I have always loved fish. For my middle school science project, I tested the effect of population density on population growth with guppies — the result of my experiment was hundreds of guppies. So began my journey as a scientist. After completing my bachelor’s degree in biology at Cornell University and a couple of years teaching marine biology and maritime history at a southern California educational non-profit, my doctoral research with UCLA took me to Hawaii and to the Philippines as a Fulbright Fellow. Post-doctoral work at UC Davis brought me back home to the San Francisco Bay Area and new work on water and the fishes of California’s largest watershed and estuary. I made the leap into the science and policy arena in 1999, joining a local environmental NGO, The Bay Institute, as fisheries scientist and eventually serving as the organization’s Executive Director and Chief Scientist. In May 2011, I became Director of NRDC’s Science Center, a unique cross-program resource to support and enhance our scientific work.
Science is a foundational element of NRDC’s legal and advocacy work in environmental and public health protection. Today, as the country’s current political realities are placing the heritage and fundamental framework of our environmental protections at risk, science is also under attack. It has never been more important to communicate to policy-makers, influence-shapers, and the general public what science is telling us about the natural world and the systems on which all life depends.
Posted April 17, 2012 by Tina Swanson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Saving Wildlife and WIld Places
Remember the story of the emperor’s new clothes? Two tailors promise the emperor a magnificent suit of clothes made of fabric that is invisible to those who are unworthy of their positions. The emperor, who can’t see the fabric himself...continued→
Posted March 9, 2012 by Tina Swanson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Imagine you’re sick and you go to the hospital seeking diagnosis and treatment from a doctor. After taking your history, giving you a thorough examination and doing a huge number of expensive tests, your doctor determines that you are being...continued→
Posted March 4, 2012 by Tina Swanson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Science is an emergent process. Now, before your eyes glaze over with this wonky jargon, this just means is that science, as a body of knowledge and as a method for figuring out things, is always growing. It continuously builds...continued→
Posted January 10, 2012 by Tina Swanson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and WIld Places, Solving Global Warming, The Media and the Environment
Yesterday, I posted this piece about the role of science in developing plans to solve environmental and public health problems. Over the coming months, I’ll write about specific efforts that exemplify effective use of the “three step” approach and of the...continued→
Posted January 9, 2012 by Tina Swanson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and WIld Places, Solving Global Warming, The Media and the Environment
Listening to the news and public discourse these days, there seems to be a lot of confusion about science—what it is and what it’s good for. Public understanding of science has fallen and, in some arenas, science is under attack,...continued→
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