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Challenging the argument that we’re not designed to address climate change
In the face of a slow and inadequate global response to anthropogenic climate change, scholars and journalists frequently claim that human psychology is not designed or evolved to solve the problem, and they highlight a range of “psychological barriers” to climate action. Here, we critically examine this claim and the evidence on which it is…
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The meat industry is doing exactly what Big Oil does to fight climate action
My Op-Ed in the Washington Post. Some climate scientists and activists fear that food issues might distract from efforts to curb fossil fuel use; certainly, meat and dairy companies would prefer to keep the spotlight on energy and transportation. But even if we stopped using fossil fuels entirely, the current emissions from the global food…
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Animal welfare risks of global aquaculture
The unprecedented growth of aquaculture involves well-documented environmental and public-health costs, but less is understood about global animal welfare risks. Integrating data from multiple sources, we estimated the taxonomic diversity of farmed aquatic animals, the number of individuals killed annually, and the species-specific welfare knowledge (absence of which indicates extreme risk). In 2018, FAO reported…
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The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers
Our view of responsibility for climate change has expanded to include the actions of firms, particularly fossil fuel producers. Yet analysis of animal agriculture’s role in climate change— estimated as 14.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions—has mainly focused on the sector as a whole. Here we examine the world’s 35 largest meat and dairy companies…
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The past and future for fish and fishing with Becca Franks
Fish aficionado Becca Franks and I have been collaborating for several years. In November, 2019, we gave a lecture in the Law, Ethics & Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale University titled Fish, Fisheries, and Ending Factory Fishing and Farming. With that lecture fresh in our mind, we did an interview in early 2020 with artist and…
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The US Response to COVID-19 and Climate Change Endangers the Country and the World
Dale Jamieson and I co-wrote a commentary for One Earth on similarities between the U.S. positions on COVID-19 and climate change. The US does not need to lead the world, but it does need to act as a good citizen. This requires at a minimum re-engaging with the Paris Agreement and supporting the WHO. Whereas…
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Covid-19: Public shaming has only just begun
Read my article on coronavirus shaming 1.0, 2.0, and what’s next at Gen. Also, a 2020 moment on Ari Melber’s The Beat talking about shaming and Florida’s Grim Reaper.
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An evaluation of Regional Fisheries Management Organization at-sea compliance monitoring and observer programs
Abstract Independent onboard monitoring of fishing activities is important in an era of marine animal overexploitation and declining fish populations. Fisheries observers have traditionally filled this role to varying capacities. Their work is critical to fisheries managers because observers collect data on, for example, catch composition, discard and by-catch policy compliance, and transshipment activities –…
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IGC3 side event
I spoke alongside Greenpeace’s Sandra Schöttner and Sofia Tsenikli, Women4Oceans Farah Yasmin Obaidullah, and activist (and actor) Javier Barden to delegates at the UN in favor of a strong Global Ocean Treaty that could help to protect at least 30% of the world’s seas by 2030.
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High seas at Harvard Kennedy School
A talk to Harvard Kennedy School’s Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP).
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The case against octopus farming
Becca Franks, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Walter Sanchez-Suarez, and I argue against commercially farming octopus in Issues in Science and Technology. Image credit: ZZYW Studio.
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High stakes on the high seas
In advance of the 1st Session of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on an International Legally Binding Instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) in September 2018, Jeremy Jackson and I co-organized a special…
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High seas fisheries play a negligible role in addressing global food security
Authors: Laurenne Schiller, Megan Bailey, Jennifer Jacquet, and Enric Sala Abstract Recent international negotiations have highlighted the need to protect marine diversity on the high seas—the ocean area beyond national jurisdiction. However, restricting fishing access on the high seas raises many concerns, including how such restrictions would affect food security. We analyze high seas catches…
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Watch over Antarctic waters
Commentary led by Cassandra Brooks, and also David Ainley, Peter Abrams, Paul Dayton, Robert Hofman, and Donald Siniff at Nature. In a rapidly changing climate, fisheries in the Southern Ocean must be managed cautiously… Read it here.
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Defining denial and sentient seafood — a response to Sneddon et al.
Sneddon et al. address the scientists who reject the empirical evidence on fish sentience, calling them “sceptics” and their work “denial”. This is the first article to frame the question of fish sentience in these terms, and it provides an obvious opening for social science and humanities research in the science of fish sentience. It…
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Doom and gloom versus optimism: An assessment of ocean-related U.S. science journalism (2001-2015)
Article with Lisa Johns at Global Environmental Change. While doom and gloom language was identified in 10% of all articles, optimistic language was present in 27%. Read the full article here.
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WNYC interview over the death of the last male northern white rhino
Listen to an interview with WNYC’s the Takeway about the death of the last northern white rhino and our survivor guilt (also see Human Error in Lapham’s Quarterly).
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Asad Raza’s Weekend Guests: Jennifer Jacquet
As part of Root sequence. Mother tongue (2017), Asad Raza’s show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, he invited series of guests to occupy the installation with choreographic, musical, and intellectual events for weekend visitors to the museum. Comprising mentors, friends, and younger creative practitioners, the group is a plurivocal portrait of the artist’s…
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Intergenerational apology
Sarah Schlesinger and Jennifer Jacquet teamed up for this project on an intergenerational apology. Sarah’s work was part of the Shanghai Project curated by Dr. Yongwoo Lee and Hans Ulrich Obrist. The catalogue essay is below. SORRY 2116 Jennifer Jacquet Where to begin when apologizing to the future? The legacy of slavery, colonialization, and the…
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Guilt and shame in U.S. climate change communication
Article at Oxford Research Encyclopedia. Guilt has tended to align with the individualization of responsibility for climate change… Shame has been used…as a primary tactic against fossil fuel producers, peddlers of climate denial, and industry-backed politicians. Read it here.
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Potential ecological and social benefits of a moratorium on transshipment on the high seas
One way that illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fish catch is laundered into the seafood market is through transshipments at-sea. This practice, which often occurs on the high seas (the areas of ocean beyond national jurisdiction), allows vessels fishing illegally to evade most monitoring and enforcement measures, offload their cargo, and resume fishing without returning…
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Why oysters, mussels and clams could hold the key to more ethical fish farming
To go with this scholarly co-authored article explaining why Bivalves Are Better, a popular piece at The Guardian about why bivalve farming is the future of ethical aquaculture.
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Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge Grand Prize Winner
Jennifer Jacquet and Sunandan Chakraborty’s project at NYU was selected as one of 4 Grand Prize Winnersin the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, a USAID initiative that is being implemented in partnership with the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and TRAFFIC.
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Put an end to roadside zoos
Contrary to how it might feel, fondling dangerous animals only accentuates the divide between us and them. Haven’t we done enough to force that divide already? Read more at The Guardian.
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Soft but significant power in the Paris Agreement
Article with Dale Jamieson on the potential for shame to put downward pressure on emissions in Nature Climate Change. It becomes more difficult not to fulfill one’s commitments if others are fulfilling theirs, and easier to avoid one’s commitments if others are avoiding theirs. Read it here.
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The values behind calculating the value of trophy hunting
Response to Naidoo et al.’s article on “Complementary benefits of tourism and hunting to communal conservancies in Namibia” in Conservation Biology. Conservation decisions are not and should not be driven by economic benefits alone. Read it here.
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Very Bad Wizards talk shame
Psychologist David Pizarro and philosopher Tamler Sommers talk shame with Jennifer Jacquet, including the pros and cons and the difference between shame and guilt. Is shaming effective for generating social progress or getting tax cheats to pay up? Is twitter shaming on the rise or on its way out? And what does David do when…
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Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge Prize Winner
Jennifer Jacquet and Sunandan Chakraborty were selected as one of 16 Prize Winning teams in the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, a USAID initiative that is being implemented in partnership with the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and TRAFFIC.
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2016 Pew marine research fellowship
Five distinguished scientists and conservationists from Costa Rica, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the United States are the 2016 recipients of the Pew fellowship in marine conservation, including Jennifer Jacquet of NYU. The fellowships support research to improve ocean conservation and management. Read more.
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It is rational to protect Antarctica
We are dismayed that the international commission that oversees the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has voted against establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) around Antarctica for the fifth consecutive time. These MPAs are designed to protect wildlife hotspots of world significance. Read more here.
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‘Rational use’ in Antarctic waters
The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR Convention) is the legal doctrine presiding over the exploitation of marine life in the Southern Ocean. At recent Commission (CCAMLR) meetings, some member states have interpreted the term ‘rational use’ in the Convention text as ‘the unrestricted right to fish’ and, most recently, the…
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Big Oil and Baboons: On Culture, Conscience, and Climate Denial
Article for the Culture & Conscience series at the Center for Humans and Nature. If we assume our evolutionary predispositions represent hardware, we can consider both culture and the conscience as software. Read more here
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The shaming of Walter Palmer for killing Cecil the Lion
Rather than simply ruining the life of one dentist, some arguably good things have come from this case. Read more at The Conversation.
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Public shaming can make the world a better place
The discussion about 21st-century shaming usually turns to cases in which an otherwise well-behaved person posts a tweet or photograph that results in excessive punishment by an anonymous and bloodthirsty online crowd which ruins that person’s life for a while. Many people, myself included, object to this form of vigilantism. But other examples of shaming…
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On the persistent gray area between teaching and punishment
Response to Kline’s article How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and other animals in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. One of the challenges to an evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior will be to distinguish, if possible, between teaching… and punishment. Read more here.
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Ocean calamities: hyped litany or legitimate concern?
Our response to the article “Reconsidering Ocean Calamities” in BioScience.
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Is Shame Necessary in Harper’s
The Deep, Dark, Ugly Thing — Can shame shape society? by Laura Kipnis.
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Is Shame Necessary in The Brooklyn Rail
“Guilt only needs to be addressed by the self, whereas shame can force change in others’ behavior. Shame can scale and its target need not be human. A company or an industry can be shamed, but they cannot feel guilty as these entities lack consciences. This important distinction is central to Jacquet’s thesis: abandon guilt…
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2015 Sloan research fellowship
Two New York University faculty have been awarded fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Michael Halassa, an assistant professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, and physiology at NYU Langone Neuroscience Institute, and Jennifer Jacquet, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies. Read more here.
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Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool
An urgent, illuminating exploration of the social nature of shame, and of the ways in which it might be used, sparingly and pointedly, to promote political change and social reform. In cultures that champion the individual, guilt is advertised as the cornerstone of conscience. Yet while guilt holds individuals to personal standards, it proves impotent…
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The ideological divide and climate change opinion: “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches
The United States wields disproportionate global influence in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and international climate policy. This makes it an especially important context in which to examine the interplay among social, psychological, and political factors in shaping attitudes and behaviors related to climate change. In this article, we review the emerging literature addressing the…
Jennifer Jacquet 