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Mexico needs to rethink environmental protection budget cuts, prioritize ecologically-sustainable human development

By Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor

Mexico recently released its budget for 2017, and among the top five largest cuts were environmental protection (down by 37%), culture (-30%), and education (-11%). Political rhetoric aside, these cuts reflect a continuing view of these issues as minor, long-term, or otherwise less important or pressing. The problem is, these views also directly contradict a growing recognition in international policy of the importance of the environment, culture and education, in and of themselves, but also as part of an interdependent suite of human development goals.

Big data and fisheries management: Using satellites to track fishing activity

“After climate change, fishing is the biggest impact humans will have on the oceans. But we have very a limited understanding of what happens beyond the horizon. It’s out of sight,” says David Kroodsma, Global Fishing Watch Research Program Manager at SkyTruth. “Global Fishing Watch allows us to see where the fishing is happening and how much. This will lead to whole hosts of answers to questions about how we manage our oceans.”

Shifting seasonal cycles: Rebecca Asch completes fellowship

In spring, as the plant buds push up through the ground and the days get warmer and longer, the baby salmon fry hatch out of their eggs and start swimming and feeding. At this time, their food – phytoplankton – should also bloom. But due to climate change-induced warming, the fry of many fishes, such as salmon, are coming out earlier or later, as are the phytoplankton blooms, which can cause a mismatch between when the food is available and when the fry need it.

Science fiction prototyping to imagine radical future ocean scenarios

We know the oceans are quickly changing; we are at a point in time where very different future oceans could be laid out in front of us.

Nereus Program Alumnus Andrew Merrie, Stockholm Resilience Centre, is curious about how those futures might differ. Using an innovative method called science fiction prototyping, he’s devised a set of four radical futures for global oceans and fisheries. Two of the scenarios represent more utopian futures, the other two are more dystopian. They are written as speculative fiction in different, engaging narrative styles: a travel magazine article, an obituary, the transcript of a “TED”-like talk, and a series of recovered journal entries.

UBC Green College seminar series: “Adapting to Global Changes in Oceans and Fisheries”

This year, the Nereus Program will hold a seminar series with UBC’s Green College on “Adapting to global changes in oceans and fisheries.” This series will consist of seven lectures looking at how ocean changes are affecting environments and people. The first three Fall seminars are listed below, four more will be announced soon. The seminars are all open to the public free of charge and will be held at UBC, at 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, Vancouver, BC, Canada.