Our beloved geographer colleague and friend Robert Kates passed away 21 April 2018 at the age of 89.  Jesse met Bob in 1978 during preparations for the first UN World Climate Conference and they work closely together on studies of the impacts of climate variability and change for the next 20 years.  Together they conceived and led the climate project of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) during the early 1980s, much of which was reported in RW Kates, JH Ausubel, M Berberian (eds), Climate Impact Assessment, SCOPE 27, Chichester: Wiley, 625pp., 1985.  Bob also contributed an excellent chapter to Daedalus 125(3), 1996, The Liberation of the Environment, “Population, Technology, and the Human Environment: A Thread through Time,” pp. 43-72, edited by Jesse.

Environment reporter Andy Revkin offers sound and sensitive thoughts and links to some of Bob’s late work.

We look forward to a seminar sure to be organized to celebrate his wonderful work and humanity.

We post ‘The Potato and the Prius,’ the January 2018 keynote address by Jesse Ausubel to the Potato Business Summit of the United Potato Growers of America.

The Task Force on Ocean Biological Observations of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) has completed its Report.  Jesse Ausubel served on the Task Force, whose report explores new genomic, acoustic, and optical approaches, and their synergies, especially in relation to the deep ocean, and some organizational strategies to speed progress.

“The oceanographic community is beginning to develop sensors, instruments, platforms and systems that will eventually make large scale and long-term ocean biological observation possible. There are developments in imaging, acoustic measurement and genomic sensing that show great promise for the future. Each development is in a different stage of maturity and there is great enthusiasm within the communities for investment in these capabilities. But we see no organization that is consistently fostering these capabilities. We believe that POGO has the long-term perspective, the ocean observation focus, the international scope, and the organizational convening power to take on a focus on ocean biological observation..”

Mark Stoeckle, together with co-authors Lyubov Soboleva (Hunter College) and Zachary Charlop-Powers (Rockefeller University), update their 2017 paper “Aquatic environmental DNA detects seasonal fish abundance and habitat preference in an urban estuary” (PLOS ONE e0175186). They extended their original six-month study to twelve months, making this one of the longest time series of fish monitoring by eDNA to date. The new analysis shows how little bits of DNA shed by fish track the seasonal movements of fish populations in and out of New York Harbor. eDNA also gives a picture of how the relative abundance of species differs from one habitat to another. These results help open our eyes to how eDNA can improve monitoring of ocean life.

Jesse Ausubel will present the keynote address to the 2018 Potato Business Summit of the United Potato Growers of America at Potato Expo, 8am Wednesday 10 January. The slides and video are linked at www.potatobusinesssummit.com

Jesse Ausubel will give a free seminar open to the public Wednesday 6 December 2017 in Washington DC at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on landless agriculture and rebounding nature.

Jesse Ausubel offered 900 words of remarks to open a panel discussion on energy transitions at the Breakthrough Dialogue East at Airlie House in Virginia on 17 November 2017