Chapter II -The Earth in Crisis

7/28/2019 Chapter II -The Earth in Crisis

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Chapter II. The Earth in CrisisENS 205By Dr. Elsa Sattout

SIGNS & ECOCRISISANALYSIS


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Content

I. Signs

I.1. Climate change

I.2. Biodiversity lossI.3. Habitat loss

I.4. Pollution

II. Ecocrisis analysis

III. Science & Technology


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S

igns

of

Ec

ocrisis

I.1. Climate changeI.2. Biodiversity lossI.3. Habitat lossI.4. Pollution


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I.1. Climate change

Carbon dioxide is now the highest it has been forat least 440,000 years

China & USA are the greatest sources ofgreenhouse gases


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Climate change

Madelaine Bunting: With a kindof savage justice, climate change

is an issue which exposes theweakest link in the culturalmindset of Western capitalism:the collective capacity for self-

restraint in pursuit of a commongood.


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I.2. Biodiversity

1970-2003: 31% decline in terrestrialbiodiversity

At the present rate of extinction:

12% of bird species

25% mammal speciesare likely to disappear in the next 30 years


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Biodiversity: Mass extinction~! Biodiversity losses continue to mount, and it is

factually uncontroversial among biologists that we are

now in the midst of the sixth great extinction in theEarths history: At least 1000 time faster than thenormal background rate of preceding 60 millionsyears ago.

So wed better sayMASSACRE especially since thismass extinction, unlike all others, resultsoverwhelmingly from the actions of a singlespecies.


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Extinction or Mass extinction?!!! Humans currently nearing:

7 billion with about 250,000more arriving every day

Comparing with number ofour fellow mammals:414,000 great apes3,200 tigers20,000 African lions

Whale species: few hundredthousandLast four remaining rhinos

in the wild were killed bypoachers in 2008


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David Quammen said:

Call me a pessimist, but when I look into thatfuture, I do not see any lions, tigers, or bears.

Nor by any means, does the toll stop there.


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Biodiversity count down

Although government promised to act [BUTNONE HAS YET], the decline and rate of declinein global biodiversity continues to accelerate(Butchart et al., 2010).

If ecosystems collapse, so will economies andculture by UN-Secretary general

So where is the reason, one wonders, of whichhuman beings are so proud????


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I.3. Habitat

Continuous rapid decline as development

continues apace of WILD PLACES

Not as that which is free of all trace of ourinterventionsbut as that which has not been

entirely instrumentalized by human artifice, andas something to be cherished in ways thatoutrun all considerations of profit


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Habitats lost

Rainforest50% of the Earths forests have already been

clearedAnnual net loss of forests is now about 130 square

miles

Coral reefsDestruction of 25% of coral reefs, atolls and caysOver half of the remainder are in danger of

degradation beyond recovery in the next 30 years


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Habitat loss

Of the Earths ecosystems, 605 are alreadyestimated to be degraded

1/3 of the Earths continental surface was left forthe use of other life-forms

By far the greater part was relativelyimpoverished or stressed ecosystems

Habitats were converted to monoculture


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Habitat: Human consumption

Human beings use 50% of the world fresh water

Around 42% of its plant growth

Consumer demand for seafood has almostdoubled in the past 20 years-just as wild

fish stocks are crashing{Overfishing-depletion of fish stock}.


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Habitat: Protection

40% of the Earths ecosystem need to beprotected from significant human impact in

order for them to remain viable

Only 10% are currently in protected area


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I.4. Pollution

Introduction of synthetic toxic chemicals intothe environment

Industrial dumping in less developed countries

These are substances known to disrupt immune,

endocrine and hormone systems of virtually allorganisms

Fresh water river polluted by fertilizers andslurry run-off, or degraded by large-scale dams


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Pollution: Crises connection Crises are all connected

On average, one-quarter of all land

animals and plants, or more than onemillion species, could well becomeextinct by 2050 as a direct result ofclimate change

Threats to coral reefs from increasingseawater acidity, also resulting fromglobal warming

Staggering loss of topsoil: more than25 million acres degraded or lost

annually


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Pessimism or reality

By 2150: the world will be inhabited by 11 billionpeople. All of whom will:

Continue to occupy space

Drink water

Burn energy

Consume solid resourcesProduce wastes

Aspire to material comfort and safety forthemselves and 2.0 children and eat


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Jared Diamond

There are about a dozen of majorenvironmental problems, all of them sufficientlyserious that if we solved eleven of them and didnot solve the twelfth, whatever that twelfth is,

any could potentially do us in


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II. Ecocrisis analysis

Ecological crisis will be resolved when enoughpeople face the realities personally and

collectively.

There is definitely an emotional dimension to

such work, which is too often ignored; but clearthinking is also required.

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Ecocrisis

Behind the processes of driving human caused changes ispathological ethic and not an absence of ethic

The basic dynamics at work in ecocrisis make up the principalareas requiring eco-ethical renewal :we are too numerous,demanding and powerful [Erazim Kohak, 2000]

A widely equation integrating these factors is:I= PLOT

I Impact

P Population size

L Lifestyle

O Organization of societies (Micro or Macro/ Institutionally or ideologically)

T Technology

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Population

Population growth in 2012: 7 billion

Expected in 2025: 9 billion.

Earths ecosystemic ability to produce food andabsorb waste is already under severe strain


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Lifestyle

Most people desire the American lifestyle

Affluent consumption-that is, well beyond whatis necessary for a mentally, physically,emotionally and spiritually healthy life is aproblem overwhelmingly present in the so-called

developed word.

After certain level of income-further increasesdo not lead to any happiness


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Lifestyle

Big gap between poor and rich

The world is dividing into self-indulgent wealthyfew,who can afford to consume irresponsibly,and they do, and the many others who are

unhappy because they would like to-and who,we are driven to hope will not be able.


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Why irresponsibly???

Because those who abuse the Earths resourcesby using far more than they need make up

relatively tiny minority of all people

5% of the world people co-emit the largest

proportion of greenhouse gases but consumenearly 40% of the Earths natural resources


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Arne Naess

We must live at a level that we

seriously can wish others to attain,not at a level that requires the bulk ofhumanity not to reach!


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Technology

Appropriate, clean and affordable technologieshave an important role to play in resolving the

ecocrisis; but it cannot bear the weight ofcornucopian dreams

Technology is vanishingly unlikely to be able tocompensate for uncontrolled expansion of eitherpopulation or consumption.


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Technology & Consumption

If cheap and non-polluting technologies simplyused to license massive increase in

consumption-if they were not accompanied by asuccessful attempt to control and reducedemand, thus consumption-then the endresult would just be the same.


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Cheap Energy: Is it the solution?

Abundant cheap energy could well be anabsolute disaster from an ecocentric point of

view, if it were used to advance even furtherhuman domination and exploitation of theplanet-even if the profits were fairly divided upamong the conquerors.


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Earths dwellers (Kohak)

The Earth cannot be saved by even the mostperfect technocratic scheme ifordinary citizens

do not themselves realize the need for a basicchange in the way we dwell upon this Earth,confront the, apostle of consumption and findthe will to live in sustainable ways


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III. Science & Technology

Belief in technological fixes is symptomatic of awider faith in modern technoscience

Actually, in recent decades that faith has beenshaken by nuclear accidents and mad cowdisease

Technoscience is integral to both industry andgovernment, with those two becoming evercloser.


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Eye on Science The belief that science arrives at the final or complete truth of

anything is ultimately nothing than an article of faith, requiringsweeping prior assumptions that cannot themselves be scientifically

tested.

Nonetheless, the idea that science offers unique access to the truthhas widespread rhetorical plausibility even among those whoseinterests are damaged by its exercise (Hegemony is the word for

such incidents).

When this plausibility is embodied in official institutions and thegeneral culture it lends technoscience great political , social andcultural power.


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Science of Ecology & Green tech Science of ecology was a major inspiration for

metaphysical and political ecology.

Science plays an important part in our awareness of thefact of ecocrisis.

It supplies many indicators that supplement and support

direct personal experience, and virtually all of thequantifiable and statistical ones.

It is needed to underpin the limited but important role ofgreen technology in alleviating that crisis.


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Technoscience & Ecocrisis: The value that proponents of science put on objectivitycan

contribute to the ecocrisis as much as, in another way, itcan help by gathering, analyzing and presenting evidence.

WHY??One reason is that an over-emphasis in this respect, and acorresponding devaluation of the value of the earth in itssensuous particulars and emotional meanings-things

which do not survive being quantified, orcommodified-is itself implicated in that crisis.

If it werent for ecology we would not be aware that wehave an ecological crisis. (J. Baird Callicott)


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Science in material dominated world Societies are dominated by financial, commercial and fiscal

imperatives

Science is no more immune that any other human enterprise to thecorruption entailed by selling your services to the highest bidder.

Not only are the subjects of research largely dictated by theirpotential profits,but experimental results are themselvesincreasingly influenced by the interests of corporate funding.

Example: Medical research where pharmaceuticals companies havea direct stake in the outcome of the published trials, but the samegeneral point also applies to apparently disinterested science.


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Could it be a way to make peaceful living for humanpopulation?

For as long as Man continues to be the ruthlessdestroyer of lower living beings, he will never

know peace. For as long as men massacreanimals, they will kill each other. Indeed, hewho sows the seeds of murder and pain cannotreap joy & love". [Pythagoras]


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Responses1.Increase awareness &Education2.Increase the surface areas ofnature reserves3. Sustainable use &management of naturalresources (fish stock, water,etc.)4. Rely on renewable energy(Solar, Hydropow er,geothermal, etc)5. NGO s Provide micro-fund tosupport local communities6. Information exchangeTechnology transfer &cooperation

Driverse.g. Human expansion, industrial

development, economic growth, etc.

Statee.g. Habitat fragmentation, Soil erosion,

resources depletion, etc.

Pressurese.g. Deforestation, Introduction of Non-

native species, Mass tourism, Over-

exploitation of resources, etc.

Impacte.g. Loss of species, ecosystem & habitat

degradation, Soil damage, Economic

loss, etc.

Driving forces, Pressure, State & Impacts on the Naturalworld

Documents

Chapter II -The Earth in Crisis