In Our World: 1 February 2013 (A new series)

"In Our World" relates to IIED's world of environment and development. It connects us with what’s going on in both the real and the online world. As we develop this new feature its content and length will vary – so do let us know what you like and don’t like about it.

Enviro-philosophy

• In this pair of posts, journalist Keith Kloor asks Is the Anthropocene doomed? and What Should the Anthropocene Look Like?
• Kloor refers to Jon Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, who challenges environmentalists with an essay that begins… “We are supposed to be in the business of changing the world. The question is: are we?”

Change in the Air in China?

• As China’s air pollution problems persist, people there are calling for more action – and the media is taking the rare step of amplifying those calls.
• The Atlantic has a video that will let you take ten minutes to understand china's environmental emergency.

Risk and Resilience

• Garry Peterson at the Resilience Science blog, has been looking into the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2013 report, which he calls “an interesting, but one eyed view of the global risk landscape.”

Communicating for Sustainability

• Dan Kahan, who leads the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School, answers his own question: “What would I advise climate science communicators?”
• Laurie Bennett creative director at Futerra says Telling stories is great for sustainability marketing.
• Randy Olson says the “climate movement HAS to take the skeptics seriously (not ignore them), but should refuse to engage with climate skeptics in IRRATIONAL VENUES.” Read more in his blog post “Ignore or Boycott?”

Forests, People, Wildlife, Conservation

• In The Guardian, John Vidal reports that the World Bank's own evaluators say its investments support logging and do little to help rural poor people.
• Researcher Maureen McCarthy wrote about conflict between chimpanzees and people in Uganda.
• SciDev.Net reports on the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
• Keith Kloor reports on a new review paper in the journal Science about how many species there are and how fast they are going extinct – and how the media has interpreted it in different ways.

Southern climate news

• In Tanzania, Maasai herders breed fewer, stronger cattle to tackle climate change
• The Philippines makes climate change a top 2013 priority

New Voices

• Anju Sharma has set up a new blog, called “It must be said!” She has already posted about the Green Climate Fund and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
• Anna de Costa has started a new series at her Seeking Alchemy blog called Voices of the Anonymous. It “aims to explore some of the stories behind the unseen in India; those who form the backbone of India’s economy, who we rely upon every day but rarely see, let alone consider beyond the assumptions we might have.”

Mike Shanahan is IIED’s press officer. Read more of his blog posts.

In Our World is a new blog series. Each week it will publish links to top content about environment and development that we have seen online in the past week. You can subscribe to the RSS feed using this link.