Taking things public: a contribution to address human dimensions of environmental change

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of environmental change in Amazônia, by looking at the experiences of the large-scale biosphere–atmosphere (LBA) experiment in the Amazon, and three other enterprises—the extractive reserves, the Pilot Programme to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest (PPG7) and ecological-economic zoning—that address questions of sustainable development in the region. The LBA experience shows how the integration with the social sciences can be critical for science to explore its own outcomes for society, while the other programmes expose environmental change as a problem with too many intersections within society, so the outcomes of any initiative depends on placing it before a complex, tense and wide arena.

Two Cultures, Multiple Theoretical Perspectives: The Problem of Integration of Natural and Social Sciences in Earth System Research

“…Although these questions have not impeded close collaborative work between natural and social scientists (e.g. Alves, 2008;Lambin & Geist, 2006;Moran & Ostrom, 2005), they can justify a broader examination of the persistent difficulties in approaching the articulation problem (e.g. Alimonda, 2002;Alonso & Costa, 2002;Liverman & Cuesta, 2008;Moraes, 2005;Schor, 2008).…”

“…IGBP, 2006;Reid et al, 2010), crucial questions about how to actually achieve such an articulation will arise, concerning both how to conceive of the investigative process involving multiple disciplines and how to consider the different logical, epistemological, ontological and political perspectives in relation to the problem of changing Earth System (e.g. Alimonda, 2002;Alves, 2008;Geoghegan et al, 1998;Hick et al, 2010;Liverman & Cuesta, 2008;Moraes, 2005;Oliveira Filho, 1976;Schor, 2008;Shackley et al, 1998). Although these questions have not impeded close collaborative work between natural and social scientists (e.g.…”

“…-defined by von Bertallanffy (1950) as a "logicomathematical discipline […] applicable to all sciences concerned with systems"-has played a central role in integrating a variety of disciplines in many fields of research (e.g. von Bertallanffy, 1950Bertallanffy, , 1972Alves, 2008;Almeida Júnior et al, 2011), and, not less importantly, has been applied to the domain of social systems (Buckley, 1971;Luhmann, 2010;Rhoads, 1991). It has evolved from a series of methods aiming at the representation, simulation and/or control of a broad variety of processes ranging from control theory to biological, ecological and social systems.…”

The Soy Moratorium in the Amazon Biome Monitored by Remote Sensing Images

“…Deforestation in the Amazon biome has received increasing attention due to carbon emission and biodiversity loss [6][7][8]. The deforestation dynamic in the Brazilian Legal Amazon has been monitored by remote sensing imagery since 1988 [9].…”

Using fuzzy cognitive maps to describe current system dynamics and develop land cover scenarios: a case study in the Brazilian Amazon

“…This is particularly relevant in the context of the Brazilian Amazon, an enormous and heterogeneous region regarding social, economic and environmental factors (Perz and Walker 2002;Becker 2004;Alves 2008;Fearnside 2008b). The multi-causality of land use and land cover dynamics required new approaches combining generic biophysical and socio-economic data as well as human-environment conditions specific to case studies (Lambin et al 2001).…”