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Posts Tagged ‘School of Natural Resources & Environment’
The Limits of Carbon Pricing: Can High Prices Alone Cut Emissions?
U-M Professor Andy Hoffman writes in his latest Perspectives blog posting that "we place too much faith in pricing as a singular mechanism for solving environmental problems in this country. The most vivid example is the call to create a price for carbon as the solution to the climate change problem. As the logic goes; if we set a price for carbon high enough, innovators will create new gadgets that emit fewer greenhouse gases, investors will invest in them, companies will adopt them and consumers will buy them. But, not so fast. We are not like some sort of mice chasing a piece of cheese whenever it is placed in front of us. Unlike mice, we are not so singular in focus. We actually care who is placing the cheese and we may even ignore the cheese if it is not placed in the right way." This first appeared on the Newsweek.com “Green Business” blog on November 18, 2009. [Read more...]
Professor co-authors new book on conservation, food sovereignty
Ivette Perfecto, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment, has co-written a new book that offers a radical departure from traditional theories related to biodiversity and food sovereignty in tropical regions of the world. In Nature's Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty (Earthscan, Ltd, 2009), Professor Perfecto and her co-authors say that such goals cannot be achieved without embracing rural social movements and local peasant farmers. This new approach to the conservation of biodiversity is based on advances in ecology science and modern political realities found in rural areas, particularly tropical regions. [Read more...]
SNRE professor contributes to study examining inequality, ’silver spoon’ effect in ancient societies
The so-called "silver spoon" effect—in which wealth is passed down from one generation to another—is well established in some of the world's most ancient economies, according to an international study reported in the Oct. 30 issue of Science. The study expands economists' conventional focus on material riches, and looks at various kinds of wealth, such as hunting success, food-sharing partners and kinship networks. The team of researchers—including Bobbi Low, a Conservation Biology professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment— found that some kinds of wealth, like material possessions, are much more easily passed on than social networks or foraging abilities. [Read more...]
U-M exceeds $1 billion in annual research spending for the first time
Research spending at the University of Michigan in 2008-09 exceeded $1 billion for the first time, a milestone that highlights the university’s role as an economic resource benefitting the entire state. In the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression, research spending at the university rose 9.4 percent over the previous fiscal year, totaling $1.02 billion. The federal government provided 64.4 percent of the funds, and federal research spending at the U-M rose 7.1 percent over 2007-08. [Read more...]