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Ogmius, the newsletter of CSTPR, Issue 38 is out:
Ogmius Exchange
STePPS: Science, Technology, Policy and Politics of Sport by Roger Pielke, Jr.
Excerpt: Here at the CIRES Policy Center we’ve started up a new research program focused on the governance of sport. The program has been in the works over the past several years after I discovered how closely related many questions of sports governance are to more common topics found within the field of science and technology policy.
A few years ago when teaching a seminar on science and technology studies, I developed two units that used sports as a context for exploring some difficult topics. One case focused on technological augmentation of the human body. We looked at the case of Oscar Pistorious and the policies which governed how athletes who use prosthetics would be eligible to participate in the Olympics, competing against athletes who did not use prosthetics. The case raised challenging questions about what it means to be human, what it means to be augmented, and the role of technologies in our lives. Ultimately, the case came around to policies – what rules should govern technological augmentation in sport? Read more …
Research Highlight
The Dynamics Of Vulnerability: Rethinking Our Approach To Drought In The Face Of Climate Change by Dan Zietlow
Much of eastern Australia is currently in the midst of some of the driest months on record. Similarly, wintertime droughts are becoming increasingly common for the Mediterranean region. Closer to home, California posted its driest documented year in 2013. These regions of the world, as well as many others, successfully mitigated short-term effects of drought in the past by implementing “no regrets” strategies. Such policies are arguably good for the preservation of our environment regardless of climate change, with common solutions including mandatory water restrictions and more efficient methods of water conservation (e.g., low-flow toilets or xeriscaping). With increased knowledge of anthropogenic-induced climate change, we must also begin to ask: do “no regrets” solutions reduce water system vulnerability in conditions of long-term climate change? Lisa Dilling, a scientist with the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado, and her colleagues are beginning to ask such a question.
Dilling is the principal investigator for the Interactions of Drought and Climate Adaption for Urban Water (IDCA) project. Her work aims to understand the dynamic nature of vulnerability to identify drought management policies that are effective across the timescales on which climate change operates. Vulnerability (i.e., susceptibility to harms like drought) is a function of one’s exposure and sensitivity to that vulnerability, as well as society’s capacity to adapt. With this in mind, it is often asserted that actions taken to reduce vulnerability to current climate variability will help in adapting to climate change (the “no regrets” solutions discussed earlier). Evidence suggests, though, that ignoring the spatial and temporal dynamic of exposure to vulnerability may solve the problem in the short-term, but may shift vulnerability to other parts of the system or limit our future ability to adapt. In the case of drought, there are concerns that restructuring urban water systems to permanently conserve water might limit flexibility to cut back on water usage during future drought. Read more …
