A few readers have asked about my post last month where I suggested that environmental politics is especially ambiguous due to the ways in which environmental knowledge is cultivated and shared. So I thought I’d elaborate on the distinction.
I start with the characteristics of environmental knowledge, and then explain how these characteristics introduce volatility to political decision-making. Finally, because this volatility hurts politically underrepresented constituencies disproportionately, I suggest policymakers have an obligation to minimize it as much as possible (and there are ways to do so).
Data, information, and local wisdom about environmental conditions are often decentralized, mismatched, and…
Every so often somebody asks me how I managed to carve out such a unique career trajectory. And the most succinct way I can answer it is to say, “Incidentally, and with a lot of help.”
I didn’t plan it, and I only made it work one step at a time by the graces of mentors and champions — and educators.
Much of my career was buoyed on the waves of iconoclasts who took public office and made good on promises to shake things up. Working for such elected officials with terms in office destined to expire, not only prompted…
Advocacy is a complicated field of practice, churning out a raw potential public good at every level. I offer my course on “Environmental Policymaking in Political Contexts,” on the premise that policymakers can draw significant informational value from their interactions with advocates. At a minimum, policymakers can better evaluate the products of advocacy by accounting for the practices that generate them.
I use the term “policymakers” expansively here, to refer to any public servant with an official role in policy or program development, who also has interaction with stakeholders, community members, or other “advocates” seeking to influence public policy. The…
History might recall the year 2020 as a kind of correction, when longstanding denials finally caved under the weight of objective truths. One of the messengers, a particularly dispassionate one, was our own physical world, which settled a debate on climate change by- well- changing the climate. The Western United States saw the most destructive wildfires in history. Record heat made global warming a daily sensation, without much regard for who you voted for.
In the year 2020, we also found society’s mainstream growing more forthright about acknowledging racial injustice as a prevalent reality, a societally congenital crisis which extends…
Applying Interconnected, Evidence-Based Problem-Solution Sequences to Comprehensive Equity Analysis
I serve on a board tasked with advising the County of Sacramento on all matters of environmental quality. In most cases, this consists of reacting to staff reports or stakeholder proposals, “issue” by “issue,” as best we can.
But this approach risks overlooking the communities that are the least equipped to shoehorn their real-world concerns into one of our “issues” each meeting. We are charged with promoting environmental justice but, like thousands of municipal agencies in the United States, we often operate within the piecemeal methodology that has contributed to inequitable…
It’s cliché for a teacher to say “I learn as much from my students as they learn from me.” But consider that my students are mid-career leadership-track professionals from countries with emerging economies from around the world. They include scientists, managers, and civil engineers, from nations undergoing significant political and economic transition. When the University of California-Davis had asked me to lecture for its international Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, I knew it was a great opportunity but I scarcely knew where to start. I was experienced in the subject matter — climate and environmental policy. But most of my practical…
Josh Rosa
I teach “Environmental Policymaking in Political Contexts” at the University of California, Davis, Continuing and Professional Education
