The environmental question Flashcards
Anthropocene
Paul Crusen, nobel prize for chemistry, proposed a new geological era called the Anthropocene, since we live now in a condition in which the presence of our species is so powerful that it transforms the environment. First time a species rises to the level to be the prevailing one. THIS of course is the anthropogenic perspective. Calling this epoch the Anthropocene won’t help us solve the problem. We are just recognizing we are part of the problem.
Ecozoic
name coined by Thomas Berry. It is the geological period in which humans live in a mutually enhancing relationship with earth and the earth community. As one of the fathers of deep ecology, Berry advocates an ecocentric change of western society that recognizes the history of the Earth as a single sacred text of eco-spiritual, and a holistic vision of the world, whereby everyone agrees to live with awareness of their own bioregion. We also need to differentiate the perspective of global north vs global south.
Environmental ethics
Environmental ethics is a branch of ethics that studies the relation of human beings and the environment and how ethics play a role in this. Environmental ethics believe that humans are a part of society as well as other living creatures, which includes plants and animals. These items are a very important part of the world and are considered to be a functional part of human life. Therefore, it is essential that every human being respected and honor this and use morals and ethics when dealing with these creatures.
Two linked arguments are often promoted as a basis for the environmental ethics:
- We live on a fragile planet now subject to permanent derailment and disruption by human intervention;
- Humans must learn to act as stewards for this threatened world.
However, the planet is fragile from our own point of view, but in reality it is quite resilient. Both arguments overestimate our importance as a species. Human species represent just one among millions of species, and in a geological sense are completely defenseless. We are able to exterminate a lot of species, probably ourselves as well (would be the first time in history), but we cannot do anything in relation to the life of the planet. We haven’t to save the planet, just to save ourselves.
Mass extinctions
Paleontologists do discuss the inevitability of extinction for all species—in the long run, and on the broad scale of geological time. We are fond of saying that 99 percent or more of all species that ever lived are now extinct. We do therefore identify extinction as the normal fate of species.
Mass extinctions are catastrophic events that required a certain amount of time. Usually immediately after a mass extinction we observe the growth of a new group. After the extinction, the mammals grew as a group. Mass extinction produced a new ecological space for a new group. Evidence that life can take care of itself.
There have been 5 big mass extinctions on the planet, during which approximately 80-95% of all species disappeared from the planet:
- Ordovician-silurian Extinction: 440 million years ago - Small marine organisms died out.
- Devonian Extinction: 365 million years ago - Many tropical marine species went extinct.
- Permian-triassic Extinction: 250 million years ago - The largest mass extinction event in Earth’s history affected a range of species, including many vertebrates.
- Triassic-jurassic Extinction: 210 million years ago - The extinction of other vertebrate species on land allowed dinosaurs to flourish.
- Cretaceous-tertiary Extinction: 65 Million Years Ago - major extinction that wiped out nonavian dinosaurs, it also wiped out some 50 percent of plants and animals.
Conservation movement
Was born, in large part, as an elitist attempt by wealthy social leaders to preserve wilderness as a domain for patrician leisure and contemplation.
We have never entirely shaken this legacy of environmentalism as something opposed to immediate human needs, particularly of the impoverished and unfortunate. But the Third World expands and contains most of the pristine habitat that we yearn to preserve.
Environmental movements cannot prevail until they convince people that clean air and water, solar power, recycling, and reforestation are best solutions (as they are) for human needs at human scales, and not for impossibly distant planetary futures.
Humans are just one of the species that live on the planet, meaning we are also subject to the ecological rules, among others the carrying capacity, directly depending on the available resources on the planet.
Ecological rules or principles
- All ecosystems rely on renewable energy coming from the sun (sun in ecological terms is renewable)
- All ecosystems are based on biodiversity
- Ecosystems are activated by nutrient cycling, where there is no waste of production: waste of one species becomes food for another - matter flows and transforms.
- Ecosystem regulates itself through population control mechanisms: negative feedback (increasing density of population, there is an increase in mechanisms that augment mortality rates or decrease fertility, like disease, for example)
Apply these four principles to our society: we are desperately trying to reach the first one (renewable energy), we are not very confident with diversity (biodiversity), we produce a lot of waste (that is not reusable), and our population is growing exponentially. We are experiencing these principles now.
Biophilia
The term was first used by Erich Fromm to describe a psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive and vital. Edward O. Wilson uses the term in a related sense when he suggests that biophilia describes “the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.” He proposed the possibility that the deep affiliations humans have with other life forms and nature as a whole are rooted in our biology.
Wilson on biophilia:
“innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes”
“innate emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms“
“inborn affinity human beings have for other forms of life, an affiliation evoked,
according to circumstances, by pleasure, or a sense of security, or awe, or even fascination blended with revulsion.”
In Biophilia, Wilson introduced a conservation ethics based on multiple dimensions of the innate relationship humans share with nature. His notion of environmental stewardship drew on various concepts, including the practical dependence of humans on nature, which centers on the ecological services (e.g., clean water and soil) nature provides; the satisfaction derived from direct interaction with nature, such as through exploration and development of outdoor skills; the physical appeal of nature, evident in its role as a source of inspiration and peace; and the human attachment to nature in the form of emotional connections to landscapes and animals. Regardless of the extent to which individuals feel or perceive biophilia, research has indicated that simply spending time in nature is beneficial for human health.
Biophobia
Some of the most powerful evidence for an innate connection between humans and nature comes from studies of biophobia (the fear of nature), in which measurable physiological responses are produced upon exposure to an object that is the source of fear, such as a snake or a spider. These responses are the result of evolution in a world in which humans were constantly vulnerable to predators, poisonous plants and animals, and natural phenomena such as thunder and lightning. Fear was a fundamental connection with nature that enabled survival, and, as a result, humans needed to maintain a close relationship with their environment, using sights and sounds as vital cues, particularly for fight-or-flight responses.
In biological terms, we are afraid of spiders because our ancestors died from spider bites. Some behaviors are based on evolutionary traits related to survival. We share a lot with the environment, we are inside the environment. No difference between society and environment.
Sustainability
There are different definitions and uses of the word sustainability:
- Sustainable development: meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (intergenerational responsibility)
- Sustainability: the possibility that humans and other forms of life on earth will flourish forever. (system thinking)
- Alternative definition: enough, for all, forever (socio-economic and climatic justice)
Strong view: no consideration of financial costs, key concept is ecological sustainability, reliance on physical measures of things.
Weak view: consideration of costs, benefit/cost analysis, key concept is economic sustainability, reliance on measurements of financial value and relationship between resource allocation and level of consumption.
To be really sustainable the environment needs to respect the 4 principles of sustainability. At least as a starting point. Nature has sustained itself for billions of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, population regulation, and nutrient cycling – lessons from nature that we can apply to our lifestyles and economies. To apply these principles we need things like ethics, economics, etc etc (holistic approach).
Gaia Hypothesis
The Oxford English Dictionary defines GAIA as “the global ecosystem, understood to function in the manner of a vast self-regulating organism, in the context of which all living things collectively define and maintain the conditions conducive for life on earth”.
The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. Originally proposed by James Lovelock as the earth feedback hypothesis, it was named the Gaia Hypothesis after the Greek supreme goddess of Earth. The hypothesis is frequently described as viewing the Earth as a single organism. Lovelock and other supporters of the idea now call it Gaia theory, regarding it as a scientific theory and not mere hypothesis, since they believe it has passed predictive tests.
