This document summarizes Nigel Clark's discussion of how deconstructionist philosophy and recent developments in earth sciences point toward a "speculative geophysics" approach. It notes that recent evidence has shown the earth's crust is in constant motion due to plate tectonics, undermining the idea of a static, solid planet. It also discusses how human activity has impacted the earth system to the extent that some argue it marks a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. The document explores how deconstructionist thinking and efforts by scientists to integrate biology and geology can contribute to inquiries into humanity's emergence and role as a geological force on par with natural processes.
This document summarizes the evolving perceptions of the human-nature relationship among historians and scientists from the 19th century to present. It discusses key figures like George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Jackson Turner, Walter Prescott Webb, and Carl Sauer who interpreted nature and humanity's impact on it in various ways. Over time, the relationship has been viewed as both separate and interconnected, with nature seen as both passive and active. The document traces how views have moved from seeing nature as static and human impacts as negative, to recognizing nature's dynamism and the reciprocity between human and natural systems.
Presentation using a pair of books to expand possibilities inherent in chemical and electromagnetic interaction leading to some wider speculation about the role the rich structure of H₂O has had and continues to have in shaping Life of this planet. Consequent linkage to persistent themes within our Supervenience project and wider orbit.
Ecocriticism analyzes literature from an interdisciplinary perspective to understand how it portrays nature and the environment. It also considers how literature can help address the modern environmental crisis through proposing solutions. Environmentalism grew in the late 20th century in response to increasing environmental damage. In the late 1980s, scientists began warning of climate change caused by rising carbon dioxide levels, which could lead to flooding, desertification, famine and conflicts over resources. Events like Chernobyl helped increase environmental awareness.
The document provides a history of sustainability efforts at Hope College from its founding to present day. It begins with a global context starting in the 1600s and discusses key events like the Scientific Revolution and Darwin's theory of evolution that influenced environmental thought. At Hope College, early efforts included nature writings in the student newspaper and establishing a field station in the 1970s. Course offerings expanded slowly through the 1980s-2000s across departments. Challenges included declining student interest in the 1970s and lack of required courses. The history shows an evolution from limited and isolated efforts to greater integration across disciplines today through initiatives like the environmental studies minor.
James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis, which states that living organisms and their inorganic surroundings have evolved together as a single living system that actively regulates Earth's environment and climate to be suitable for life. He developed this theory in the 1960s while working for NASA, noting that the chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere suggests the presence of life. The theory was controversial but gained support over time as mechanisms of planetary self-regulation like the carbon cycle were discovered. Gaia theory reconciles evolutionary biology and geology by proposing that evolution shapes the environment as well as organisms adapting to it, maintaining conditions suitable for life.
Ovid's Metamorphoses explores the connection between man and nature. It describes how in the beginning, everything was connected as "a lifeless bulk" until God separated land, sea, and sky to create balance and harmony. Both the Metamorphoses and the Bible portray man as having dominion over nature, but this dominion was meant to tend to and govern nature, not exploit it. However, over time man has seen himself as superior to nature due to an anthropocentric view. This view has led man to damage the environment through overuse of resources without replacement. Ancient texts like the Metamorphoses recognized this connection between man and nature and how upsetting the balance could have negative consequences.
Proposing the use of a global probe based network of durable marine “laborato...Hofstra University
This was my final project for my sedimentary geology class. The task was to come up with an original research project that was based on a topic relevant to the environment.
1) The document discusses the collapse of atheism in the 20th century across various fields such as science, philosophy, and politics.
2) Discoveries in fields like astronomy, physics, and biology revealed delicate balances and complex designs that pointed to a Creator rather than accidental formation.
3) Previously influential atheist ideas in fields like psychology and communism were also shown to be flawed or harmful by scientific and sociological advances.
This document summarizes the evolving perceptions of the human-nature relationship among historians and scientists from the 19th century to present. It discusses key figures like George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Jackson Turner, Walter Prescott Webb, and Carl Sauer who interpreted nature and humanity's impact on it in various ways. Over time, the relationship has been viewed as both separate and interconnected, with nature seen as both passive and active. The document traces how views have moved from seeing nature as static and human impacts as negative, to recognizing nature's dynamism and the reciprocity between human and natural systems.
Presentation using a pair of books to expand possibilities inherent in chemical and electromagnetic interaction leading to some wider speculation about the role the rich structure of H₂O has had and continues to have in shaping Life of this planet. Consequent linkage to persistent themes within our Supervenience project and wider orbit.
Ecocriticism analyzes literature from an interdisciplinary perspective to understand how it portrays nature and the environment. It also considers how literature can help address the modern environmental crisis through proposing solutions. Environmentalism grew in the late 20th century in response to increasing environmental damage. In the late 1980s, scientists began warning of climate change caused by rising carbon dioxide levels, which could lead to flooding, desertification, famine and conflicts over resources. Events like Chernobyl helped increase environmental awareness.
The document provides a history of sustainability efforts at Hope College from its founding to present day. It begins with a global context starting in the 1600s and discusses key events like the Scientific Revolution and Darwin's theory of evolution that influenced environmental thought. At Hope College, early efforts included nature writings in the student newspaper and establishing a field station in the 1970s. Course offerings expanded slowly through the 1980s-2000s across departments. Challenges included declining student interest in the 1970s and lack of required courses. The history shows an evolution from limited and isolated efforts to greater integration across disciplines today through initiatives like the environmental studies minor.
James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis, which states that living organisms and their inorganic surroundings have evolved together as a single living system that actively regulates Earth's environment and climate to be suitable for life. He developed this theory in the 1960s while working for NASA, noting that the chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere suggests the presence of life. The theory was controversial but gained support over time as mechanisms of planetary self-regulation like the carbon cycle were discovered. Gaia theory reconciles evolutionary biology and geology by proposing that evolution shapes the environment as well as organisms adapting to it, maintaining conditions suitable for life.
Ovid's Metamorphoses explores the connection between man and nature. It describes how in the beginning, everything was connected as "a lifeless bulk" until God separated land, sea, and sky to create balance and harmony. Both the Metamorphoses and the Bible portray man as having dominion over nature, but this dominion was meant to tend to and govern nature, not exploit it. However, over time man has seen himself as superior to nature due to an anthropocentric view. This view has led man to damage the environment through overuse of resources without replacement. Ancient texts like the Metamorphoses recognized this connection between man and nature and how upsetting the balance could have negative consequences.
Proposing the use of a global probe based network of durable marine “laborato...Hofstra University
This was my final project for my sedimentary geology class. The task was to come up with an original research project that was based on a topic relevant to the environment.
1) The document discusses the collapse of atheism in the 20th century across various fields such as science, philosophy, and politics.
2) Discoveries in fields like astronomy, physics, and biology revealed delicate balances and complex designs that pointed to a Creator rather than accidental formation.
3) Previously influential atheist ideas in fields like psychology and communism were also shown to be flawed or harmful by scientific and sociological advances.
What curiosity in the structure hollow earth in scienceMarcus 2012
The document discusses two instances where the idea of a hollow Earth intersected with science. First, in the late 17th century, Edmund Halley proposed that the Earth has a nested, hollow structure to explain observations of the Earth's changing magnetic field. Second, in the late 19th century, Mostafa Abdelkader proposed a hollow Earth model to support religious conceptions, though his theory was not empirically testable. The bulk of the document focuses on Halley's 1692 hollow Earth theory, outlining his reasoning and the evidence he used to develop this early scientific hypothesis of Earth's internal structure.
OverFlow Chart Introduction and Application to Gateway DrugsTony Smith
Presentation Slides from Melbourne Emergence Meetup 11 November 2021 examining three emergence-superveience relationships centred around the Accelerating Abstraction of humans from Industrialised Apex Predator in the biosphere to ever more Documented Consumable in the map of legal fictions.
Images (pics, maps and covers) drawn from Kororoit Institute submission to parliamentary inquiry into Ecosystems Decline in Victoria, with minimal commentary aside from section headings and recommendations, providing context for discussion of where we take this from here, both the global task of insisting on the urgent need for humans to work with rather than against until now dangerously suppressed ecosystems, and the local task of working with structures of our colonial political economy to ensure the tide is well and truly turning.
Humanity strategies to deal with internal and external threats to earth planetFernando Alcoforado
This article aims to demonstrate the need to adopt global strategies that are capable of eliminating or neutralizing the internal and external threats to planet Earth.
This document discusses the transformation of pedology, the study of soils, in response to humanity's impact on Earth's soils. It begins by describing how pedology originated as a natural science focused on soils developing through natural processes alone. However, by the mid-20th century, human activities were recognized as significantly altering global soils on decadal timescales through anthropogenic processes. This challenges pedology to integrate human influences and quantify soil changes over shorter time periods to support environmental science and management of global change issues. The document argues that pedology must broaden its focus from soils as static natural bodies to a dynamic, interdisciplinary science accounting for humanity's transformation of Earth's soils.
This document discusses the history of the belief that Earth is a living entity. It describes how ancient cultures viewed Earth as alive but providing sustenance. This belief changed with Judaism and Christianity, which taught that connecting with nature was idolatry. By the 20th century, the view of Earth as a mechanistic system devoid of life had taken hold in academia. The work of scientist James Lovelock in the 1960s challenged this view by proposing the Gaia hypothesis that Earth's biosphere is a self-regulating system that sustains life. The document warns that human activities like artificial fertilizers threaten this system and our existence.
LEARNING FROM GLOBAL DISASTER LABORATORIES PROVIDES A FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL DIALOGUE THAT IS THE FIRST STEP ON THE ROAD TO RESILIENT COMMUNITIES. A Framework For A Comprehensive, Inter-Disciplinary Dialogue On 21st Century Disasters And Disaster Resilience. A Disaster Is The Set Of Failures That Occur When The Continuums Of: 1) People, 2) Community (I.E., A Set Of Habitats, Livelihoods, And Social Constructs), And 3) Recurring Events (E.G., Floods, Earthquakes) Intersect At A Point In Space And Time, When And Where The People And Community Are Not Ready. Intersection Of These Continuums Is Inevitable. Some Intersections Will Cause A Disaster, And Some Won’t. Each Community Must Be Ready For The Inevitable Intersection That Will Challenge Its State Of Readiness. Best Policies And Practices: Create, Adjust, And Realign Programs, Partners And People Until You Have Created The Kinds Of Turning Points Needed For Moving Towards Disaster Resilience. Presentation courtesy of Dr. Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction
The search for extra-terrestrial life - Historical and theological perspectivesBETA-UFO Indonesia
This document discusses the historical and theological perspectives on the search for extraterrestrial life. It explores how the idea of life on other worlds has been used and debated since antiquity within both science and religion. Specifically, it examines how beliefs about extraterrestrials have shaped the development of astronomy and how theological views have influenced scientists' stances on the possibility of life existing elsewhere in the universe. The document argues that while modern discoveries introduce nuances, the core dilemmas and tensions discussed have religious and philosophical roots that reach far back into history.
This document provides an overview of the historical development of the theory of evolution. It discusses pre-Darwinian thinkers like Jean Baptiste Lamarck and his theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics. It also mentions the contributions of Charles Lyell and his theory of uniformitarianism. The bulk of the document focuses on Charles Darwin and the influence of his voyage on the Beagle, particularly his observations of the Galapagos finches. It outlines Darwin's subsequent development of the theory of natural selection and publication of On the Origin of Species. Finally, it briefly discusses other scientists like Alfred Russel Wallace, Ernst Haeckel, and their role in further developing evolutionary thought, culminating in the modern synthesis of evolution.
Are we witnessing the emergence of a new geological epoch?
Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017
Notes from "principles of geology, being an attempt to explain the forme...Jennifer Wall
This document summarizes Chapter 1 of Principles of Geology by Sir Charles Lyell. It defines geology as the science that investigates the successive changes in nature, both organic and inorganic, and seeks to understand the causes and effects of these changes. It notes that geology, like history, provides insight by comparing the present and past. It also states that an ideal geologist, like an historian, would be well-versed in many related fields of natural science to better understand the evidence of past events and draw correct conclusions.
Selection, drift, speciation, and dispersal are the four key processes that influence patterns of species composition and diversity in ecological communities. Selection represents fitness differences between species, drift represents stochastic changes in species abundance, speciation creates new species, and dispersal is the movement of organisms across space. While community ecology considers many specific mechanisms and interactions, all theoretical models emphasize one or more of these four fundamental processes. Organizing community ecology around these processes provides a coherent conceptual framework and clarifies similarities and differences between models.
The document discusses the solar system from a broader perspective. It provides details on the formation of the solar system based on the nebular hypothesis, including how planets formed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust. It also describes the different types of objects in the solar system such as the terrestrial and gas planets, asteroids, comets, and Pluto. Additionally, it discusses theories for the origin of the Moon and evidence that Mars once had liquid water on its surface.
The document discusses the development of ecological anthropology and its relationship to earlier perspectives on the interaction between human societies and their environments. Environmental determinism viewed the environment as directly determining cultural features, while possibilism argued it only limited possibilities. Cultural ecology, proposed by Julian Steward, viewed cultures as adapting to their environments through technological and economic changes in order to solve environmental problems and opportunities. It focuses on how the interaction between existing cultural features and the environment shapes cultural adaptation, rather than seeing environment or culture in isolation.
This document discusses the concept of the ecological community and argues that it should be "disintegrated" and viewed as an epiphenomenon rather than an integral unit. The key points are:
1) Local communities are not truly bounded units as the populations that comprise them are integrated over larger spatial scales.
2) Viewing communities as local assemblages hinders understanding of regional processes that generate diversity patterns.
3) Local coexistence can only be understood in the context of species' distributions across entire regions, which are determined by diversification, adaptation, and interactions over large scales.
Diane Guo wrote an essay discussing the costs and ethical issues related to space exploration. Space exploration requires high technology and large financial investments, such as the $109 billion spent on the Apollo program. However, critics argue that the money spent on space could be better used to address problems on Earth like providing clean water and food for those in need. Space exploration can also negatively impact the environment through rocket exhaust and the accumulation of space junk. While it provides some benefits, countries should reduce spending on space and instead focus on developing technologies that directly improve life on Earth.
Four environmental researchers and analysts - Erle Ellis, Barry Brook, Linus Blomqvist, Ruth DeFries - offer a critique of an updated analysis of "planetary boundaries" for human activities offered in a new Science paper.
The Perspective and Association of Geography with Environment and Societypaperpublications3
Abstract: The study examines the relationship of the discipline of Geography with conceptual terms of Environment and society. Geography is seen as a spatial science, majorly concerned with spatial analysis, of how and why things differ from place to place and how observable spatial pattern evolved through time on the surface of the earth. The study adopts a survey of literature as its methodology. It is observable that every society has its individual physical and cultural attributes that distinguishing it from other societies; thus giving it unique character, potential and location. And it is found that in society cultural traits are more pronounced in changing the natural phenomena of the environment. The Environment is better understood when broken to its component: atmosphere, hydrosphere lithosphere and biosphere. Environment has all that is needed to sustain the society and all that is required for life sustenance. It provides the setting with which human action occurs, its shapes but not dictate, how people live in the society as well as their resource base. However, how resources are perceived and utilized is culturally conditioned in society. And virtually every human activity leaves its imprint on the environment. Environment and society form the laboratory for geographic operation. And its spheres form the space which is the major concern in geography and the concept of society introduces the important factor of culture which greatly has direct impact on the environment. The socio-cultural content of the society is influenced by the environment where it locates and the society modifies the content of the environment. There are interconnection between the environment and society which purposely produces spatial patterns with their hidden mechanism of spatial process, accessibility and connectively in addition to idea of location and distance. Advance level of interaction has produced globalization which has accelerated greater spatial diffusion of idea and material resources in the world. The major role of geography is to ensure harmonious spatial organization and inter relationship between and among societies on one hand and between society and its environment on the other. Thus, this is being pursued in geography through its traditions: Earth science, cultural-environment, the location (space), the areal analysis and various paradigms and spatial techniques. It is therefore recommended that for speedy development in developing nations particularly at combating the myriad of environmental challenges and appropriate exploitation and utilization of environmental resources, the spatial tool should be adopted as contained in the discipline of Geography.
Ecocriticism has developed in three waves:
1) The first wave focused on nature as morally restorative, exemplified by writers like Thoreau and Muir.
2) The second wave introduced cultural dimensions, examining diverse environments and issues of environmental justice, gender, class, and race. It still viewed natural spaces as morally superior.
3) The third wave emerged with the idea of the Anthropocene, where the impact of humanity has altered Earth's deep history and there is no remaining truly natural nature. It takes a more materialist and post-human perspective.
El documento propone tres formas de evitar la contaminación acústica: no tocar la bocina innecesariamente, no escuchar música a alto volumen y evitar fiestas con altos niveles de sonido.
Este gráfico de barras muestra los datos de cuatro categorías en 1997. La categoría 1 tuvo el valor más alto de alrededor de 12, mientras que la categoría 4 tuvo el valor más bajo de alrededor de 2. Las categorías 2 y 3 tuvieron valores intermedios entre 4 y 8.
What curiosity in the structure hollow earth in scienceMarcus 2012
The document discusses two instances where the idea of a hollow Earth intersected with science. First, in the late 17th century, Edmund Halley proposed that the Earth has a nested, hollow structure to explain observations of the Earth's changing magnetic field. Second, in the late 19th century, Mostafa Abdelkader proposed a hollow Earth model to support religious conceptions, though his theory was not empirically testable. The bulk of the document focuses on Halley's 1692 hollow Earth theory, outlining his reasoning and the evidence he used to develop this early scientific hypothesis of Earth's internal structure.
OverFlow Chart Introduction and Application to Gateway DrugsTony Smith
Presentation Slides from Melbourne Emergence Meetup 11 November 2021 examining three emergence-superveience relationships centred around the Accelerating Abstraction of humans from Industrialised Apex Predator in the biosphere to ever more Documented Consumable in the map of legal fictions.
Images (pics, maps and covers) drawn from Kororoit Institute submission to parliamentary inquiry into Ecosystems Decline in Victoria, with minimal commentary aside from section headings and recommendations, providing context for discussion of where we take this from here, both the global task of insisting on the urgent need for humans to work with rather than against until now dangerously suppressed ecosystems, and the local task of working with structures of our colonial political economy to ensure the tide is well and truly turning.
Humanity strategies to deal with internal and external threats to earth planetFernando Alcoforado
This article aims to demonstrate the need to adopt global strategies that are capable of eliminating or neutralizing the internal and external threats to planet Earth.
This document discusses the transformation of pedology, the study of soils, in response to humanity's impact on Earth's soils. It begins by describing how pedology originated as a natural science focused on soils developing through natural processes alone. However, by the mid-20th century, human activities were recognized as significantly altering global soils on decadal timescales through anthropogenic processes. This challenges pedology to integrate human influences and quantify soil changes over shorter time periods to support environmental science and management of global change issues. The document argues that pedology must broaden its focus from soils as static natural bodies to a dynamic, interdisciplinary science accounting for humanity's transformation of Earth's soils.
This document discusses the history of the belief that Earth is a living entity. It describes how ancient cultures viewed Earth as alive but providing sustenance. This belief changed with Judaism and Christianity, which taught that connecting with nature was idolatry. By the 20th century, the view of Earth as a mechanistic system devoid of life had taken hold in academia. The work of scientist James Lovelock in the 1960s challenged this view by proposing the Gaia hypothesis that Earth's biosphere is a self-regulating system that sustains life. The document warns that human activities like artificial fertilizers threaten this system and our existence.
LEARNING FROM GLOBAL DISASTER LABORATORIES PROVIDES A FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL DIALOGUE THAT IS THE FIRST STEP ON THE ROAD TO RESILIENT COMMUNITIES. A Framework For A Comprehensive, Inter-Disciplinary Dialogue On 21st Century Disasters And Disaster Resilience. A Disaster Is The Set Of Failures That Occur When The Continuums Of: 1) People, 2) Community (I.E., A Set Of Habitats, Livelihoods, And Social Constructs), And 3) Recurring Events (E.G., Floods, Earthquakes) Intersect At A Point In Space And Time, When And Where The People And Community Are Not Ready. Intersection Of These Continuums Is Inevitable. Some Intersections Will Cause A Disaster, And Some Won’t. Each Community Must Be Ready For The Inevitable Intersection That Will Challenge Its State Of Readiness. Best Policies And Practices: Create, Adjust, And Realign Programs, Partners And People Until You Have Created The Kinds Of Turning Points Needed For Moving Towards Disaster Resilience. Presentation courtesy of Dr. Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction
The search for extra-terrestrial life - Historical and theological perspectivesBETA-UFO Indonesia
This document discusses the historical and theological perspectives on the search for extraterrestrial life. It explores how the idea of life on other worlds has been used and debated since antiquity within both science and religion. Specifically, it examines how beliefs about extraterrestrials have shaped the development of astronomy and how theological views have influenced scientists' stances on the possibility of life existing elsewhere in the universe. The document argues that while modern discoveries introduce nuances, the core dilemmas and tensions discussed have religious and philosophical roots that reach far back into history.
This document provides an overview of the historical development of the theory of evolution. It discusses pre-Darwinian thinkers like Jean Baptiste Lamarck and his theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics. It also mentions the contributions of Charles Lyell and his theory of uniformitarianism. The bulk of the document focuses on Charles Darwin and the influence of his voyage on the Beagle, particularly his observations of the Galapagos finches. It outlines Darwin's subsequent development of the theory of natural selection and publication of On the Origin of Species. Finally, it briefly discusses other scientists like Alfred Russel Wallace, Ernst Haeckel, and their role in further developing evolutionary thought, culminating in the modern synthesis of evolution.
Are we witnessing the emergence of a new geological epoch?
Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017
Notes from "principles of geology, being an attempt to explain the forme...Jennifer Wall
This document summarizes Chapter 1 of Principles of Geology by Sir Charles Lyell. It defines geology as the science that investigates the successive changes in nature, both organic and inorganic, and seeks to understand the causes and effects of these changes. It notes that geology, like history, provides insight by comparing the present and past. It also states that an ideal geologist, like an historian, would be well-versed in many related fields of natural science to better understand the evidence of past events and draw correct conclusions.
Selection, drift, speciation, and dispersal are the four key processes that influence patterns of species composition and diversity in ecological communities. Selection represents fitness differences between species, drift represents stochastic changes in species abundance, speciation creates new species, and dispersal is the movement of organisms across space. While community ecology considers many specific mechanisms and interactions, all theoretical models emphasize one or more of these four fundamental processes. Organizing community ecology around these processes provides a coherent conceptual framework and clarifies similarities and differences between models.
The document discusses the solar system from a broader perspective. It provides details on the formation of the solar system based on the nebular hypothesis, including how planets formed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust. It also describes the different types of objects in the solar system such as the terrestrial and gas planets, asteroids, comets, and Pluto. Additionally, it discusses theories for the origin of the Moon and evidence that Mars once had liquid water on its surface.
The document discusses the development of ecological anthropology and its relationship to earlier perspectives on the interaction between human societies and their environments. Environmental determinism viewed the environment as directly determining cultural features, while possibilism argued it only limited possibilities. Cultural ecology, proposed by Julian Steward, viewed cultures as adapting to their environments through technological and economic changes in order to solve environmental problems and opportunities. It focuses on how the interaction between existing cultural features and the environment shapes cultural adaptation, rather than seeing environment or culture in isolation.
This document discusses the concept of the ecological community and argues that it should be "disintegrated" and viewed as an epiphenomenon rather than an integral unit. The key points are:
1) Local communities are not truly bounded units as the populations that comprise them are integrated over larger spatial scales.
2) Viewing communities as local assemblages hinders understanding of regional processes that generate diversity patterns.
3) Local coexistence can only be understood in the context of species' distributions across entire regions, which are determined by diversification, adaptation, and interactions over large scales.
Diane Guo wrote an essay discussing the costs and ethical issues related to space exploration. Space exploration requires high technology and large financial investments, such as the $109 billion spent on the Apollo program. However, critics argue that the money spent on space could be better used to address problems on Earth like providing clean water and food for those in need. Space exploration can also negatively impact the environment through rocket exhaust and the accumulation of space junk. While it provides some benefits, countries should reduce spending on space and instead focus on developing technologies that directly improve life on Earth.
Four environmental researchers and analysts - Erle Ellis, Barry Brook, Linus Blomqvist, Ruth DeFries - offer a critique of an updated analysis of "planetary boundaries" for human activities offered in a new Science paper.
The Perspective and Association of Geography with Environment and Societypaperpublications3
Abstract: The study examines the relationship of the discipline of Geography with conceptual terms of Environment and society. Geography is seen as a spatial science, majorly concerned with spatial analysis, of how and why things differ from place to place and how observable spatial pattern evolved through time on the surface of the earth. The study adopts a survey of literature as its methodology. It is observable that every society has its individual physical and cultural attributes that distinguishing it from other societies; thus giving it unique character, potential and location. And it is found that in society cultural traits are more pronounced in changing the natural phenomena of the environment. The Environment is better understood when broken to its component: atmosphere, hydrosphere lithosphere and biosphere. Environment has all that is needed to sustain the society and all that is required for life sustenance. It provides the setting with which human action occurs, its shapes but not dictate, how people live in the society as well as their resource base. However, how resources are perceived and utilized is culturally conditioned in society. And virtually every human activity leaves its imprint on the environment. Environment and society form the laboratory for geographic operation. And its spheres form the space which is the major concern in geography and the concept of society introduces the important factor of culture which greatly has direct impact on the environment. The socio-cultural content of the society is influenced by the environment where it locates and the society modifies the content of the environment. There are interconnection between the environment and society which purposely produces spatial patterns with their hidden mechanism of spatial process, accessibility and connectively in addition to idea of location and distance. Advance level of interaction has produced globalization which has accelerated greater spatial diffusion of idea and material resources in the world. The major role of geography is to ensure harmonious spatial organization and inter relationship between and among societies on one hand and between society and its environment on the other. Thus, this is being pursued in geography through its traditions: Earth science, cultural-environment, the location (space), the areal analysis and various paradigms and spatial techniques. It is therefore recommended that for speedy development in developing nations particularly at combating the myriad of environmental challenges and appropriate exploitation and utilization of environmental resources, the spatial tool should be adopted as contained in the discipline of Geography.
Ecocriticism has developed in three waves:
1) The first wave focused on nature as morally restorative, exemplified by writers like Thoreau and Muir.
2) The second wave introduced cultural dimensions, examining diverse environments and issues of environmental justice, gender, class, and race. It still viewed natural spaces as morally superior.
3) The third wave emerged with the idea of the Anthropocene, where the impact of humanity has altered Earth's deep history and there is no remaining truly natural nature. It takes a more materialist and post-human perspective.
El documento propone tres formas de evitar la contaminación acústica: no tocar la bocina innecesariamente, no escuchar música a alto volumen y evitar fiestas con altos niveles de sonido.
Este gráfico de barras muestra los datos de cuatro categorías en 1997. La categoría 1 tuvo el valor más alto de alrededor de 12, mientras que la categoría 4 tuvo el valor más bajo de alrededor de 2. Las categorías 2 y 3 tuvieron valores intermedios entre 4 y 8.
El documento ofrece consejos para evitar la contaminación acústica, recomendando no tocar la bocina ni escuchar música o asistir a fiestas con alto volumen para no molestar a los vecinos.
The document discusses two potential career paths - lawyer and doctor. For lawyer, the document notes a passion for arguing since childhood and interest in human rights law, finding it rewarding to defend people whose rights have been violated. For doctor, the document discusses always doing well in sciences/math and liking the idea of helping and healing people, seeing it as a rewarding job that could potentially save lives, noting traits of working well under pressure and being driven that would serve medicine well.
After surgery, there is a 1 in 5 chance of developing an infection; however, poking the incision site daily with a cotton swab resulted in a six-fold reduction in infections. Doctors take several safety precautions to prevent infections, such as wearing gloves and masks, having necessary tools organized, and ensuring containers won't spill. Proper hygiene like teeth brushing, nail cleaning, and air filtering can also help reduce chances of infection.
This presentation introduces the topic of Ayurveda doshas, which are biological energies or principles that affect a person's physical and mental constitution. It discusses bad habits, foods, and sleeping patterns that are unhealthy according to Ayurveda principles. The presentation emphasizes finding balance in life through diet, exercise, and managing one's dosha type.
The document contains a single word "EXAMINE IT" which seems to be directing or instructing the reader to examine something. No other context or details are provided about what specifically should be examined.
This document provides an overview of the history of physics and chemistry from ancient times to the modern era. It discusses early Greek and Chinese concepts of matter as composed of elements like earth, water, air and fire. It then covers the rise of modern science during the Scientific Revolution, including Copernicus' heliocentric model of the solar system, Newton's laws of motion, and the development of atomic theory. The document also summarizes key advances in the 19th century that bridged physics and chemistry, such as Dalton's atomic theory, Thomson's discovery of the electron, and Rutherford's nuclear model of the atom.
Catastrophism through the Ages, and a Cosmic Catastrophe at the Origin of Civ...CrimsonPublishersAAOA
Catastrophism through the Ages, and a Cosmic Catastrophe at the Origin of Civilization by Martin B Sweatman* in AAOA
Developments in the Earth Sciences over the last decade point towards a great cosmic catastrophe at the onset of the Younger Dryas period, towards the end of the Paleolithic. It has been suggested this event was caused by a collision with a swarm of comet fragments, consistent with the theory of Coherent Catastrophism. Earlier this year, it was shown how symbols at the ancient archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe can be interpreted as supporting this view. This convergence of geochemical, astronomical and archaeological evidence has potentially profound consequences for our understanding of the emergence of civilization and ancient history.
For more open access journals in Crimson Publishers please click on link: https://crimsonpublishers.com/
For more articles in open access Archaeology journals please click on link: https://crimsonpublishers.com/aaoa/
still contains sentences that are hard to understand, such as Evo.docxrjoseph5
still contains sentences that are hard to understand, such as "Evolutionarily, endangered species preservation in the form of fossils and other forms indicates preservation of culture just as argued in the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 whereby, organisms ought to be preserved even after death to mark their existence and evolution over the years." How do fossils apply to the ESA? And how can organisms be preserved after death, except in the case of museum specimens? From now on, please focus on explaining the ideas of our authors in your own words, rather than trying to sound "academic" or overly-complicated.
--
For next time, focus on answering the specific questions that are asked in the assignment. Rather than including information that appears to be from external sources, such as the genetically-oriented definition of evolution--which you NEED to cite to avoid committing plagiarism--this assignment should focus on the 3 Barrow rationales and relevant links from the Kingsland article.
Ecologists have long endeavored to improve ecologi-cal literacy. This goal goes beyond informing stu-
dents about environmental issues: one must excite their
interest in ecological science, regardless of whether or
not they intend to pursue the more advanced technical
and mathematical education that modern ecology
requires (Golley 1998). The challenge is to motivate
people to tackle difficult ecological problems. Fifty
years ago, G Evelyn Hutchinson (1953) observed that,
while students did not hesitate to dive into complicated
activities concerned with “electronic amplifiers and
with the explosive combustion of hydrocarbons”, they
traditionally viewed the majority of complex activities
as boring duties. “What we have to do”, Hutchinson
wrote, “is to show by example that a very large number
of diversified, complicated, and often extremely diffi-
cult constructive activities are capable of giving enor-
mous pleasure”. The kind of pleasure that Hutchinson
was thinking of involved the formulation of theory,
discovery, and problem-solving. Repairing the bios-
phere and the human societies within it, he believed,
ought to be as much fun as repairing the family car.
While people today are better informed about environ-
mental problems , engaging students in ecological
research and conveying what ecology is about to the
public is still challenging because of the complexity of
the science.
I will draw on historical examples to illustrate ways of
thinking that are characteristic of an ecological
approach to the study of nature. My list is by no means
complete. I touch only lightly on the classics of the eco-
logical canon, which are discussed elsewhere (Real and
Brown 1991; Keller and Golley 2000). Instead, I include
some lesser known examples from medical science to
highlight different contexts in which thinking ecologi-
cally has been important. Students should appreciate
that this kind of thinking integrates methods derived
from many fields of science an.
Philosophy of science paper_A Melodrama of Politics, Science and ReligionMahesh Jakhotia
ABSTRACT: The aim of my project is to understand how religious, scientific and political
reasons shaped and inspired the theory of ‘Origin of life and universe’ in a progressive way
and to look it from a philosopher’s point of view. I also want to explore the aspect on what makes a radical idea like Darwin’s evolutionary theory which was different from the existing paradigm to be accepted amongst the scientific community.
This document discusses the challenges of writing an essay on the topic of Earth. It notes that Earth encompasses many disciplines like geology, geography, and environmental science. Narrowing down the scope for an essay requires careful consideration. Covering Earth's geological history, ecosystems, human impacts, and environmental issues presents a formidable task requiring synthesis of vast information and critical analysis. The essay also must take an interdisciplinary approach by integrating knowledge from different fields. Addressing urgent environmental issues adds complexity, as it requires confronting truths about issues like climate change and proposing solutions. Overall, an essay on Earth demands intellectual rigor, interdisciplinary understanding, and an appreciation of our planet's complexities.
The document summarizes theories about what caused the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The two leading hypotheses are that it was caused by an asteroid impact (the Alvarez hypothesis) or massive volcanic eruptions in India known as the Deccan Traps. Recent evidence has strengthened the asteroid impact theory, finding evidence of an impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico and material from the impact throughout the layers from that time period. However, some scientists argue volcanic activity may have also contributed by weakening ecosystems before the impact. More research is still needed to determine the precise timing and roles of both the asteroid impact and volcanic eruptions.
Working Paper (PDF) for 100YSS 2012 session on Vessel Archives Heath Rezabek
Existential Risk, Human Survival, and the Future of Life in the Universe:
Interstellar Civilization through Vessel Archives.
PDF of working paper for 100YSS Conference in Houston TX, Sep 13-16 2012. Session is a proposal for a type of very-long-term archive as habitat.
This chapter discusses cosmic evolution as a unifying concept in science. The author argues that energy drives the rising complexity of systems in the universe, from galaxies and stars to lifeforms. Cultural curiosity is both a result of and helps explain cosmic evolutionary events that shaped our origins. The chapter presents an emerging scientific worldview based on ubiquitous change in nature, supported by evidence of change across all scales from galaxies to life. Cosmic evolution traces developmental changes in radiation, matter, and life throughout the universe.
Anthropology Is Not Ethnography By Tim IngoldLisa Garcia
1. The author argues that anthropology and ethnography are distinct endeavors, contrary to the common view that treats them as equivalent.
2. According to Radcliffe-Brown, anthropology aims for generalizable theories through comparison, while ethnography provides idiographic descriptions of particular cultures.
3. Kroeber argued for an anthropology that integrates phenomena in their totality and historical context, rather than abstracting general laws from isolated particulars, as Radcliffe-Brown advocated.
This annotated bibliography provides an overview of literature relevant to exploring representations of the McRobies Gully landfill site in Tasmania. The literature is divided into three sections: geographies of waste, aesthetics and ecological relations, and making landscapes. Key sources discuss waste as dependent on human culture rather than an inherent quality; critique linear understandings of waste in favor of complex networks; and analyze landscape as encoding political power and shaping human relationships with place over time through complex interrelations. Gaps in the literature regarding non-human animals' relationships with waste are also noted.
This document provides an overview of the nature and scope of human geography. It discusses key concepts in human geography including the relationship between physical environment and human activities. It outlines the evolution of approaches in human geography from environmental determinism to possibilism to neo-determinism. It also summarizes the broad stages in the development of human geography from the colonial period to modern approaches. Finally, it discusses the interdisciplinary nature of human geography and lists some of its main fields and sub-fields.
Contested Authority in 19th Century ScienceJohn Lynch
This document discusses the development of geology as a scientific discipline in the 19th century and the tensions that arose between geologists and religious literalists. It covers key developments in geology like the discovery of deep time and fossil evidence, and the emergence of scientists as a professional class. It also examines the debates between established geologists and "scriptural geologists" who tried to reconcile geological findings with literal biblical interpretations. Overall, the document analyzes how geology became established as a field while navigating religious objections to some of its naturalistic conclusions.
The document provides an overview of the history of science from ancient Greece to modern times. It discusses key figures like Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and developments like the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution marked a major paradigm shift from the Aristotelian tradition to modern science, transforming views of nature. It established new standards of evidence based on experimentation and mathematics. While debated whether it was a single revolution or gradual evolution, it undeniably changed approaches to natural philosophy and understanding of the natural world.
The document argues against evolution and for intelligent design and creationism by making several key points:
1) Evolution cannot explain the origin of complex biological structures like DNA and the flagellum that appear to be irreducibly complex and could not have evolved step-by-step.
2) The sudden appearance of new life forms in the Cambrian explosion and other periods in the fossil record is inconsistent with gradual evolution over long periods of time.
3) The fine-tuning of the constants and initial conditions of the universe required for life to exist point to purposeful design rather than being the result of random chance.
4) A theistic explanation that posits a supernatural intelligent cause provides a more
Much of the geographical work of the past hundred yearsDavid Ditchett
The document discusses Charles Darwin's influence on the field of geography over the past 100 years. It notes that pre-Darwinian geography was more of an amateur pursuit without strong scientific foundations. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, as presented in On the Origin of Species, provided inspiration for the development of geography as a rigorous academic discipline. Many early pioneering geographers incorporated Darwinian ideas like adaptation, competition, and survival of the fittest into both physical and human geography. The document examines several influential geographers like Friedrich Ratzel and Halford Mackinder who helped professionalize geography and ensure its place in academia by applying evolutionary concepts to their work.
The document discusses three major intellectual revolutions that transformed society's views of science: the Copernican, Darwinian, and Freudian revolutions. The Copernican Revolution involved Nicolaus Copernicus' proposal of a heliocentric solar system, challenging the geocentric view. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection presented in On the Origin of Species established that all species evolve over generations. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory introduced the importance of the unconscious mind and concepts like the id, ego and superego, establishing psychology as a science. These intellectual revolutions significantly changed perceptions of science and its relationship to society.
Man-environment relationships refer to the interactions and feedbacks between the human and
the natural components and, consequently, to the linkages between the social and the geophysical
systems. There are various philosophies put forwarded by various school of thoughts to study the
man-environment relationship in a better and easy way which are as follows
The Scientific Revolution occurred between 1540-1690 and marked a change in both science and thought. Key figures like Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton challenged the existing geocentric view of the universe and developed the scientific method. Their work established a heliocentric model of the solar system and formulated laws of motion and universal gravitation. This revolution shifted views on the relationship between science and religion and had wide-ranging impacts on how people understood the natural world.
The document discusses three major intellectual revolutions:
1. The Copernican Revolution shifted views of the solar system from geocentric to heliocentric, with Copernicus proving the sun is at the center.
2. The Darwinian Revolution provided evidence of evolution through natural selection, challenging religious views of creationism.
3. The Freudian Revolution developed psychoanalysis to understand the unconscious mind, though Freud's theories were controversial and criticized for a lack of empirical evidence.
Similar to ContRock,Live,Fire: geophysics and the Anthropocene (20)
Evidence of Jet Activity from the Secondary Black Hole in the OJ 287 Binary S...Sérgio Sacani
Wereport the study of a huge optical intraday flare on 2021 November 12 at 2 a.m. UT in the blazar OJ287. In the binary black hole model, it is associated with an impact of the secondary black hole on the accretion disk of the primary. Our multifrequency observing campaign was set up to search for such a signature of the impact based on a prediction made 8 yr earlier. The first I-band results of the flare have already been reported by Kishore et al. (2024). Here we combine these data with our monitoring in the R-band. There is a big change in the R–I spectral index by 1.0 ±0.1 between the normal background and the flare, suggesting a new component of radiation. The polarization variation during the rise of the flare suggests the same. The limits on the source size place it most reasonably in the jet of the secondary BH. We then ask why we have not seen this phenomenon before. We show that OJ287 was never before observed with sufficient sensitivity on the night when the flare should have happened according to the binary model. We also study the probability that this flare is just an oversized example of intraday variability using the Krakow data set of intense monitoring between 2015 and 2023. We find that the occurrence of a flare of this size and rapidity is unlikely. In machine-readable Tables 1 and 2, we give the full orbit-linked historical light curve of OJ287 as well as the dense monitoring sample of Krakow.
Describing and Interpreting an Immersive Learning Case with the Immersion Cub...Leonel Morgado
Current descriptions of immersive learning cases are often difficult or impossible to compare. This is due to a myriad of different options on what details to include, which aspects are relevant, and on the descriptive approaches employed. Also, these aspects often combine very specific details with more general guidelines or indicate intents and rationales without clarifying their implementation. In this paper we provide a method to describe immersive learning cases that is structured to enable comparisons, yet flexible enough to allow researchers and practitioners to decide which aspects to include. This method leverages a taxonomy that classifies educational aspects at three levels (uses, practices, and strategies) and then utilizes two frameworks, the Immersive Learning Brain and the Immersion Cube, to enable a structured description and interpretation of immersive learning cases. The method is then demonstrated on a published immersive learning case on training for wind turbine maintenance using virtual reality. Applying the method results in a structured artifact, the Immersive Learning Case Sheet, that tags the case with its proximal uses, practices, and strategies, and refines the free text case description to ensure that matching details are included. This contribution is thus a case description method in support of future comparative research of immersive learning cases. We then discuss how the resulting description and interpretation can be leveraged to change immersion learning cases, by enriching them (considering low-effort changes or additions) or innovating (exploring more challenging avenues of transformation). The method holds significant promise to support better-grounded research in immersive learning.
JAMES WEBB STUDY THE MASSIVE BLACK HOLE SEEDSSérgio Sacani
The pathway(s) to seeding the massive black holes (MBHs) that exist at the heart of galaxies in the present and distant Universe remains an unsolved problem. Here we categorise, describe and quantitatively discuss the formation pathways of both light and heavy seeds. We emphasise that the most recent computational models suggest that rather than a bimodal-like mass spectrum between light and heavy seeds with light at one end and heavy at the other that instead a continuum exists. Light seeds being more ubiquitous and the heavier seeds becoming less and less abundant due the rarer environmental conditions required for their formation. We therefore examine the different mechanisms that give rise to different seed mass spectrums. We show how and why the mechanisms that produce the heaviest seeds are also among the rarest events in the Universe and are hence extremely unlikely to be the seeds for the vast majority of the MBH population. We quantify, within the limits of the current large uncertainties in the seeding processes, the expected number densities of the seed mass spectrum. We argue that light seeds must be at least 103 to 105 times more numerous than heavy seeds to explain the MBH population as a whole. Based on our current understanding of the seed population this makes heavy seeds (Mseed > 103 M⊙) a significantly more likely pathway given that heavy seeds have an abundance pattern than is close to and likely in excess of 10−4 compared to light seeds. Finally, we examine the current state-of-the-art in numerical calculations and recent observations and plot a path forward for near-future advances in both domains.
Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coastsSérgio Sacani
The shorelines of Titan’s hydrocarbon seas trace flooded erosional landforms such as river valleys; however, it isunclear whether coastal erosion has subsequently altered these shorelines. Spacecraft observations and theo-retical models suggest that wind may cause waves to form on Titan’s seas, potentially driving coastal erosion,but the observational evidence of waves is indirect, and the processes affecting shoreline evolution on Titanremain unknown. No widely accepted framework exists for using shoreline morphology to quantitatively dis-cern coastal erosion mechanisms, even on Earth, where the dominant mechanisms are known. We combinelandscape evolution models with measurements of shoreline shape on Earth to characterize how differentcoastal erosion mechanisms affect shoreline morphology. Applying this framework to Titan, we find that theshorelines of Titan’s seas are most consistent with flooded landscapes that subsequently have been eroded bywaves, rather than a uniform erosional process or no coastal erosion, particularly if wave growth saturates atfetch lengths of tens of kilometers.
Discovery of An Apparent Red, High-Velocity Type Ia Supernova at 𝐳 = 2.9 wi...Sérgio Sacani
We present the JWST discovery of SN 2023adsy, a transient object located in a host galaxy JADES-GS
+
53.13485
−
27.82088
with a host spectroscopic redshift of
2.903
±
0.007
. The transient was identified in deep James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)/NIRCam imaging from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program. Photometric and spectroscopic followup with NIRCam and NIRSpec, respectively, confirm the redshift and yield UV-NIR light-curve, NIR color, and spectroscopic information all consistent with a Type Ia classification. Despite its classification as a likely SN Ia, SN 2023adsy is both fairly red (
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(
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−
�
)
∼
0.9
) despite a host galaxy with low-extinction and has a high Ca II velocity (
19
,
000
±
2
,
000
km/s) compared to the general population of SNe Ia. While these characteristics are consistent with some Ca-rich SNe Ia, particularly SN 2016hnk, SN 2023adsy is intrinsically brighter than the low-
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Ca-rich population. Although such an object is too red for any low-
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cosmological sample, we apply a fiducial standardization approach to SN 2023adsy and find that the SN 2023adsy luminosity distance measurement is in excellent agreement (
≲
1
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) with
Λ
CDM. Therefore unlike low-
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Ca-rich SNe Ia, SN 2023adsy is standardizable and gives no indication that SN Ia standardized luminosities change significantly with redshift. A larger sample of distant SNe Ia is required to determine if SN Ia population characteristics at high-
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truly diverge from their low-
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counterparts, and to confirm that standardized luminosities nevertheless remain constant with redshift.
Immersive Learning That Works: Research Grounding and Paths ForwardLeonel Morgado
We will metaverse into the essence of immersive learning, into its three dimensions and conceptual models. This approach encompasses elements from teaching methodologies to social involvement, through organizational concerns and technologies. Challenging the perception of learning as knowledge transfer, we introduce a 'Uses, Practices & Strategies' model operationalized by the 'Immersive Learning Brain' and ‘Immersion Cube’ frameworks. This approach offers a comprehensive guide through the intricacies of immersive educational experiences and spotlighting research frontiers, along the immersion dimensions of system, narrative, and agency. Our discourse extends to stakeholders beyond the academic sphere, addressing the interests of technologists, instructional designers, and policymakers. We span various contexts, from formal education to organizational transformation to the new horizon of an AI-pervasive society. This keynote aims to unite the iLRN community in a collaborative journey towards a future where immersive learning research and practice coalesce, paving the way for innovative educational research and practice landscapes.
Mechanisms and Applications of Antiviral Neutralizing Antibodies - Creative B...Creative-Biolabs
Neutralizing antibodies, pivotal in immune defense, specifically bind and inhibit viral pathogens, thereby playing a crucial role in protecting against and mitigating infectious diseases. In this slide, we will introduce what antibodies and neutralizing antibodies are, the production and regulation of neutralizing antibodies, their mechanisms of action, classification and applications, as well as the challenges they face.
The cost of acquiring information by natural selectionCarl Bergstrom
This is a short talk that I gave at the Banff International Research Station workshop on Modeling and Theory in Population Biology. The idea is to try to understand how the burden of natural selection relates to the amount of information that selection puts into the genome.
It's based on the first part of this research paper:
The cost of information acquisition by natural selection
Ryan Seamus McGee, Olivia Kosterlitz, Artem Kaznatcheev, Benjamin Kerr, Carl T. Bergstrom
bioRxiv 2022.07.02.498577; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.02.498577
Sexuality - Issues, Attitude and Behaviour - Applied Social Psychology - Psyc...PsychoTech Services
A proprietary approach developed by bringing together the best of learning theories from Psychology, design principles from the world of visualization, and pedagogical methods from over a decade of training experience, that enables you to: Learn better, faster!
2. 260 Oxford Literary Review
of geo-political issues concerning fossil fuel consumption, alternative
energy sources, ecosystem protection and land appropriation.4
But the
prospect of an anthropic forcing of earth processes into novel states also
raises questions about the definitive characteristics of our species and
our planet. While overlapping with political issue-formation at certain
crucial junctures, these questions are of an ontological nature — and
as such they exceed the domains of negotiation and decision-making
definitive of the polity.5
Any exploration of the role of fire in the earth’s
history, in this sense, involves some questions that are profoundly
political, and others that might be referred to, in Claire Colebrook’s
apt phrase, as ‘monstrously impolitic’ (11).
The posing of the Anthropocene as a problem indicates that natural
scientists — bucking most of what Bruno Latour has said about the
modern constitution6
— are more than willing to implicate the human
in contemporary natural processes. But this contemporaneity, we
should recall, is a geological eye-blink. Whereas mainstream social
and cultural thought has tended to take announcements of the
Anthropocene as yet another incentive to decree the ‘end of nature’,
it is notable that earth scientists have been taking the possibility of a
novel geologic boundary-crossing as one more incitement to explore
analogies, continuities and discontinuities across a range of epochs,
most of which are unequivocally inhuman. A more generous response
of the humanities and social sciences to the scientific acknowledgement
of human geologic agency, in this regard, would be to join natural
sciences in confronting the full range of geologic forces, without which
‘our’ agency would be an abstract and orphan presence in the universe .
And this implies engaging with physical forces ‘in themselves’, and not
simply ‘for us’.
Promisingly, diverse fields of inquiry are now converging on what
might be termed a ‘speculative geophysics’: which I take to include
not only a renewed philosophical, cultural and social theoretic interest
in the possibilities of earth processes ‘in themselves’,7
but also the
past and present willingness of natural scientists to think beyond the
empirical and into the realms of what has been, or might yet be.
Deconstruction may not appear to be an obvious source of inspiration
for speculative thought of a geophysical nature. It is fair to say that
Derrida, while making numerous allusions to the nonhuman, the
material, the inorganic, rarely made these dominions an object of
3. Nigel Clark 261
sustained inquiry.8
But Derrida did make it clear from early on that
the structural logics he identified worked against the closure or self-
sufficiency of the human, and of life more generally. What always
interested him, in his own words, was the: ‘...arch-phenomenon of
‘memory’, which must be thought before the opposition of nature and
culture, animality and humanity, etc., . ... this trace is the opening of
the first exteriority in general, the enigmatic relationship of the living
to its other and of an inside to an outside; spacing’.9
While this excerpt from Of Grammatology may not be unfamiliar,
it’s worth noting that I sourced it, word for word, from an article in
a biology journal. Rather than taking Derrida to task for his scientific
or environmental oversights, natural scientists who find his approach
useful have recognised that deconstruction characteristically sets out
from those experiences, texts and fields with which researchers are
accustomed — in order to unleash the strangeness harboured within
the familiar (Craw and Heads, 507). Citing Derrida to the effect that
‘The movements of deconstruction do not destroy concepts from the
outside’ (Of Grammatology, 24), biologists Robin Craw and Michael
Heads, among others, have reworked the resources of their own
discipline to explicitly deconstruct ‘the opposition biology/geology’
(510, 513).
Following recent reassertions by Vicki Kirby, Martin Hägglund and
Karen Barad that Derrida’s logic of the trace was always intended
to apply to fields beyond the human,10
it is timely to consider the
contributions deconstruction has made and might yet make to a
speculative geophysics. It is, at this moment, necessary to ask how
our species became a geologic agent of such forcefulness that we are
undermining the material conditions of our existence.11
However, a
sensitivity to the complexity and enigma of origins — the suspicion
that beginnings might be ‘already alive with what has yet to come’ —
can pull this question in different directions (Kirby, 30). It prompts us
to also inquire what kind of planet is this that births a creature capable of
doing such things?
Taking inspiration from the prescient attempts of ‘deconstructionist
biologists’ to work through the imbrications of biology and geology,
I look at some recent hypotheses about the role of active tectonic
processes in the emergence of our own species. In the light of
speculation about the volcanic origins of human fire use, I ask how
4. 262 Oxford Literary Review
complications in the earth’s own identity might contribute to the rise
of a species with the capacity for repeatedly ‘rewriting the history of fire
on earth’.12
By viewing fire itself not simply as a physical force, but as
means of transmission, calculability and even intelligibility, I consider
whether humanity might be seen less an anomaly that an exaggeration
of possibilities inhering in the earth system.
Deconstruction and the dynamic planet
‘(P)reculturally pure Nature is always buried,’ wrote Derrida, a
rejoinder to Husserl’s proposal that the everyday experience of the
anchoring ground beneath our feet might offer a gathering and
unifying counterpoint to the physical sciences’ objectification of our
planet.13
For Husserl, as Derrida explained in his first book-length
outing, ‘the earth ...is the exemplary element (being naturally more
objective, more permanent, more solid, more rigid, and so forth, than
all other elements; and in a broader sense it comprises them)’ (81). The
idea that the earth cannot present itself to us with full, unmediated
access introduces the gesture for which Derrida will become renowned.
Contra Husserl, there will be no ‘unity of all humanity ... correlative
to the unity of the world’ (84, footnote 87).
But during the early 1960s, the time Derrida was writing, the very
sense of the solidity and rigidity of the world was in the process of
being radically recast. And by those same scientists whom Husserl
charged with the ‘geometrical’ reduction of our home planet to a cold,
hard, relentlessly orbiting sphere. By the late 1960s, accumulating
evidence had confirmed the theory of global plate tectonics, the
key to understanding the planet’s major geological features as the
manifestation of the incessant emergence, mobilization, and recycling
of the earth’s crust. Henceforth, seismic and volcanic activity and other
geological upheavals cease to be seen as exceptions to an underlying
stability and come to be viewed as expressions of a fractious but
integrated geophysical system.
Continental mobility was just the beginning of what has been
described as a ‘permanent revolution’ in the earth sciences.14
Over
the next half century a series of major research projects tracked the
dynamics of the planet’s hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere,
identified the cycles and reservoirs of the earth’s main chemical
components, and began to decipher the complex external forcings and
5. Nigel Clark 263
internal feedback effects that orchestrate periodic shifts in major earth
systems.15
It is this succession of breakthroughs in geoscience which
provide the basis for understanding the variability of the earth’s climate
over time and the influence of human activity on the dynamics of
climate.
With few exceptions, the major currents of ‘continental’ philosophy
have been impervious to these scientific achievements. Where
continental philosophers have found inspiration, however, is in
the operations internal to a single component of the earth
system: biological life. Particularly in French philosophy, post-war
developments in biology — especially the deciphering of the genetic
code — offered the possibility of understanding human linguistic or
symbolic capacities in the context of a much more expansive ‘play’ of
signs proper to life itself. Biology’s own concern with the interplay
of coding and indetermination, chance and necessity, and difference
and sameness opened the way to what Serres referred to as ‘a general
philosophy of marked elements’.16
This move helped make it possible
for critical philosophical inquiry to sustain its passion for action
and transformation while at the same time working to unsettle the
centrality of the human subject.
Christopher Johnson has argued convincingly that Derrida’s early
work belongs to this moment (System and Writing, 7–8). In the
face of tendencies to impound his thought within purely human
linguistic or textual precincts, Derrida repeatedly insisted that the
structural logics he laid out ‘ should be valid beyond the marks and
society called “human” ’.17
More than simply prompting a search for
generalised affinities between deconstructive manoeuvres and canonical
pronouncements within the natural sciences, this might be read as
an invitation to work closely with, and even within those scientific
fields whose findings seem to trouble the foreclosures of logocentric
thinking18
. As Derrida later clarified his own position: ‘I believe ... that
the orders of thought and philosophy, even if they don’t allow
themselves to be reduced to the order of scientific knowledge, are not
simply exterior to it, both because they receive the essential from it and
because they are able, from the other side of the limit, to have effects
on the inside of the scientific field.’19
Despite the promise of French philosophy’s encounter with
molecular biology in the 1960s, the dominant ‘metropolitan’
6. 264 Oxford Literary Review
receptions of deconstruction have rarely engaged closely with the life
sciences, let alone the geosciences. But if we are willing to look further
afield, Derrida’s wishful thinking about a deconstructive movement
within the sciences may not be as far-fetched as it first appears. When
a small contingent of New Zealand biologists encountered Derrida’s
work in the 1980s, they seemed to assume from the outset that his
denial of the possibility of ‘some finally isolated graphy’ applied as
much to biogeographical formations as it did to literary or cultural
expressions.20
In what might be regarded as a ‘minor literature’ of
deconstructive research and development, they set Derridean thought
to the task of exploring the entangled geneses of the earth’s life-
forms and landforms — beginning with the tectonically active region
in which they lived.
Derrida Down Under: ‘Writing, Earth and Life’
‘The relatively complex nature of organisms and our own privileging of
life has perhaps discouraged previous deconstruction of the opposition
earth/life in the earth and life sciences’ observed biologists Robin
Craw and Michael Heads, some 25 years ago.21
For Craw, Heads
and their antipodean confederates, prevailing explanations for the form
and distribution of New Zealand biota revealed a deep-seated bias in
biological philosophy towards unitary centres of origin. Biogeographic
orthodoxy has it that these south-west Pacific islands are a drifting
relic of the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, upon which
time and isolation have worked to produce a unique flora and fauna.
For the ‘deconstructionist biologists’, this view hues to an assumption
that the currently existing landmass of New Zealand is a coherent
taxonomic unit — or natural biogeographical entity.22
In doing so,
it overlooks a wealth of evidence which indicates that these islands
are in fact composite formations: a mosaic of continental fragments
arriving from disparate directions and remnants of long-sunken micro-
continents — all thrown together by tectonic forces. By the same logic,
a close analysis of the ‘indigenous’ biota shows, that far from having a
singular and special identity, New Zealand’s biological community is
deeply differentiated. Its internal divisions reflect the multiple origins
of its geological components, revealing a range of distinct affiliations
with biota of the regions to which each fragment once belonged.23
7. Nigel Clark 265
For Craw et al, the local credo of insularity and uniqueness,
for all its nationalist appeal, belongs in essence to a 19th
century
vision of privileged centres of evolution. While he may have rejected
species fixity, Darwin cleaved to the idea of centralised origins of
evolutionary form-making. As Darwin himself put it: ‘the simplicity
of the view that each species was first produced within a single region
captivates the mind’24
. Equally captivating was the assumption that
the major evolutionary workshops — the sites of ‘superior creation’ —
were firmly ensconced in the North. Starting out from these restricted
originary centres, life-forms supposedly migrated outward to novel
environments, where they encountered new form-changing pressures
and challenges.25
This thesis also assumed that the continents had
always lain in their current positions. The acceptance of theories of
continental drift in the 20th
century, however, left the unitarian centres
of origin thesis fundamentally intact, just as it left the continents
themselves as relatively coherent and permanent masses.26
And rather
than unsettle this model, the vision of New Zealand as a unique
biogeographical product of a Gondwanean centre of origin more-or-
less picked it up and planted it in another hemisphere.
Derrida’s critique of the metaphysics of presence provided the cohort
of maverick biogeographical thinkers with a logic for understanding
the depth of investment in the fixity and purity of originary centres.
More than this, deconstruction offered resources for developing and
extending counter-narratives. The alternatives advanced by the New
Zealand biologists in the 1980s and 1990s drew on earlier research
by Italian life scientists which posited that evolutionary form-making
involved many diverse ancestors distributed across a broad front.27
Their approach, drawing especially on the work of Italian-Venezualan
biogeographer Leon Croizat, focussed on the evidence that current
filiations between organisms often bore little relation to observable
geological features.28
Rather, what detailed empirical biogeographical
research revealed was that lines of association between related species
tended to stretch across continents and ocean basins.29
These trans-
oceanic and intercontinental ‘tracks’ — posited by Croizat well prior
to the consensus around plate tectonics — increasingly made sense as
continental mobility was substantiated. They made even more sense
when later evidence showed the extent to which many continental
8. 266 Oxford Literary Review
landmasses were composed of multiple, heterogeneous and often long-
journeying fragments from disparate sources.30
The key to current global distributions of life, then, lay not
so much in existing landform, but in the earth’s major tectonic
processes and upheavals. In other words, where orthodox Darwinian
biogeography told a story of living things moving on or across relatively
enduring topographies, the approach favoured by the New Zealand
deconstructionist biogeographers posited a much more complicated
relationship between biology and geology. In place of a genesis at
unitary centres, biological novelty was seen to emerge along zones
of geological deformation; sutures where oceans have closed, rifts
where continents are stretching, coastlines which shifted as seas or
landmasses rose and fell.31
In this view, not only does geology play
a much more dynamic role in biological differentiation, but life
too is credited with playing a major part as a geological force:
influencing rock weathering and sedimentation, and forming coral
reefs, and chalk and oil deposits.32
Extrapolating from the passage
on writing ‘in the general sense’ in Of Grammatology that includes
reference to ‘processes of information inside the living cell’ (9),
Craw and Heads move beyond the more familiar association of
textuality with the operations of the genetic code, and propose that
biological life — in its role as a geological agent — is fundamentally
inscriptive. Under the heading of ‘Writing, Earth and Life’, they
make the claim that ‘Derrida’s ‘writings’ would...also include
the inscriptions made by plants, animals and rocks on (or ‘as’)
the landscape, for example in movement/growth/architecture and
biogeography.’33
Craw and Heads make it quite clear that this understanding of life
as an active geological stratum constitutes a ‘deconstruction’ of existing
epistemic distinctions between biology and geology, the living and
non-living:
We can also note here the crude distinction ‘animate/inanimate’
(living/dead — life/earth) as deconstructed in Croizat’s view of life
as the top geological layer. That the living permeates its ‘other’ the
dead; that fossil and living organisms integrate; that earth and life
merge in space/time as the landscape ...these deconstructions raise
the issue of the opposition biology/geology. (Reading Croizat, 513)
9. Nigel Clark 267
In order to understand how an originary complication of earth and
life might have given rise to an organism capable of ‘rewriting’
terrestrial geology, there are two main points we might take from
these deconstructive moves inside of the scientific field of biology. The
first is the importance of zones of geological rupture and upheaval in
biological form-building. The second concerns the trace of the past
in the present: in the sense that older life is often able to recolonise
a younger geological layer or stratum, but also that younger life may
come to occupy older strata, without necessarily moving any great
distance.34
As we will see, both the biological generativity of tectonically
active zones and the constitutive ability of life to negotiate between
strata laid down at different times have important implications for
conceiving of our species as an expression of the earth’s own self-
differentiating processes.
Continental rifting
Though it has yet to be framed in deconstructive terms, the idea
that major zones of crustal deformation play a galvanising role in
biological evolution is currently being extended to the emergence
of our own species. Until recently, tectonic activity has tended to
feature only incidentally in the origin story of the genus Homo: usually
as a contributing factor to climate change, and thereby an indirect
influence on the availability of food for our hominid ancestors. But
paleoanthropologists and earth scientist are now suggesting that the
exceptionally active tectonics of the rift valley system of east Africa
may have played a vital role in the evolutionary trajectory of our
human ancestors and near-relatives. ‘A key point about the African
Rift’, paleoarchaeologists Geoffrey King and Geoff Bailey note, ‘is that
tectonic activity has been continuous throughout the time span of
human existence.’35
The rifting of Africa’s Ethiopian plateau is the largest and most
enduring example of the extentional tectonics that occurs when a
landmass overlies a major upwelling or ‘super-plume’ of the molten
rock that makes up the earth’s mantle. As rising magma pushes the
crust upwards, fault-lines open in the stretched rock — resulting in
great chunks of subsidence between rising flanks — while the rock-
melting effect of heating from the mantle often gives rise to volcanic
activity (King and Bailey, 269). This tends to generate a landscape
10. 268 Oxford Literary Review
characterised by steep escarpments and plunging valleys, a topography
of recurrent and often rapid change.
It has now well established that the wildly vacillating climatic
conditions of the last few million years played a vital part in the
emergence and faltering of numerous branches of the human genus.
Some researchers now point to the role of the planet’s greatest rift
system in amplifying the harsh selective pressures of extreme climatic
variability on hominids and other mammals.36
Others, however, are
more inclined to emphasise the many provisions offered by a tectonic
topography to an opportunistic primate. As King and Bailey observe,
the rapid uplift of the Ethiopian plateau saw a uniform forested plain
give way to a much more variegated terrain: a landscape composed of
steep canyons, incised river terraces, sedimented basins and volcanic
outflows. While animals and aquatic flora would have been attracted
to the freshwater lakes and rivers that formed in the rift valley, the
frequent disturbance of the tectonic hot-zone generated a rich mosaic
of vegetation types (King and Bailey, 282). But King and Bailey
afford a special significance to the volcanic features of the landscape,
speculating that jagged and hardened lava flows coupled with fault
scarps would have provided natural stockades in which a relatively
slow, unspecialised, ground-dwelling and bipedal omnivore could seek
refuge between forays into nutrient-rich environments (269–70, 282).
Without any apparent connection, this recent surge of interest in
the role of an active crustal deformation zone as the ‘ecological basis of
human evolution’ resonates with the Croizat’s and the New Zealand
biogeographers’ preference for the dispersal of evolutionary novelty
along ‘geo-sutures’ and fractures. However, there is another potentially
pivotal element in the rift valley landscape that has not featured in
the deconstructionist strain of biogeography and is mentioned only
in passing in King and Bailey’s decisive contribution to the hominid
evolutionary story (267). To take us from the volatile conditions of
human emergence to the contemporary excess of anthropic combustion
we need to consider the ascending significance of fire.
Fire species, fire planet
In an expressly ‘speculative’ contribution to the question of the early
hominid niche, environmental studies scholar Michael Medler riffs
off King and Bailey’s emphasis on the shifting but incessant presence
11. Nigel Clark 269
of volcanic activity along the African rift valley.37
In the process of
adding molten lava to the rift valley landscape, Medler proposes,
volcanoes provided ancestral humans with a source of fire. Lightning
would already have brought wildfire to African savannah and forest;
blazes which would have been furious and deadly when exacerbated
by climate change. Lava spilling from constantly active volcanoes,
however, provided a more regular and concentrated fire. And this,
Medler suggests, may have been the first fire that humans learned to
handle and set to work (20–1).
Independent of the emerging tectonic theme, the role of fire
in human evolution has been attracting renewed attention from
researchers in a range of fields. Without overtly sharing Medler’s
emphasis on geographically and geologically specific source of ignition,
other scholars have been exploring the significance of the capture, and
later, creation of fire for the evolutionary trajectory of hominid species.
For as long as 1.6 million years, by some estimates, Homo erectus and
its near-relatives have been using fire for warmth and light, for keeping
predators at bay, and for increasing the available nutrient content of
foodstuffs.38
Application of fire can also promote the ecological richness
of landscapes; attracting wildlife to new plant growth and reducing the
likelihood of larger and fiercer wildfires (Pyne, 18, 303).
Given that humans are the only life-form in the planet’s history to
control fire, environmental historian Stephen Pyne proposes that fire
use may be our biological and geological niche. But as Pyne insists,
we are ‘fire creatures on a uniquely fire planet’ (3, author’s italics).
While some of the conditions for combustion exist on other planets or
moons in our solar system, only earth has the combination of oxygen-
rich atmosphere, ignition sources and fuels to make of fire a planet-
shaping force. Biological life itself provides the fuel for terrestrial flame,
and as Pyne argues, life and fire have evolved together. Everywhere
there is vegetation on earth, sooner or later there is wildfire. And
almost everywhere there is natural fire, there are or have been humans
willing to augment the planet’s own pyrophytic tendencies.39
Though
human-modulated combustion may be unique, Pyne views this as
an extrapolation of terrestrial tendencies rather than as an anomaly:
human fire use ‘accelerated, catalyzed, animated, leveraged’ what was
already present (World Fire, 302–3). Or to put it another way, humans
appropriated and advanced a technics that was the planet’s own.
12. 270 Oxford Literary Review
As Pyne would have it, the ascending weight of human agency
on the earth has everything to do with this radical extension of a
combustive imperative that defines the earth itself. Over the time in
which terrestrial vegetation has taken hold, wildfire has been exerting
pressure on the earth’s biota: selecting for fire-tolerant species and
in the process selecting for still more fire. The emergence of a fire-
wielding species, Pyne argues, has accelerated this already decisive
planetary feedback in favour of increased combustion and heightened
combustability. Over time, humans have developed a range of ways to
transform the earth through fire, of which the recent propensity to tap
into sedimented and fossilised biomass is the latest (World Fire, 325).
This is not to deny the element of excess that attends the unearthing
of a previously inaccessible fire source, or what is effectively the making
present of past solar energy. In the early days of the Gaia hypothesis,
James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis speculated that fire was one of
the ways that an earth blanketed by biological life maintained its
atmosphere in a far-from-equilibrium state.40
If the carbon dioxide
content of the earth’s atmosphere increases, it is absorbed by increased
plant growth — which generates more oxygen. But if oxygen levels
increase beyond a point, more vegetation is consumed by fire,
producing more CO2.41
In this way, as Pyne notes, fire is an
essential thermostat for global climate (World Fire, 323). Through the
geologically novel process of burning deposited hydrocarbons, a fire
species has changed the setting on this ‘thermostat’: we have altered the
conditions under which the earth itself recalibrates its own atmosphere.
In large part, this is the predicament which the designation of the
current epoch as the Anthropocene seeks to capture.
Deconstructive geophysics and the Anthropocene
So far, I have been weaving together some storylines from both the
physical and social sciences which seem to me to have a deconstructive
logic to them — in a way that takes inspiration from the explicitly
Derridean turn within a current of biogeography from my own part
of the planet. Common to these insights is a sense of ‘the indefinitely
articulated regress of the beginning’ that does not grind to a halt at
the limits of culture or biology but pushes on into the geological
and cosmological.42
The troubling structure of the origin, the at-once
generative and risky implication of an outside within the bounds of
13. Nigel Clark 271
any entity or system, I have been indicating, applies to the earth
itself. Not only is our planet open to the external forces of the solar
system that condition global climate, but the body of the earth is
itself divided. A withdrawn and molten interior acts upon the earth’s
surface, exuding, mobilising and periodically breaking through crustal
formations. Crustal rifts and sutures literally bring into relief the earth’s
non-identity with itself, as do regime changes in major earth systems.
Along these spatial and temporal threshold zones are to be found the
most lively provocations for the transmutation and diversification of
biological life.
Flame irrupts along many of the planet’s most dynamic seams.
Volcanic fire perforates major crustal deformations. At thresholds of
climate change — each time the earth tips into a cooler, drier regime —
vast wildfires break out, leaving their ashen signatures in geographically
wide-ranging charcoal sediments. However, it remains difficult, if not
impossible, to precisely distinguish anthropic fire from wildfire — as
combustion itself is indiscriminate as to its source of ignition. And a
conflagration, as forensics experts know only too well, has a tendency
to consume the evidence of its inception.
It is fire’s propensity to endure and spread through its own self-
effacement that has sparked Derrida’s interest. Though he initially
chose the inscriptive marking as the always more-than-figural exemplar
of a structural logic in which any entity is differentiated by the trace of
a non-present outside, Derrida later claimed a preference for fire and its
residues. Characteristically approaching fire by way of cultural texts and
events with which he is familiar, he writes: ‘I have the impression now
that the best paradigm for the trace ...is not ...the trail of the hunt,
the fraying, the furrow in the sand, the wake in the sea, the love of the
step for its imprint, but the cinder (what remains without remaining
from the holocaust, from the all-burning, from the incineration...)’.43
In an enigmatic logic intuited earlier by Blanchot, Derrida conceives
of fire as providing a light that offers vision and clarity, but in the
process consumes itself and all that it has revealed.44
The crucial point
here is not simply that human sense-making is compromised by some
unspeakable materiality, but that the event of combustion itself might
be seen as undoing the very distinction of signification and force.
Vicki Kirby explores this basal indistinguishability of ‘language’ and
‘materiality’ in relation to lightning — a primordial source of ignition
14. 272 Oxford Literary Review
on our planet.45
In a process which remains mysterious even to physical
scientists who specialise in the field, Kirby recounts how a fork of
lightning becomes ‘aware’ of the highest point in the landscape, in
advance of its earth-ward journey, through a pre-emptive two-way
process of communication between sky and ground. In this way,
the strange complication of origin and destination that is central to
Derrida’s work, she proposes, is just as apparent in the elemental
electric transmissions which light up the earth. This applies not only
to each individual discharge of energy: the phenomenon of lightning
also serves to bring the overall positive electrical charge of the earth
into equilibrium with the net negative charge of the atmosphere. ‘In
other words’, Kirby writes, ‘one lightning stroke, moved by a logic that
exceeds its binary forces, can also be seen as a stroke in which an entire
field of energy rewrites itself’ (Quantum Anthropologies, 12).
That the earth in its totality can recalibrate its electrical force-field
in and through each flash of lightning is taken by Kirby to imply
that calculative operations — a kind of intelligibility to itself — inhere
in the very materiality of nature (56, 95). While the earth or any
other entity may be internally differentiated or non-self-identical, it
is through this kind of inner communicability that any entity holds
together enough to persist in time and space. An open, and hence
internally complicated, system must communicate in order to keep in
touch with itself. And it is by virtue of this is very self-intelligibility
that a body, entity or system explores or plays with its own internal
possibilities (Kirby, 37, 113).
Perhaps pushing the deconstruction of matter and ideation as far
as it has yet ventured, Kirby’s claim that the internal complication of
any entity implies a capacity for making sense of itself gestures towards
an understanding of fire in terms of its role in mediating between the
fractious elements of the earth system. Terrestrial fire, it might be said,
negotiates the rifts in the body of the earth, cauterises the planet’s
wounds, consumes its excesses, and probes its potentiality. But if fire is
a primary player in the planet’s own self-sensing and calculativity, this
does not mean that the sums must add up. It is important to remember
Lovelock’s point, reinforced by Pyne, that the interplay of biological
life and terrestrial fire holds the earth’s atmosphere at a point which is
far from equilibrium. In this sense, it is very long time since this planet
balanced all its equations or squared its accounts.
15. Nigel Clark 273
The same self-articulation of an entity that holds disjunctive parts
together can also serve to deepen or amplify internal differentiations.
Negotiations can break down or succeed too well. As Derrida’s
structural logic of the trace insists, whatever harbours non-identity
within itself has the capacity to turn against itself (Dissemination,
119). And it is in this sense that his talk of fire — along with germs,
weeds, seeds and viruses — makes it clear that human or social existence
has no monopoly on self-destructive irruptions. The trace-structure
asserts that every chance is also a threat, that the wager on novelty or
strangeness, in whatever domain it occurs, runs the risk of unleashing
a runaway force. As Hägglund puts it: ‘Even if all external threats are
evaded, the good still bears the cause of its own destruction within
itself.’46
There is no reason to believe our home planet is exempt from
this logic.
The earth, we might say, has wagered on fire; reproducing on its
surface a trace of the sun and of its own molten interior. There
is no conceivable accounting by which we could assess the gains
and losses of this adventure, though there is strong evidence that
previous events in the earth’s long igneous history have triggered
catastrophic climate change and mass extinction — outbursts already
credited by stratigraphic authorities with effecting shifts between
geological eras. The emergence of an organism with the capacity to
capture, generate and broadcast fire has dramatically raised the stakes of
the planet’s investment in fire, and what is now being described as the
Anthropocene manifests a further extension of hominid combustion.
The contemporary ability of our species to tap into the energetic
reserve of sedimented biomass offers a new turn in the implication
of biological and geological strata, or what deconstructionist biologists
have referred to as the way ‘that fossil and living organisms integrate’.
But what we need to keep in mind is that the gradual amplification
of the solar flux means that our planet is aging — implying that the
earth system may now be unusually vulnerable (Lenton, 820). In other
words, this might not be good time to risk radically supplementing the
earth’s combustive budget.
A deconstructive turn in the nascent field of speculative geophysics
might help us to understand that the human potential to undermine
the conditions of our own existence has not materialised out of thin
air. Our planet is and always has been capable of turning against itself.
16. 274 Oxford Literary Review
And no planet perverse enough to produce a fire creature is going to
offer us an easy ride, even without our fossil-fuelled surcharge to its
native instability. That we are perhaps more of an intensification of
the planet’s own incendiary impulses than an aberration is hardly cause
for complacency. As Stephen Pyne likes to point out, a million and
half years plus of stoking the earth’s pyrophytic tendencies comes with
responsibilities (World Fire, 322–7). Like it or not we have a vast and
fearsome inheritance with which to reckon.
Notes
1
Michel Serres, The Natural Contract, translated by Elizabeth MacArthur and
William Paulson (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1995), 31.
2
Alan Robock, Allison Marquardt, Ben Kravitz, and Georgiy Stenchikov, ‘Benefits,
Risks, and Costs of Stratospheric Geoengineering’, Geophysical Research Letters 36
(2009), 1–9.
3
Melissa Leach, James Fairhead and James Fraser, ‘Green Grabs and Biochar:
Revaluing African Soils and Farming in the New Carbon Economy’, Journal of
Peasant Studies 39:2 (2012), 285–307.
4
On the Anthropocene see Paul J. Crutzen, ‘Geology of Mankind’, Nature 415:
6867 (2002), 23.
5
See Claire Colebrook, ‘Matter without Bodies’, Derrida Today 4:1 (2011), 1–20
(13); Nigel Clark, Inhuman Nature: Sociable Life on a Dynamic Planet (London,
Sage, 2011), chapter 1.
6
Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University
Press, 1993).
7
See for example Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing
of the Earth (Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 2008); Etienne Turpin,
‘Reflections on Stainlessness’, Fuse 35:1 (2011), 11–15; Kathryn Yusoff, ‘Geologic
Life: Prehistory, Climate, Futures, or do fossils fuels dream of geologic life?’,
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (under review).
8
Graham Harman, ‘Response to Shaviro’, in The Speculative Turn: Continental
Materialism and Realism, edited by Levi Bryant, Nick Srnicek and Graham Harman
(Melbourne, re.press, 2011), 291–303 (293).
9
Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
(Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), 70, quoted in
Robin Craw and Michael Heads, ‘Reading Croizat’, Rivista di Biologia Biology
Forum 81:4 (1988), 499–532 (507).
10
Vicki Kirby, Quantum Anthropologies: Life at Large (Durham and London, Duke
University Press, 2011); Martin Hägglund, Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time
17. Nigel Clark 275
of Life (Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2008); Karen Barad, ‘Quantum
Entanglements and Hauntological Relations of Inheritance: Dis/continuities,
SpaceTime Enfoldings, and Justice-to-Come’, Derrida Today 3:2 (2010):
240–68.
11
See Tom Cohen, ‘The Geomorphic Fold: Anapocalyptics, Changing Climes and
“Late” Deconstruction’, The Oxford Literary Review 32:1 (2010): 71–89 (71).
12
Stephen J. Pyne, World Fire: The Culture of Fire on Earth (New York, Henry Holt,
1995), 312.
13
Jacques Derrida, Edmund Husserl’s Origins of Geometry: An Introduction, translated
by John P. Leavey, Jr. (Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1989), 81.
14
Mike Davis, ‘Cosmic Dancers on History’s Stage? The Permanent Revolution in
the Earth Sciences’, New Left Review 217 (1996), 48–84.
15
See Peter Westbroek, Life as a Geological Force: Dynamics of the Earth (New York,
W. W. Norton, 1992), chapter 4; Vaclav Smil, The Earth’s Biosphere: Evolution,
Dynamics, and Change (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2003), chapter 5.
16
Michel Serres, Hermes III, La Traduction (Paris, Editions de Minuit, 1974) 21,
quoted in Christopher Johnson, System and Writing in the Philosophy of Jacques
Derrida (Cambridge, NY, Cambridge University Press, 1993), 3. See also Alberto
Gualandi, ‘Errancies of the Human: French Philosophies of Nature and the
Overturning of the Copernican Revolution’, Collapse V (2009), 501–48.
17
Jacques Derrida, Limited Inc, translated by Samuel Weber (Evanston,
Northwestern University Press, 1988), 134.
18
Kirby, Quantum Anthropologies, 6.
19
Jacques Derrida, ‘As if it were Possible, “within such limits” . . . ’, in Questioning
Derrida: With his Replies on Philosophy, edited by Michel Meyer (Burlington, VT,
Ashgate, 2001), 115, quoted in Henry Staten, ‘Derrida, Dennett, and the Ethico-
Political Project of Naturalism’, Derrida Today 5:1 (2008), 19–41 (20), italics
added.
20
See Jacques Derrida, Dissemination, 332.
21
Craw and Heads, ‘Reading Croizat’, 514.
22
John R. Grehan, ‘Panbiogeography and Conservation Science in New Zealand’,
New Zealand Journal of Zoology 16:4 (1989), 731–41 (734).
23
Robin Craw and George Hubbard, ‘Cross Pollination: Hyphenated Identities and
Hybrid Realities (or ALTER/NATIVE to What?)’, Midwest 3 (1993), 32–3; Roger
Cooper, ‘New Zealand Tectonostratigraphic Terranes and Panbiogeography’,
New Zealand Journal of Zoology 16 :4 (1989), 699–712.
24
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (London,
Murray, 1859 (382), quoted in John R. Grehan, ‘Panbiogeography and Evolution’,
Rivista di Biologia Biology Forum 81:4 (1988), 469–98 (471).
18. 276 Oxford Literary Review
25
Robin Craw, ‘New Zealand Biogeography: A Panbiogeographic Approach’,
New Zealand Journal of Zoology 16:4 (1989), 527–47 (528).
26
John R. Grehan, ‘Panbiogeography and Evolution’, Rivista di Biologia Biology
Forum 81:4 (1988), 469–98 (479).
27
Craw and Heads, ‘Reading Croizat’, 502, 511.
28
Russell Gray, ‘Oppositions in Panbiogeography: Can the Conflicts Between
Selection, Constraint, Ecology, and History be Resolved?’, New Zealand Journal
of Zoology 16:4 (1989), 787–806.
29
John R. Grehan, ‘The Natural Biogeographic regions’, Rivista di Biologia Biology
Forum 81:4 (1988), 569–75 (571).
30
Cooper, ‘New Zealand Tectonostratigraphic Terranes’, 700.
31
Craw, ‘New Zealand Biogeography’, 536.
32
Gray, ‘Oppositions in Panbiogeography’, 801.
33
Derrida, Of Grammatology, 9; Craw and Heads, ‘Reading Croizat’, 513.
34
Michael Heads, ‘Integrating Earth and Life Sciences in New Zealand’, New Zealand
Journal of Zoology 16:4 (1989), 549–585 (563–6).
35
Geoffrey King and Geoff Bailey, ‘Tectonics and Human Evolution’, Antiquity 80
(2006), 265–86 (270).
36
Beth Christensen and Mark Maslin, ‘Rocking the Cradle of Humanity’, Geotimes,
January (2008), online at: http://www.geotimes.org/jan08/article.html?id=
feature_humanity.html, consulted 8 August 2012, 10.00 p.m.
37
Michael J. Medler, ‘Speculations about the Effects of Fire and Lava Flows on
Human evolution’, Fire Ecology 7.1 (2011), 13–23.
38
Pyne, World Fire.
39
Stephen J. Pyne, Fire: A Brief History (Seattle and London, University of
Washington Press, 2001), 10, 25.
40
James E. Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, ‘Atmospheric Homeostasis by and for the
Biosphere: the Gaia Hypothesis’, Tellus XXVI (1974), 1–2.
41
Tim Lenton, ‘Gaia Hypothesis’, in Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences, edited by
James R. Holton, John Pyle and Judith A. Curry (London: Academic Press, 2002),
815–20.
42
See Derrida, Dissemination, 334.
43
Jacques Derrida, Cinders, translated by Ned Lukacher (Lincoln and London:
University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 43.
44
Maurice Blanchot, The Work of Fire, translated by Charlotte Mandell (Stanford,
CA, Stanford University Press, 1995), 243; Derrida, Cinders, 43–4, 57.
45
Kirby, Quantum Anthropologies, 10–12.
46
Martin Hägglund, ‘The Non-Ethical Opening of Ethics: A Response to Derek
Attridge’, Derrida Today 3:2 (2010), 295–305; see also Radical Atheism, 19.
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