Same ecosystem, different fix

International research team shows nature restoration must be tailored to local conditions

University of Göttingen

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Intact Mediterranean-type oak savanna (Tonzi Ranch), a research site of the University of California, Berke-ley, whose researchers contributed to the study

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Credit: Sebastian Fiedler

As the world focuses on repairing damaged ecosystems, especially with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and new EU Nature Restoration law in place, a new study sounds a clear message: when it comes to restoring nature, one size doesn’t fit all. A team of scientists, led by the University of Göttingen and Freie Universität Berlin, found that even ecosystems that look similar on the surface can respond very differently to the same restoration methods. If we want to bring back nature in a way that helps absorb carbon, keep water in the ground, and recycle nutrients, policy makers need to think locally. The findings were published in the journal Ecography.

 

In 2019, researchers from around the world joined forces to study how to best restore dry, Mediterranean-style landscapes – places with wet winters and dry summers, like parts of the Mediterranean, California, Chile, South Africa, and Australia. These regions are under serious environmental stress and urgently need support. The team wanted to find out which combinations of native plants could best bring back the land’s natural functions. Because these ecosystems are so vast and varied, they built a computer model – which works like a strategy computer game for scientists – to test how different plant mixes would perform in different soils and climates.

 

The model matched up well with real-world results from a large restoration project in southwestern Australia. In addition, it showed that trying to achieve all goals at once – storing more carbon, saving water, and holding on to nitrogen – is tough. Compromises are often needed, and what works best depends a lot on local soil and climate conditions. “The great news is that this tool can help us choose the best plants for a local area, depending on what we want to achieve,” said Dr Sebastian Fiedler, Postdoctoral Researcher at Technische Universität Berlin, who led this research at Göttingen University and Freie Universität Berlin.

 

Fiedler continues: “But we’re not done yet – right now, the model doesn’t include things like wildfires, which are becoming more common and could change everything. That’s our next step.”

 

Original publication: Fiedler, S. et al. (2025). Trade-offs among restored ecosystem functions are context-dependent in Mediterranean-type regions. Ecography. DoI: 10.1002/ecog.07609

Restoration of Mediterranean-type woodland with protected young trees, Valencian Community, Spain – researchers from this region contributed to the study

Credit

Sebastian Fiedler

 Journal

Ecography

DOI

10.1002/ecog.07609 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Trade-offs among restored ecosystem functions are context-dependent in Mediterranean-type regions.

 

UK Minister unveils first of its kind AI for Science Master's

The Minister for AI and Digital Government launched the UK’s first of its kind AI for Science Master’s programme at King’s College London.

King's College London

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The Minister for AI and Digital Government launched the UK’s first of its kind AI for Science Master’s programme at King’s College London.

Feryal Clark MP joined leading King’s interdisciplinary scientists at the Quad to announce the new programme, which will draw expertise from across disciplines, including biosciences, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, security and law – preparing AI experts of the future in an ever-changing world.

The Master’s is part of King’s major £45.5 million investment into science – helping to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing us all. The investment is advancing knowledge, strengthening skills and powering exploration across the sciences, through education, research and state-of-the-art facilities.

AI and Digital Government Minister Feryal Clark said: “AI is transforming how we solve the world’s biggest challenges, and this new Master’s at King’s will create a generation of AI-minds ready to turn scientific ambition into real world solutions – just like the road that can mend its own cracks and assistive robot I saw today.

“Building this talent pipeline is central to our Plan for Change and builds on the £187 million we announced this week to give Brits the skills needed for the jobs of the future - investing in the talent and expertise that will keep us leading on AI and delivering for working people.” 

 

The visit was hosted by Vice-Chancellor & President of King's College London, Professor Shitij Kapur, and Minister Clark saw ongoing interdisciplinary AI research from the very experts who will deliver teaching for the new course and who are leading the digital revolution in science.

Vice-Chancellor & President of King's College London, Professor Shitij Kapur said: “We are delighted to welcome Minister Clark to King’s for the second time this year as we celebrate the launch of our new AI for Science MSc. King’s is at the forefront of interdisciplinary AI research and innovation, and this programme, the first of its kind, will help build a future pipeline of specialists fluent in both science and AI. Through our world-leading education and research at scale and across disciplines, we look forward to continuing to support the government to deliver on its bold ambitions for the future of AI – one that will support economic growth, nurture talent and improve lives in the UK.” 

 

Dr Dan Nicolau AI for Science Programme Lead, King’s College London, said: “The AI for Science programme is for science or maths graduates, seeking to be at the forefront of scientific discovery. It will provide a thorough grounding in AI techniques and applications for solving complex and real-world scientific challenges.

“The programme will help students to enter the dynamic, uncertain job market defined by the need to remain flexible and at the forefront of developments in AI technologies, which will alter the practice of these disciplines, industrially, academically and in the public sector.

“Students will become bilingual in science and AI, with a grasp of the very latest technical, as well as social, ethical and legislative developments, equipping them to thrive in the future as AI science natives."

At the launch, Dr Heba Sailem, Senior Lecturer of Biomedical AI and Data Science, shared how she is developing AI approaches to improve patient treatment and welfare – combining insights from histopathology, genetics, pharmaceutical medicine and cell biology.

Dr Francisco Martin-Marinez, senior lecturer in Chemistry, explained how he is combining AI and materials science to address the country’s £143 million pothole problem, developing a self-healing, sustainable road surface made from recycled oils.

Feryal Clark MP then received a demonstration of an assistive robot which is being programmed by researchers at King’s to help people live independently for longer, for example by helping people to feed themselves.

The announcement of the AI for Science Master’s follows a successful launch of a new Natural Sciences undergraduate course in 2024, which is in the top 10 in the UK for Natural Sciences (QS by subject 2025).

Professor Elena Simperl, King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence Co-Director said: “This AI for Science Master's programme showcases what AI at King's is all about: world-class research and education focused on harnessing AI for the benefit of humanity. The King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence is a strategic King's-wide initiative to bring cohesion to the remarkable reach and impact of AI across the university. By developing a deeper pool of AI expertise and talent equipped to create, deploy and apply AI solutions, we’re ensuring AI serves society’s greatest challenges with the quality data and responsible frameworks needed to benefit everyone.” 

 

18 new academics have also joined the University to supercharge its science research and education, driving interdisciplinary research in wide ranging areas, from computational neuroscience to net zero.

Find out more about the AI for Science programme https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/courses/artificial-intelligence-for-science-msc  

 

 

Study finds ethical justification to eradicate certain harmful species

Texas A&M University

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Under what conditions would it be right — or is it never acceptable — to eliminate a harmful species from our planet? That’s what an international team of researchers, including Professor of Philosophy Dr. Clare Palmer from Texas A&M University, explores in a study published in Science.

In the study, “Deliberate extinction by genome modification: An ethical challenge,” researchers examine the controversial idea of using genetic engineering for local and full species extinction as a conservation strategy. They conducted case studies on three species: the New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax); the Anopheles gambiae mosquito, a vector for malaria; and invasive rodent species like the house mouse and black rat.

“Together, we argue, these cases suggest that deliberate full extinction might occasionally be acceptable, but only extremely rarely,” the team states.

Screwworms, Mosquitos And Invasive Rodents

A screwworm is a parasitic fly that infests warm-blooded animals, causing severe suffering and economic loss, particularly in livestock. Mosquitos carrying malaria are extremely dangerous for humans of all ages. Nearly 290 million people around the world are infected annually, and 400,000 of them will die of the disease.  And invasive house mice on islands are eating seabirds alive, driving their populations toward extinction.

“These cases highlight the tension between the intrinsic value of a species and the benefits of eradicating a harmful pest,” Palmer said. “While the suffering caused by these species is undeniable, the ethical implications of deliberately driving a species to extinction are profound. We must carefully weigh the ecological and moral implications of such actions.”

Genome Modification For Extinction

The researchers examined the use of several genetic methods to eradicate harmful species:

• Sterile Insect Technique (SIT): Mass-reared insects are exposed to radiation to produce sterilizing genetic mutations. These sterilized insects are then released in large numbers with the goal that sterile males mate with wild-type female insects, preventing reproduction. This method has been used to eradicate the New World screwworm locally in North and Central America and some Caribbean islands.
• Female-Specific Release of Insects with a Dominant Lethal (fsRIDL): Genetically-modified male insects are released, and their offspring inherit a gene that kills female larvae unless they are exposed to a specific substance (like tetracycline). This reduces the population over time.
• This method could be coupled with a Gene Drive that would push rapidly through a population, ensuring that nearly all offspring inherit the modification. This can lead to population suppression or full extinction; this method has been proposed to eradicate species like New World screwworm or Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes
• Sex-Biasing Gene Drives: This genetic modification biases the sex ratio of a population, leading to a population crash. It is proposed for local eradication of house mice, black rats and Norway rats in places where the invasive species threaten native species, such as islands where they pose a threat to endangered birds. However, this technology might escape confinement and risks fullextinction of the targeted species.

Factors For Ethical Justification

The researchers conclude that while deliberate extinction through genome modification is justified in rare and compelling cases, it should be approached with caution. The study calls for robust ethical safeguards and inclusive decision-making frameworks to guide the use of these powerful technologies.

They suggest the following conditions under which eradication could be considered:

• Severity of Suffering: The species causes extreme suffering and death to human beings or other animals that can’t otherwise be prevented.
• Ecological Impact: The species threatens the continuance of other species, is not itself ecologically vital, and its eradication does not have substantial negative environmental impacts.
• Effectiveness of Existing Methods: Genomic strategies should offer a more effective solution than traditional methods.
• Risk of Unintended Consequences: The risk of unintended consequences, in particular the inadvertent full extinction of the species where this is not intended, should be negligible.
• Public Health and Welfare Threat: The species poses a significant public health threat or brings major negative impacts to food security.
• Ethical Considerations: Even taking the intrinsic value of the species and any environmental benefits it confers seriously, these can be argued to be outweighed by the harm it causes.
• Inclusive Governance: Involving local communities and stakeholders in decision-making is essential to ensure that diverse perspectives are heard, and that those who are most affected are equitably represented.

Palmer said she hopes the study will influence public policy and conservation practices. “Our goal is to foster a more nuanced understanding of the ethical dimensions of genome modification,” she said. “We need to balance the potential benefits with the moral responsibilities we have towards all species.”

This research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

By Lesley Henton, Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adv4045 

Article Title

Deliberate extinction by genome modification: An ethical challenge

 

Researchers find that, overall, prescribing ADHD medications via telehealth does not alter risk of substance use disorder

Telehealth patients were not more likely to develop substance use disorder

Brigham and Women's Hospital

• 
  
• Telehealth patients were not more likely to develop substance use disorder

• Researchers found that a small number of people who received initial stimulant prescription via telehealth developed stimulant disorder and emphasize the importance of follow-up care

Telehealth can make health care easier to access for patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who need treatment, but experts worry about an increased risk of substance use disorder for patients being prescribed controlled medications such as stimulants for ADHD during these appointments. Mass General Brigham researchers scrutinized this concern with the first-ever study comparing substance use disorder rates in patients with ADHD who were prescribed stimulant medications during in-person versus virtual appointments. They found that, overall, telehealth was not associated with increased risk of substance use disorder. Still, the researchers noted the importance of comprehensive diagnoses and routine follow-ups. Results are published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

“Our study suggests that, generally, telehealth-based relationships – which make health care more accessible – can be safe and don’t increase the risk of substance use disorder,” said lead author Vinod Rao, MD, PhD, lead author of the paper and addiction psychiatrist and medical director of Adult Ambulatory Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

The researchers examined the electronic health records of 7,944 ADHD patients between March 2020 and August 2023, a time when many physicians pivoted to online care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers found that 91% of the patients had at least one in-person visit with the prescriber around the time they received a stimulant prescription, while 9% of the patients had a telehealth-only relationship with their doctor.

The study found that, overall, patients who only had telehealth visits to access their ADHD medication were not more likely to develop a substance use disorder compared to patients who initially met their prescribers in person, after adjusting for other factors like age and income. However, patients who received their initial stimulant prescription through telehealth were at a higher risk of developing a stimulant use disorder after adjusting for other factors. Stimulant use disorder involves drugs such as prescription medications, cocaine or methamphetamine, among other drugs. Patients aged 26 years and above who received an initial stimulant prescription during a telehealth appointment were at a higher risk of developing substance use disorders than younger patients.

The authors note that, given that only 19 patients in the study developed a stimulant use disorder, the finding could be coincidental. Another possibility is that those who opt for telehealth care are at higher risk for stimulant use disorder.

“While we think the findings should be replicated, the vast majority of the data show no increase in substance use disorder developing when patients exclusively use telehealth,” said corresponding author Timothy Wilens, MD, chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and co-director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at MGH. “Our study supports the use of telehealth for ADHD stimulant therapy in clinical settings.”

Authorship: Mass General Brigham authors include Vinod Rao, Sylvia Lanni, and Timothy Wilens. Additional authors include Amy Yule, Sean McCabe, Philip Veliz, and Ty Schepis.

Disclosures: Wilens has co-edited several books on ADHD, holds licensing agreements with Ironshore and 3D Therapeutics, serves as a clinical consultant to multiple organizations including U.S. Minor/Major League Baseball, and has received funding from NIDA. Yule has received research funding from the NIH, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, as well as support for clinical program development and consulting roles with various organizations.

Funding: The development of this study was supported by a research award 75F40121C00148 from the US Food and Drug Administration and research award UH3DA050252 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse

Paper cited: Rao V et al “Telehealth prescribing of stimulants for ADHD and associated risk for later stimulant and substance use disorders” AJP DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20240346

##

About Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.

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Journal

American Journal of Psychiatry

DOI

10.1176/appi.ajp.20240346 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Telehealth prescribing of stimulants for ADHD and associated risk for later stimulant and substance use disorders

Article Publication Date

11-Jun-2025

COI Statement

Wilens has co-edited several books on ADHD, holds licensing agreements with Ironshore and 3D Therapeutics, serves as a clinical consultant to multiple organizations including U.S. Minor/Major League Baseball, and has received funding from NIDA. Yule has received research funding from the NIH, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, as well as support for clinical program development and consulting roles with various organizations.

 

New hydrogel treatments turn water waste to fertilizer

Washington University in St. Louis

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By Beth Miller

Excessive nutrients in wastewater can lead to detrimental discharges into natural water bodies, prompting harmful algal blooms with severe environmental and economic repercussions. To address this pressing issue, a team of engineers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has developed an innovative solution. Their novel composite nanotechnology removes and recovers nutrients from wastewater, subsequently upcycling them as agricultural fertilizers or as biorefinery feedstocks, while simultaneously mitigating the occurrence of harmful algal blooms. 

Young-Shin Jun, professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, and Minkyoung Jung, a doctoral student in her lab, created novel mineral-hydrogel composites that can remove and recover ammonium and phosphate from wastewater. These composites are embedded with nanoscale struvite and calcium phosphate mineral seeds, which significantly reduce ammonia and phosphate concentrations in wastewater by up to 60% and 91%, respectively. This reduction curbs algal growth and the associated toxins. This technology’s potential impact is underscored by a 2000 report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which estimated annual economic losses from harmful algal blooms in U.S. coastal waters to be between $33.9 million and $81.6 million.

Results of the research were published online May 29, in a special issue of Environmental Science & Technology “Advancing a Circular Economy.”

Like the moisture-absorbing gel in the core of disposable diapers, the hydrogel can soak up and repurpose excess nutrients. For their sustainable solution, Jun’s team used a nature both as a model and for a beneficiary of its method.

“We designed these hydrogel composites to recover ammonia and phosphate, essential nutrients whose overabundance causes algal bloom,” Jun said. “Ammonia synthesis is energy-intensive, and phosphorus resources are dwindling. Our mineral-hydrogel composites allow us to harvest these nutrients from wastewater and repurpose them as fertilizers and feedstock for biorefineries.”

The process uses nanoparticle nucleation – the initial step in forming a solid phase in an aqueous system, similar to sugar crystals forming on a string to make rock candy. To facilitate that process, Jun’s team planted ultra-small mineral seeds in the hydrogel that were created from calcium phosphate and struvite, a mineral composed of magnesium, ammonium and phosphate that binds with calcium and other cations and ions. The ammonia and phosphate bind to the seeds and bulk up the hydrogel. During the process, the average particle sizes of the hydrogel increased from 6.12 nanometers to 14.8 nanometers.

Their approach addresses three significant challenges of conventional nutrient removal: inefficient collection in traditional methods, balancing the removal of both ammonia and phosphate and maintaining consistent removal efficiency in complex water conditions. This method achieves exceptionally low nutrient levels, effectively preventing harmful algal blooms.

Jun highlighted the scalability of the process, with successful trials conducted on up to 20 liters of fluid. The lab is now scaling up to 200 liters.

“This demonstrates the practical application potential of our fundamental scientific research, showing a viable path from the laboratory to everyday technology,” Jun said. “This pioneering work represents a significant advancement in environmental engineering, turning a waste problem into a valuable resource and exemplifying sustainability in action.”

Jun worked with WashU’s Office of Technology Management to patent the mineral hydrogel technology.

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Jung M, Wang Y, Ilavsky J, Tang Y, Jun Y-S. Molecular insights into novel struvite-hydrogel composites for simultaneous ammonia and phosphate removal. Environmental Science & Technology, online May 29. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c11700

 

Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

 PHILIPPINES

Survey reveals bleak job prospects for Pinoy nursing, MD graduates

Ateneo de Manila University

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Earning a degree in medicine or nursing may not necessarily open as many doors as young graduates hope, new research from Ateneo de Manila University shows. The researchers found that many new graduates feel lost and unsupported when they join the workforce. Also, according to many interviewees, the country’s medical and nursing education system is too focused on hospital-based care, leaving them ill prepared to handle community work, government systems, and health programs. Further, many health facilities point to restrictive hiring rules and budget ceilings as barriers filling vacant posts.

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Credit: Aaron R Vicencio / ADMU

Ateneo de Manila University researchers warn that young Filipinos graduating with a degree in nursing or medicine face an uphill battle for stable employment, fair pay, and meaningful roles in the local public health system.

This comes as the Philippines faces a massive shortage of health professionals, with less than eight doctors per 10,000 people—below the international standard of 10 per 10,000—and over 127,000 vacancies for nurses, particularly in rural areas and private facilities.

The researchers found that many new graduates feel lost and unsupported when they join the workforce.

“I finished my MD from one of the best schools in the country,” said a municipal health officer assigned to a remote area. “But when I worked here, it was an entirely different ballgame. We weren’t trained how to deal with the local administration and procurement, how to talk to local chief executives. I wasn’t prepared nor trained for this—but this is how we make things happen.”

According to many of the researchers’ interviewees, the country’s medical and nursing education system is too focused on hospital-based care, leaving them ill prepared to handle community work, government systems, and health programs.

Further, many health facilities point to restrictive hiring rules and budget ceilings as barriers filling vacant posts. For example, local government units (LGUs) are required to allocate no more than 45% of their annual budget to salaries. This forces overworked nurses to take on multiple roles, often without additional pay.

“The 45% cap on personnel services really prevents us from hiring,” said a provincial health official. “You see a ward nurse being assigned as the public health nurse… and also as a records officer. That’s extra work, no extra compensation.”

As a result, fresh graduates are forced into a frustrating dilemma: many are willing to serve in the public sector, but are either not qualified under strict civil service requirements, or are offered short-term contracts with no job security or clear path for career growth. Meanwhile, private facilities struggle to match government pay scales, and both sectors lose workers to better-paying jobs abroad.

“The nurses we lost are our best nurses,” said one hospital administrator. “It is painful that the trained ones are the ones who leave. The ones left with us are either the new ones or the very old.”

Training, too, is a problem: medical facilities across the country and their staff need to meet new standards aligned with the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law, but some clinics say they are forced to pay out of pocket for training fees and accreditation requirements—sometimes spending over ₱50,000, while getting back only ₱2,000 from government reimbursements.

So is it still worth pursuing a career in healthcare?

The researchers believe the answer is yes—but only if key reforms are made, including scholarships with return service agreements; better integration of community health in school curricula; less restrictive hiring policies; and stronger support for newly-deployed health workers.

These problems and proposed solutions were laid out in the recent peer-reviewed paper, “Health Workforce Issues and Recommended Practices in the Implementation of Universal Health Coverage in the Philippines,” conducted by Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Arianna Maever Loreche, Ruth Shane Legaspi, Ryan Camado Guinaran, Theo Prudencio Juhani Z. Capeding, Madeline Mae A. Ong, and Manuel M. Dayrit of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of the Philippines-Manila.

 

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Journal

Human Resources for Health

DOI

10.1186/s12960-025-00988-3 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Health workforce issues and recommended practices in the implementation of Universal Health Coverage in the Philippines: a qualitative study

 

Book explores how ‘domestication’ of environmentalism limits who it protects

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign landscape architecture professor Pollyanna Rhee examines how the modern environmental movement has been used to protect the property and interests of affluent homeowners in her new book, “Natural Attachments."

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

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University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign landscape architecture professor Pollyanna Rhee examines how the modern environmental movement has been used to protect the property and interests of affluent homeowners in her new book, “Natural Attachments: The Domestication of American Environmentalism, 1920–1970.”

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Credit: Courtesy Pollyanna Rhee

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The response to a 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, reveals how the modern environmental movement has been used to protect the interests of private homeowners, said a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researcher.
Landscape architecture professor Pollyanna Rhee chronicled how affluent homeowners use what she calls “ownership environmentalism” to focus on protection of property and community norms, rather than society as a whole, in her new book “Natural Attachments: The Domestication of American Environmentalism, 1920–1970.”
Rhee said she was interested in examining how people create an environmental consciousness and develop ideas about what a healthy, high-quality environment looks like. Santa Barbara was a good case study because of its long history of community involvement and because the oil spill shone a spotlight on its environmental concerns, said Rhee, who spent a year-and-a-half living and doing research in the city.
The Santa Barbara oil spill drew national attention for its damage to the picturesque coastline and inspired the founding of Earth Day and the Environmental Protection Agency. In the same year as the oil spill, the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire, but the fire did not garner the same level of news coverage and outrage as did the oil spill, Rhee said.
At the time of these disasters, the country was moving from a focus on conservation, which was concerned with natural resource management and was led by scientists, experts and government officials, to environmentalism as a social movement of ordinary citizens, she said.
Their concerns included exposure to chemicals and industrial pollution, the nuclear threat, the destruction of wilderness for highways and suburbs, and the desire for places for outdoor recreation.
“They were concerned about quality of life, and environmentalism was a big part of that,” Rhee said.
At the same time, the government was encouraging home ownership and private developers were creating neighborhoods with racially restrictive covenants. Ownership environmentalism centered on maintaining social hierarchies and protecting particular places, and it opted for protection rather than justice, she wrote.
Such environmentalism was often seen on the small scale of everyday lives — in how people plant their lawns, for example — rather than on a national policy level. “There is not an overarching political vision or a well-informed idea of what environmental quality should be,” Rhee said.
The social movement echoed earlier rhetoric of the 1920s and ‘30s, which concerned itself with local issues, such as the natural beauty of a place, and was led by home gardeners and voluntary civic organizations run mostly by women, she said.
After a 1925 earthquake destroyed Santa Barbara’s downtown, the city rebuilt in a unified Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style now codified in city regulations.
“It was embraced as a style that was supposed to be aligned with the climate and geography of the place, the mountains and beaches, and the Spanish and Mexican history that wealthy whites wanted to embrace,” Rhee said.
The oil spill challenged their expectations of the environment, but the concerns weren’t about changing the status quo or seeking a reduction in fossil fuel use, Rhee said. Instead, the citizens of Santa Barbara sought to protect their community and believed oil extraction should be located elsewhere, such as in Alaska or the Middle East.
“The political horizons for this type of environmentalism are restricted to a privileged few. It conveys a lot of what people think of as the scope of their environmental responsibilities. I think it’s a major reason why environmentalism has faced a lot of criticism for its lack of concern about equity and justice,” she said.
The criticisms of the environmental movement include that it has no relevance to the lives of many people and appeals to a narrow range of interests of the well-off for open spaces, wilderness and biodiversity. It also is seen as antigrowth. Communities have used ownership environmentalism to oppose multifamily housing developments and urban sprawl.
“Environmentalism is a pretty effective weapon, not just in Santa Barbara but in a lot of affluent places more generally, to use the protection of green space or nature preserves as a way of limiting a certain type of development,” Rhee said. “The limited social relevance of environmentalism is because of how these interests are wielded — not in the way of expanding equity or justice but in protecting people who already have these privileges.”
Ownership environmentalism is not limited to Santa Barbara. Such attitudes are shared in other affluent communities. But they are facing more outward criticism from environmental justice and climate activism movements and from advocates for affordable housing, Rhee said.
She said she believes there is value in thinking about environmental issues such as biodiversity, as well as examining the way we live and how that aligns with larger political and structural forces.
“It’s worth thinking about how people’s everyday lives and experiences are major factors shaping how they think about environmental health and environmental quality,” Rhee said. “I wanted to see how people respond to environmental pressures that are close to home.”

Editor’s note: To contact Pollyanna Rhee, email cyrhee@illinois.edu.