration is pushing the Earth dangerously close to its boundaries, to the extent that abrupt environmental change cannot be excluded. Furthermore, it has led scientists to argue that the current geological period should be labelled the ‘Antropocene’ – the Age of Man.
Chapter Three highlights the fascinating paradox that the innovative capacity that has put us in the current environmental predicament can also be used to push us out of it. It introduces the term social-ecological innovation, which essentially strives to find innovative ways to reconnect with the biosphere and stay within planetary boundaries.
Enjoy! :)
Beautiful, free ebook. Really amazing work. It takes a minute to load. A must for environmentalists.
The 100 Most Threatened Species
The 100 most critically-endangered species, according to a new report from the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, have been published in web-based e-book entitled “Priceless or Worthless.”
The list of species — all with photos, and many in a 2-page spread — begins on page 22 of the e-book, which also includes a list of species that we know have already become extinct.
Get it while it lasts, I suspect it will be taken down soon.
Note, Dr. Lubchenco is speaking on the 27th!
Jan 17: Ocean Acidification Monitoring and Research at NOAA: An Integrated Approach
Jan 17: How Do Catch Shares Affect Marine Resources? Insights From A Global Comparative Analysis
Jan 17:Making Plain Language Clear
Jan 18: Ensemble-Based Variational Assimilation Method to Incorporate Microwave Imager Data into a Cloud-Resolving Model
Jan 19: 92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting Dress Rehearsal: STAR AMS Presenters Preview their Planned Talks
Jan 19: Forensic Science at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center
Jan 19: Do You Have a Flag? Arctic Governance and The Perceived “Race” for Resources
Jan 19: Danger, Desire, and Governance: A Political Ecology of Vibrio vulnificus
Jan 25: How Can we Deal with Data Gaps for Integrated Ecosystem Assessments?
Jan 25: Regulating Carbon Emissions from Ships
Jan 26: NODC Data and Services and it’s new Geoportal Server
Jan 26: Overview of Ecology’s Sediment Rule Revisions: Freshwater Sediment Standards and Dealing with Bioaccumulatives
Jan 27: Dr. Jane Lubchenco (seminar title TBD)
Jan 31: An Updated Precipitation Frequency Analysis For The State of Alaska
Jan 10:Inspiring Innovation by Capitalizing Creativity
Jan 10: Prediction Uncertainty, Bright Lines, and the Search for Useful Indicator Benchmarks for Ecosystem Management
Jan 10: Remote Sensing Data as Drivers for Streamflow Prediction Models for the Upper Midwest
Jan 12: Reef Fish Surveys at the Speed of Sound! Acoustic-Derived Metrics for Reef Fishery and Ecosystem Management
Jan 12: The Need for Evaluation Database for Volcanic Ash Dispersion Model Result
Jan 12: Climatology, Variability and Change in Arctic Surface-Based Inversions
Jan 12: The Importantance of Wind Shielding at the NOAA/FAA/NCAR Winter Precipitation Testbed
Jan 12: Characterization of the Spatial Variability of Land Surface Temperature around NOAA CRN Sites Using Airborne and Satellite Measurements
Jan 17: Ocean Acidification Monitoring and Research at NOAA: An Integrated Approach
Jan 17: How Do Catch Shares Affect Marine Resources? Insights From A Global Comparative Analysis
Jan 18: Making Plain Language Clear
Jan 18: Ensemble-Based Variational Assimilation Method to Incorporate Microwave Imager Data into a Cloud-Resolving Model
Jan 19: 92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting Dress Rehearsal: STAR AMS Presenters Preview their Planned Talks
Jan 25: How Can we Deal with Data Gaps for Integrated Ecosystem Assessments?
Jan 25: Regulating Carbon Emissions from Ships
Jan 26: NODC Data and Services and it’s new Geoportal Server
Jan 31: An Updated Precipitation Frequency Analysis For The State of Alaska
November 2011 OneNOAA Science Seminars:
Nov 15: California Undercurrent Studies
Nov 15: Mapping Species and Habitats to Meet Regional and Local Management Needs: An Introduction to NOAA’s Biogeography Branch
Nov 16: Ocean Frontiers Documentary: Inspiring Stories from the Frontiers of Ocean Conservation Sneak Video Previews, Part 2 of 2
Nov 16: Ionospheric Data Assimilation
Nov 17: Trends in Status of Global Marine Fisheries
Nov 17: A Human Health Perspective on Climate Change: Promoting Community-Based Adaptation Planning For Climate Change In Alaska
Nov 18: Thinking about Inference in Ecology: Replication, Metareplication, Induction and Deduction
Nov 29: The Goshen County, Wyoming, supercell (5 June 2009) intercepted by VORTEX2: Interesting Evolution Leading up to Tornadogenesis
Nov 30: In Situ Sensing in Supercells with the Tempest Unmanned Aircraft System
Nov 30: Micro and Nanotechnology-Enabled Environmental Sensing with Lagrangian Drifters
FREE ONLINE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CONFERENCE THIS WEEK! Free research papers, webinars, chats, videos, and discussion forums.
Check it out: Climate 2011
October 5, 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (eastern)
Presenter: Adam Whelchel, The Nature Conservancy
Many coastal communities are looking for ways to apply ecosystem-based management approaches for community resilience. This presentation will highlight the four-step process of The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Resilience project, which includes awareness, risk, choice, and action. This approach focuses on the need to tailor options to fit the varying needs and pace of different communities. The case studies that will be presented focus on communities that have moved beyond the awareness phase in the process to assessing vulnerability and developing options for future action.
In this webinar, participants will learn about
Why the Forest Monitoring for Action project rules. It’s a free online tool used to monitor deforestation of tropical rainforests. Countries, NGOs, the UN, activists just have to go to the website to see what areas are being deforested. Many forests in Asia are being cut down to make way for palm oil farms. The FORMA project:
detects forest loss in areas as small as a square kilometer (about a third of a square mile), making it easy to know when and where forest destruction is occurring—and thus potentially intervene to stop its spread.
The tool, called Forest Monitoring for Action or FORMA, processes data from NASA and other sources to produce detailed maps of deforestation hotspots that are updated each month as new satellite data become available.
The system has important implications for U.S. climate legislation and for the UN-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen early next month. Payments from rich countries to developing countries to support forest preservation are being considered in both cases.
I want to punch climate change in the face.
A blog about the interactions between the built environment, people, and nature.
I'm a climate change consultant specializing in climate adaptation, environmental law, and urban planning based in the U.S. In addition to traveling and hiking, I research, publish, and lecture on how cities can adapt to climate change.
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