1. Nature

Question 1

What are the 2 crises of nature?

Answer 1

1. Crisis of pristine nature
2. Crisis of our interpretation of what is natural
3. Latour, 2008 - increasing artificiality doesn’t make us less human
4. No clear distinction of natural vs unnatural

Question 2

How has human intervention in nature changed throughout history?

Answer 2

1. Paleolithic hunter-gatherers impacted environment
2. Quantity increased with agricultural revolution
3. Larger impacts came with classical civilisation
4. 1600s - overproduction eg. intensive farming leads to notion of crisis
5. 1800s - crisis analysed within frameworks of ecology and environmental sciences
6. Today, developed world creates problems but developing worlds more affected
7. Peaks of environmental concern caused by economic growth in the 1890s, 1920s, 1950s and 1970s.
8. Environmental movement grew from 1970s.

Question 3

What is the positive impact of viewing nature as being in an environmental crisis?

Answer 3

1. Some sociologists believe a crisis can cause a state of shock that can help to manage behaviour

Question 4

What are the negative impacts of viewing nature as being in an environmental crisis?

Answer 4

1. Crises may be used to alarm people.
2. Threat + righteousness + fear + uncertainty = alarmism
3. These radical views have become part of many groups, eg. food impurities = “toxins”
4. Many groups eg. WWF 1998 advert exaggerate negative claims and cause fear (Hollander, 2003).

Question 5

How do scholars today view the environmental crisis?

Answer 5

1. Zizek - we are facing the unknown and the scale of our activities is large enough to leave us vulnerable to a previously impossible catastrophe
2. Badiou - environmentalism is another “opium for the people”
3. Some believe nature has its own rights

Question 6

How have views of nature changed through history?

Answer 6

1. Early modern - 16thC - nature is wilderness beyond city
2. 18th-19thC - luxurious and peaceful, at one with civilisation
3. 19thC - beauty and a cause for religious worship, as well as frightening
4. Nature is always seen as idyllic

Question 7

What is the view of nature today?

Answer 7

1. Source of minerals, food, water and medicines
2. Dangerous, causes unpredictable disasters eg. 1970 Bangladesh cyclone had 500 000 victims
3. Social space of masculine trophy hunting, media and colonialism
4. Open access fitness space available for adrenaline kicks

Question 8

How is nature used to justify certain behaviours and political views?

Answer 8

1. Thomas Hobbes, 17thC - nature of humans justifies the coercive approach of authoritative politics
2. John Locke, 17thC - nature allowed humans to begin civilisation, or a “social contract”.
3. Social Darwinism - our exploitation of nature is justified as humans must compete for resources

Question 9

How does poverty damage the environment?

Answer 9

1. Poverty encourages overcrowding and pollution, as there is little choice, even though some, incl. media, believe wealth is the problem

Question 10

What is the Anthropocene and what will its legacies be?

Answer 10

1. The current geological epoch we are in that shows the geological and ecological changes made by humans
2. Deforestation of the tropics has caused species loss and potential drug loss (Schaeffer, 2005).
3. The majority of scientists believe in climate change, although some put it down to natural temperature fluctuations (Schaeffer, 2005).
4. The peak temperatures in the middle ages were greater than those of 1980s - the hottest years of the 20thC
5. There was a temperature decrease in 1940s-70s.
6. Urban pollution and acid rain are causing concerns for public health eg. demographic pressures and sanitation
7. Other legacies of the Anthropocene incl. mass migration, social conflict and food and water shortages