Kindness by default

As earthling, living in Portugal, I can´t imagine what Ukraine beings are going through in these hours, or what it must feel for Russian beings, having someone decide in their name to commit such an atrocity, so contrary to human species default to protect, care and blossom. Amidst another much bigger war of infinite greed, we add the greed for more territory, more resources, more terror, more power. Enough should be enough to concentrate on the habitability of the finitude of our Planet. 

Greed is a sickness. It needs help to be treated. If not treated can result in serious crimes: against environment (the biggest of all, given it sustains all life on Earth), against Nature and all living beings (including us), against our societies and the right to live peacefully and respectfully in a House that is much bigger than our homes, our communities, or our countries. 

What is happening is an aberration, an abnormality of the system, a hideous crime against us all. The system must be corrected. We are all encoded to be kind by default (*). We need to remind ourselves that what makes vibrant communities is respect, communion, sharing, and a lot of love for the extra energy to transcend ourselves (and endure in the most difficult of times). 

(*) Be alert for manipulation! We have been manipulated throughout history to believe that greed is our nature. It is not. More about it in Rutger Bregman (2021). Humankind: A Hopeful History.

September

Attitudes to planetary stewardship and transformation among G20 countries: 83% are willing to do more to become better “planetary stewards” and protect and regenerate the global commons. 73% agree their country’s economy should move beyond a singular focus on profit and economic growth (GDP) and focus more on human well being and ecological protection and regeneration. See Gaffney, O., Tcholak-Antitch, Z., et al. (2021). Global Commons Survey: Attitudes to planetary stewardship and transformation among G20 countries. Global Commons Alliance. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC )

August

 

European Environment Agency (2021). Nature‑based solutions in Europe: Policy, knowledge and practice for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

July

 

"[T]he first study to assess oil and gas companies using the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario (...) found that none of the 100 companies have committed to stopping exploration." World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), Oil and Gas Benchmark (available rankings, methods and data). Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

July

“Prevention and mitigation of drought risk have a far lower cost than reaction and response. (…) [T]his report emphasizes the continuum from short-term proactive drought preparedness and response through to long-term prospective risk management and risk reduction.” United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (2021). GAR Special Report on Drought 2021. Geneva. | Report page.

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC )

June

 

"Human knowledge, ingenuity, technology and cooperation can transform societies and economies and secure a sustainable future. (...) Each individual and organization has a role to play in moving society along pathways toward a sustainable future that will vary across nations, regions and contexts, including through existing institutions and policy approaches." United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC)

March

 

“There are a total of 399 protected areas in Portugal, 167 Natura 2000 sites - 62 Special Protection Areas (Birds Directive) and 102 Sites of Community Importance (Habitat Directive) - as well as 232 sites designated under national laws. The protected area network in Portugal is strongly influenced by Natura 2000 sites, which make up 60% of the total area covered by protected areas.” in Biodiversity in Portugal [data displayed in February 17, 2021]. 

See Green Infrastructures in Portugal. See also report from EU (2020) "Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services: The state and trends of ecosystems in the European Union", that gives an assessment of the key ecosystems in the EU, evaluates the EU 2020 biodiversity targets, and provides a baseline for the 2030 biodiversity policy and EU nature restoration plan.

March

 

"Halting land transformation and degradation could contribute 6.6 (range 2–11) GtCO2e per year to greenhouse gas emission reductions between 2020 and 2050, and land restoration-related activities could contribute a further 18.6 (range 1.8–35.5) GtCO2e per year over the same period, while simultaneously restoring ecological function and ecosystem services, and in some cases, biodiversity" p.73, United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

March

"Achieving transformative change requires that the fundamental drivers of overconsumption are addressed, through changes in personal values, norms, economic and social operating rules, technologies and regulations. Given the interconnected nature of climate change, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, and air and water pollution, it is essential that these problems are tackled together urgently." (p. 107) United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies.

February

"The report serves to translate the current state of scientific knowledge into crisp, clear and digestible facts-based messages that the world can relate to and follow up on. It first provides an Earth diagnosis of current and projected human-induced environmental change, by putting facts and interlinkages in perspective, including by using smart infographics. In building on this diagnosis, the report identifies the shifts needed to close gaps between current actions and those needed to achieve sustainable development. The analysis is anchored in current economic, social and ecological reality and framed by economics and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By synthesizing the latest scientific findings from the global environmental assessments, the report communicates the current status of the world’s urgent issues and opportunities to solve them." United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Systemic risks

"The first generation of AI-enabled offensive tools is already emerging and there is growing evidence of AI being used by attackers. Deep fakes have already been leveraged to create new cyberattack vectors and voice-mimicking software has been used in major thefts." in Cybersecurity, emergingtechnology and systemic risk (2020) by World Economic Forum in collaboration with the University of Oxford. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

May

 

 «The new Earth 2.0 that will emerge after COVID‑19 will be a “new normal”, but many fundamental challenges will still exist. Chief among them is the imperative to collectively work towards an effective and inclusive energy transition. (…) The era of compounded disruptions is a litmus test for the energy transition, asserting the importance of the twin objectives of robustness and resilience.» WEF (2020). Fostering Effective Energy Transition. Italics added. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Territory of Life

"No matter how small, if you attend to the space you control with love you become part of the solution, not the problem! What can you plant? How can you tend it to encourage greater diversity of animal life? Who else can you invite to contribute? Can you grow a local network of flourishers? Vision the world you wish to create for yourself and the generations to come. Reinforce that vision every day and let it lead you! Make it a heart project – something that you do to enjoy the flourishing for its own sake. Invite others to join you. Enjoy the companionship of the other species and people that you share your space with, watch them grow and get to know them. Attend to the small details, enjoy the tiny as well as the large and flamboyant. Maybe your network can become a ‘Territory of Life’?" Flourishing Diversity: Learning from Indigenous Wisdom Traditions. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Europe Digital Agenda - The New Renaissance

"Comité des Sages" calls for a "New Renaissance" by bringing Europe's cultural heritage online:

"The report urges EU Member States to step up their efforts to put online the collections held in all their libraries, archives and museums. It stresses the benefits of making Europe's culture and knowledge more easily accessible. It also points to the potential economic benefits of digitisation (...) The report's recommendations will feed into the Commission's broader strategy, under the Digital Agenda for Europe, to help cultural institutions make the transition towards the digital age."

"Today europeana.eu already offers access to more than 15 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips, paintings and musical extracts, but this is only a fraction of works held by Europe's cultural institutions (see IP/10/1524). Most digitised materials are older works in the public domain, to avoid potential litigation for works covered by copyright."

Elisabeth Niggemann, Jacques De Decker & Maurice Lévy (2011). The New Renaissance. Brussels: Report of the 'Comité des Sages’, Europe.[PDF]

on the use of «labels» for writing research

McKechnie, L., Julien, H., Pecoskie, J.L. & Dixon, C.M. (2006). The presentation of the information user in reports of information behaviour research. Information Research, 12(1) paper 278 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/12-1/paper278.html]:

"(...) the terms partner and participant, may perhaps be regarded as the most inclusive of all as they construct the individual as a member of the research team and an active player in the research process."

When addressing participants in a research, McKechnie et al (2006) suggest to use the words «participants» or «partners» since it acknowledges their active paper in the research process and denotes a more centralized role in the research than the use of words such as «subjects» or «objects» that distance the researched from the research. Also, there was a correlation with the data collection methods used where the participant label was used:

"The important role of the user or research participant was evident in the method section of some of the papers. Some data collection practices reported by authors were designed to bring, and were effective at bringing, researchers closer to users and capturing their perspectives. These included open-ended interviews, face-to-face interviews, close interaction over an extended period of time, audio-recording of interviews, full transcription of audio-recorded interviews and participant checking. Conversely, data collection practices such as transaction log analysis or the use of secondary survey data served to distance the researcher from the researched."

The core of the paper is concerned not only with the labels a researcher uses, but how this labels might reflect how the researcher sees the participants. To be avoided, specially if one is using the qualitative paradigm, reports that address participants by numbers, by letters, by pie charts, etc., not giving voice to the participants.

This is one of the differences that might be an issue when presenting my research in an engineers context. They might say that I used a lot of quotations and little aggregated information. Also, it may reflect how I see the world of engineers: my pre-conceptions of what it is expected of my research in the context of the Department I'm going to present my PhD.

Homo mobilis

Rich Ling disponibilizou as ligações para os capítulos do relatório especial do Economist sobre Mobile Communication:

• Nomads at last
• Working from anywhere
• The new oases
• Family ties
• Location, location, location
• A world of witnesses
• Homo mobilis

• Author interview
• Sources and acknowledgments

Inscrevi-me no Grupo «Mobile Communication» e através do link de um dos membros (Carsten Sørensen) do qual já tinha conhecimento através de artigos publicados, fui dar à Research Network for Mobile Interaction & Pervasive Social Devices.