TED Talks Watersheds and Beer

Being an aspiring conservation biologist and amateur brewer, I am naturally intrigued by innovation that combines business and environmentalism, especially if that business is the craft brewing industry and the environment is a watershed.


I have been looking for a way to link my blog CV-ALES with beer and my studies in fresh water conservation. To my surprise I found a TED talk on both these subjects. Rob Harmon describes a new mechanism that brings a whole new meaning to "water footprint." The image below is from a water scarcity blog site, from a blog in particular about how much water is needed to make beer, which Rob relates to in his talk. The link citing the image is from that blog post if you want to learn a little more.

http://blogs.halcrow.com/waterscarcity/?p=72

The TED talk is linked below.
http://blog.ted.com/2011/03/11/how-the-market-can-keep-streams-flowing-rob-harmon-on-ted-com/

To relate to our current subject in ALES 204 this presentation is no Pecha Kucha, but is very fast and to the point. The speaker does a very good job at minimizing idiosyncrasies and speaking very clearly and confidently. He also uses appropriate pictures with little text. I can tell that he is well practiced. I would be to if I was going to be on TED.

Professional Facebook Up

Hello,
I am excited to expand my profile in the digital world as I have created a more credible Facebook page. As part of this blog I am making an attempt to have a greater presence online that future potential employers may view and better their opinion of me.


These days employers use internet search engines for weeding out job candidates by finding . . .what is often "inappropriate" comments or images from social events or what have you. I have taken the opportunity to rather pollute an internet query with "here I am, fully clothed and well spoken!" Not saying that is an issue for me, unlike others. With this new tool, along with my new Flickr account I can upload images or even documents of my work in the field or the office that are worth sharing to those interested enough to look me up.


Here is a link to my new Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Curtis-Vieville/372950082719136). Below is a screenshot of the new Fb page imported in from my Flickr account.

CVfacebook, a photo by VievilleC on Flickr.

Lets talk talk

Greetings interlopers,

Thank you for viewing my new blog, voluntarily or not. I will take this opportunity to clarify my academic background and aspirations to those of you who are interested. I am a third year conservation biology undergrad. I recently transferred to the University of Alberta from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and this is my second semester here. I am looking at working with fresh water ecosystems and more specifically, conserving the fragile nature of watersheds which include wildlife and their surrounding environments.

Wetland conservation is a growing field on the job market due to an increasing demand for proactive and reactive work with corporations and their relationship with the environment. When I mention proactive or reactive work, I am suggesting some companies want to limit or restore their impact before the fact or after the damage have been done. One day I hope to work in the preventative/proactive realm of environmental work. The difference between proactive and reactive, to me is like the difference between biological conservation and reclamation. Both of which are fundamental in maintaining a healthy environment. The picture below is a reclaimed stream outside of the Lustre mine in eastern Alberta.

*Photo: Courtesy of Curtis Vieville

A common thing for students entering my field of research is that they don't realize just how much of the job is working with people as opposed to nature. A job working with an endangered species or managing a park can have up to 75% of the day simply communicating/collaborating with people. There are often up to dozens of groups (stakeholders) that you need to address, while keeping everyone as happy as possible. Here is a good example of some stakeholders groups that the Alberta Conservation Association works with

http://www.ab-conservation.com/go/default/index.cfm/about-us/member-groups/.

Communication is extremely vital to getting anything done. Conservation biology works with the land and the people that also need that land. Often these people are valuable resources of information or action. Also, people with previous experience or knowledge on the subject of your research are very important. Maintaining connections with these people is helpful as suggested in Danielle Becker's blog about employers and professionals using the internet to find people right for the job.