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The Legal and Political Relationship Between congress and Bureaucracy: Quasi-Legislation and Democratic Accountability
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Geode: A Novel About Environmental Ethics
No full textWhen Mark heads out to a local pond to go fishing, he discovers that all of the fish are dead. His classmate Theo informs him that the incident is called a fish kill, and it was likely caused by pesticide runoff from a nearby farm. An ardent environmentalist, Theo also tells Mark about the new technology that her mother has been working on at the town’s Nature Center, an AI chatbot called ChatGEODE. GEODE is an acronym for Great Environmentalists On Demand Electronically. And like a geode—a rock that reveals crystals inside when broken open—ChatGEODE holds within it a treasure: a storehouse of information collected from an array of individuals who promoted various ideas about the responsibility that humans have toward the natural world. And so launches Mark’s exploration into environmental ethics.
As Mark learns about the environment, he discovers piles of a strange substance that lead him to a mysterious cave. Inside the cave are three glowing orbs. The orbs tell Mark that they are stars that have come to Earth to help humans deal with the crisis of climate change. They subsequently explain to him various theories about how to combat the problem of a rapidly changing climate, as well as why humans have not yet been able to do so. As he learns more, Mark becomes both hopeful and frustrated with what humans are doing with nature. Although he is sworn to secrecy, his frustration eventually leads him to bring Theo to the cave with him.
In the meantime, Theo, who is equal parts realist and activist, has been working on a kid-friendly chatbot of her own by tapping into her mother’s database of information. Her goal is to help students like Mark and herself learn more about climate change and what they can do about it. Her knowledge on the subject and her desire to address it enable her to assist Mark in unraveling the mystery of the stars, as well as in charting a path forward as they strive to do their part to help solve the climate crisis.
This intriguing and compelling story includes an “Explore More” section at the end that will guide readers to think more deeply about the concepts in the novel. It contains short excerpts of important works written by the seven real-life thinkers, writers, and philosophers who appear in the novel, followed by discussion questions about those author’s viewpoints. These questions will enable students to dig deeply into the issues, allowing them to formulate their own thoughts and opinions about possible solutions to the problem of climate change
Nutritional convergence in plants growing on gypsum soils in two distinct climatic regions
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Soil endemics have long fascinated botanists owing to the insights they can provide about plant ecology and evolution. Often, these species have unique foliar nutrient composition patterns that reflect potential physiological adaptations to these harsh soil types. However, understanding global nutritional patterns to unique soil types can be complicated by the influence of recent and ancient evolutionary events. Our goal was to understand whether plant specialization to unique soils is a stronger determinant of nutrient composition of plants than climate or evolutionary constraints. Methods
We worked on gypsum soils. We analysed whole-plant nutrient composition (leaves, stems, coarse roots and fine roots) of 36 native species of gypsophilous lineages from the Chihuahuan Desert (North America) and the Iberian Peninsula (Europe) regions, including widely distributed gypsum endemics, as specialists, and narrowly distributed endemics and non-endemics, as non-specialists. We evaluated the impact of evolutionary events and soil composition on the whole-plant composition, comparing the three categories of gypsum plants. Key Results
Our findings reveal nutritional convergence of widely distributed gypsum endemics. These taxa displayed higher foliar sulphur and higher whole-plant magnesium than their non-endemic relatives, irrespective of geographical location or phylogenetic history. Sulphur and magnesium concentrations were mainly explained by non-phylogenetic variation among species related to gypsum specialization. Other nutrient concentrations were determined by more ancient evolutionary events. For example, Caryophyllales usually displayed high foliar calcium, whereas Poaceae did not. In contrast, plant concentrations of phosphorus were mainly explained by species-specific physiology not related to gypsum specialization or evolutionary constraints. Conclusions
Plant specialization to a unique soil can strongly influence plant nutritional strategies, as we described for gypsophilous lineages. Taking a whole-plant perspective (all organs) within a phylogenetic framework has enabled us to gain a better understanding of plant adaptation to unique soils when studying taxa from distinct regions
Legitimation Crisis
No full textAn indispensable and exemplary reference work, this Encyclopedia adeptly navigates the multidisciplinary field of critical political science, providing a comprehensive overview of the methods, approaches, concepts, scholars and journals that have come to influence the discipline’s development over the last six decades
Meta social technology and a ritual of power
Get PDFThis article critically analyzes Meta, a social technology platform, focusing on its thematic characteristics as a ritual platform. Drawing on Carey’s ritual model and incorporating Couldry’s media ritual framework, the study examines Meta’s distinct features and their implications for ritual practices regarding religion. By examining Meta’s ritual forms and their role in naturalizing sacred rituals, the analysis sheds light on the power dynamics and implications of Meta’s ritualization process within the broader context of its social technology affordances. It also provides some recommendations for a scholarly appreciation of Meta’s ritual relationship with religious communities
