Anthropocene Futures: Linking Colonialism and Environmentalism
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The Anthropocene: Acknowledging the Extent of Global Resource Overshoot , and What We Must Do About It
Research, education, and policy guidance for a better global future. The Anthropocene: Acknowledging the extent of global resource overshoot , and what we must do about it. Research, education, and policy guidance for a better global future. Understanding the balance between human needs and environmental resources Research, education, and policy guidance for a better global future. The Anthropocene Story 3 minute video Reflections on the Anthropocene Story “ … we must find a safe operating space for humanity” “... we must understand resource limits and size ourselves to operate within planetary boundaries” Reflections on the Anthropocene Story “…our creativity, energy, and industry offer hope” Empty words Cognitive and behavioral paradigm shifts would offer ‘guarded’ optimism for the future. A preview of this afternoon’s discussion: 1. Realistic meta-level picture of humanity’s relationship with the planet 2. Talk about that relationship and the conceptual meaning of sustainability 3. Discuss the need for ‘transformative’ change and one approach to achieving future sustainability The Problem Climate change is not the problem. Water shortages, overgrazing, erosion, desertification and the rapid extinction of species are not the problem. Deforestation, Deforestation, reduced cropland productivity, Deforestation, reduced cropland productivity, and the collapse of fisheries are not the problem. Each of these crises, though alarming, is a symptom of a single, over-riding issue. Humanity is simply demanding more than the earth can provide. Climate change Witnessing dysfunctional human behavior Deforestation Desertification Collapse of fisheries Rapid extinction of species Supply = 1 Earth Today’s reality: Global Resource Overshoot How do we know we are - living beyond our resource means? - exceeding global capacity? - experiencing resource overshoot? • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Released in 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was a four-year global effort involving more than 1,300 experts that assessed the condition of and trends in the world’s ecosystems. -
“Anthropocene” Epoch: Scientific Decision Or Political Statement?
The “Anthropocene” epoch: Scientific decision or political statement? Stanley C. Finney*, Dept. of Geological Sciences, California Official recognition of the concept would invite State University at Long Beach, Long Beach, California 90277, cross-disciplinary science. And it would encourage a mindset USA; and Lucy E. Edwards**, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, that will be important not only to fully understand the Virginia 20192, USA transformation now occurring but to take action to control it. … Humans may yet ensure that these early years of the ABSTRACT Anthropocene are a geological glitch and not just a prelude The proposal for the “Anthropocene” epoch as a formal unit of to a far more severe disruption. But the first step is to recognize, the geologic time scale has received extensive attention in scien- as the term Anthropocene invites us to do, that we are tific and public media. However, most articles on the in the driver’s seat. (Nature, 2011, p. 254) Anthropocene misrepresent the nature of the units of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, which is produced by That editorial, as with most articles on the Anthropocene, did the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and serves as not consider the mission of the International Commission on the basis for the geologic time scale. The stratigraphic record of Stratigraphy (ICS), nor did it present an understanding of the the Anthropocene is minimal, especially with its recently nature of the units of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart proposed beginning in 1945; it is that of a human lifespan, and on which the units of the geologic time scale are based. -
Golden Spikes, Transitions, Boundary Objects, and Anthropogenic Seascapes
sustainability Article A Meaningful Anthropocene?: Golden Spikes, Transitions, Boundary Objects, and Anthropogenic Seascapes Todd J. Braje * and Matthew Lauer Department of Anthropology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 27 June 2020; Accepted: 7 August 2020; Published: 11 August 2020 Abstract: As the number of academic manuscripts explicitly referencing the Anthropocene increases, a theme that seems to tie them all together is the general lack of continuity on how we should define the Anthropocene. In an attempt to formalize the concept, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) is working to identify, in the stratigraphic record, a Global Stratigraphic Section and Point (GSSP) or golden spike for a mid-twentieth century Anthropocene starting point. Rather than clarifying our understanding of the Anthropocene, we argue that the AWG’s effort to provide an authoritative definition undermines the original intent of the concept, as a call-to-arms for future sustainable management of local, regional, and global environments, and weakens the concept’s capacity to fundamentally reconfigure the established boundaries between the social and natural sciences. To sustain the creative and productive power of the Anthropocene concept, we argue that it is best understood as a “boundary object,” where it can be adaptable enough to incorporate multiple viewpoints, but robust enough to be meaningful within different disciplines. Here, we provide two examples from our work on the deep history of anthropogenic seascapes, which demonstrate the power of the Anthropocene to stimulate new thinking about the entanglement of humans and non-humans, and for building interdisciplinary solutions to modern environmental issues. -
Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: the Making of a Sensible Environmentalist
An Excerpt from Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist ou could call me a Greenpeace dropout, but that is not an entirely accurate Ydescription of how or why I left the organization 15 years after I helped create it. I’d like to think Greenpeace left me, rather than the other way around, by but that too is not entirely correct. Patrick The truth is Greenpeace and I underwent divergent evolutions. I became Moore a sensible environmentalist; Greenpeace became increasingly senseless as it adopted an agenda that is antiscience, antibusiness, and downright antihuman. This is the story of our transformations. The last half of the 20th century was marked by a revulsion for war and a new awareness of the environment. Beatniks, hippies, eco-freaks, and greens in their turn fashioned a new philosophy that embraced peace and ecology as the overarching principles of a civilized world. Spurred by more than 30 years of ever-present fear that global nuclear holocaust would wipe out humanity and much of the living world, we led a new war—a war to save the earth. I’ve had the good fortune to be a general in that war. My boot camp had no screaming sergeant or rifle drills. Still, the sense of duty and purpose of mission we had at the beginning was as acute as any assault on a common enemy. We campaigned against the bomb-makers, whale-killers, polluters, and anyone else who threatened civilization or the environment. In the process we won the hearts and minds of people around the world. -
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1 LEXINGTON LAW GROUP Howard Hirsch, State Bar No. 213209 2 Ryan Berghoff, State Bar No. 308812 Meredyth Merrow, State Bar No. 328337 3 503 Divisadero Street San Francisco, CA 94117 4 Telephone: (415) 913-7800 Facsimile: (415) 759-4112 5 [email protected] [email protected] 6 [email protected] 7 LAW OFFICE OF GIDEON KRACOV Gideon Kracov, State Bar No. 179815 8 801 S. Grand Ave., 11th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90017 9 Telephone: (213) 629-2071 Facsimile: (213) 623-7755 10 [email protected] 11 Attorneys for Plaintiff GREENPEACE, INC. 12 13 14 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 15 COUNTY OF ALAMEDA 16 17 GREENPEACE, INC., Case No. 18 Plaintiff, COMPLAINT 19 v. 20 WALMART, INC.; and DOES 1 through 100, 21 inclusive, 22 Defendants. 23 24 25 26 27 28 DOCUMENT PREPARED ON RECYCLED PAPER COMPLAINT 1 Plaintiff Greenpeace, Inc. (“Plaintiff” or“Greenpeace”), based on information, belief, and 2 investigation of its counsel, except for information based on knowledge, hereby alleges: 3 INTRODUCTION 4 1. The problems associated with plastic pollution are increasing on a local, national, 5 and global scale. This affects the amount of plastic in the ocean, in freshwater lakes and streams, 6 on land, and in landfills. Nearly 90% of plastic waste is not recycled, with billions of tons of 7 plastic becoming trash and litter.1 According to a new study, at least 1.2 to 2.5 million tons of 8 plastic trash from the United States was dopped on lands, rivers, lakes and oceans as litter, were 9 illegally dumped, or shipped abroad and then not properly disposed of.2 As consumers become 10 increasingly aware of the problems associated with plastic pollution, they are increasingly 11 susceptible to marketing claims reassuring them that the plastic used to make and package the 12 products that they purchase are recyclable. -
Jeremy Baskin, “Paradigm Dressed As Epoch: the Ideology of The
Paradigm Dressed as Epoch: The Ideology of the Anthropocene JEREMY BASKIN School of Social and Political Sciences University of Melbourne Victoria 3010, Australia Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT The Anthropocene is a radical reconceptualisation of the relationship between humanity and nature. It posits that we have entered a new geological epoch in which the human species is now the dominant Earth-shaping force, and it is rapidly gaining traction in both the natural and social sciences. This article critically explores the scientific representation of the concept and argues that the Anthropocene is less a scientific concept than the ideational underpinning for a particular worldview. It is paradigm dressed as epoch. In particular, it normalises a certain portion of humanity as the ‘human’ of the Anthropocene, reinserting ‘man’ into nature only to re-elevate ‘him’ above it. This move pro- motes instrumental reason. It implies that humanity and its planet are in an exceptional state, explicitly invoking the idea of planetary management and legitimising major interventions into the workings of the earth, such as geoen- gineering. I conclude that the scientific origins of the term have diminished its radical potential, and ask whether the concept’s radical core can be retrieved. KEYWORDS Anthropocene, ideology, geoengineering, environmental politics, earth management INTRODUCTION ‘The Anthropocene’ is an emergent idea, which posits that the human spe- cies is now the dominant Earth-shaping force. Initially promoted by scholars from the physical and earth sciences, it argues that we have exited the current geological epoch, the 12,000-year-old Holocene, and entered a new epoch, Environmental Values 24 (2015): 9–29. -
Greenpeace, Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front: the Rp Ogression of the Radical Environmental Movement in America" (2008)
University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Senior Honors Projects Honors Program at the University of Rhode Island 2008 Greenpeace, Earth First! and The aE rth Liberation Front: The rP ogression of the Radical Environmental Movement in America Christopher J. Covill University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog Part of the Environmental Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Covill, Christopher J., "Greenpeace, Earth First! and The Earth Liberation Front: The rP ogression of the Radical Environmental Movement in America" (2008). Senior Honors Projects. Paper 93. http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/93http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/93 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at the University of Rhode Island at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Greenpeace, Earth First! and The Earth Liberation Front: The Progression of the Radical Environmental Movement in America Christopher John Covill Faculty Sponsor: Professor Timothy Hennessey, Political Science Causes of worldwide environmental destruction created a form of activism, Ecotage with an incredible success rate. Ecotage uses direct action, or monkey wrenching, to prevent environmental destruction. Mainstream conservation efforts were viewed by many environmentalists as having failed from compromise inspiring the birth of radicalized groups. This eventually transformed conservationists into radicals. Green Peace inspired radical environmentalism by civil disobedience, media campaigns and direct action tactics, but remained mainstream. Earth First’s! philosophy is based on a no compromise approach. -
Sustainability Funds Hardly Direct Capital Towards Sustainability
Sustainability Funds Hardly Direct Capital Towards Sustainability Greenpeace-Briefing, original inrate study (pdf) Zurich & Luxembourg, Contact: June 21, 2021 Larissa Marti, Greenpeace Switzerland; Martina Holbach, Greenpeace Luxemburg 2/ 6 As a globalised society in a climate emergency, we need to transition to an economic model that is sustainable and equitable. For societies, industries and corporations to undertake this systemic task of adopting a green and just business model successfully, we need capital – and lots of it. Investors have a choice to make. They can continue to invest in fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive sectors, and by doing so face physical, legal and transition risks1, while exac- erbating the climate crisis. Or they can redirect funding to green companies and projects, thus both contributing to and profiting from a transition to economic sustainability, innovation and job creation. Consumer sentiment appears to encourage the second option. The demand for green financial products has skyrocketed over the past few years and continues to grow. But are sustainable investment funds really able to attract capital and invest them in eco-friendly pro- jects? Can they redirect financial flows into having a positive effect on the environment and our societies? Looking to answer these questions, Greenpeace Switzerland and Greenpeace Luxem- bourg commissioned a study from Inrate, an independent Swiss sustainability rating agency, to investigate whether sustainable investments are actually channelling capital into a sustainable economy. Key findings Sustainability funds in Switzerland and Luxembourg do not sufficiently support the redirection of capital into sustainable activities. The current sustainable investment approaches need to be questioned by all stakeholders. -
Insect Declines in the Anthropocene
EN65CH23_Wagner ARjats.cls December 19, 2019 12:24 Annual Review of Entomology Insect Declines in the Anthropocene David L. Wagner Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2020. 65:457–80 Keywords First published as a Review in Advance on insect decline, agricultural intensi!cation, climate change, drought, October 14, 2019 precipitation extremes, bees, pollinator decline, vertebrate insectivores The Annual Review of Entomology is online at ento.annualreviews.org Abstract https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-011019- Insect declines are being reported worldwide for "ying, ground, and aquatic 025151 lineages. Most reports come from western and northern Europe, where the Copyright © 2020 by Annual Reviews. insect fauna is well-studied and there are considerable demographic data for All rights reserved many taxonomically disparate lineages. Additional cases of faunal losses have been noted from Asia, North America, the Arctic, the Neotropics, and else- where. While this review addresses both species loss and population declines, its emphasis is on the latter. Declines of abundant species can be especially worrisome, given that they anchor trophic interactions and shoulder many Access provided by 73.198.242.105 on 01/29/20. For personal use only. of the essential ecosystem services of their respective communities. A review of the factors believed to be responsible for observed collapses and those Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2020.65:457-480. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org perceived to be especially threatening to insects form the core of this treat- ment. In addition to widely recognized threats to insect biodiversity, e.g., habitat destruction, agricultural intensi!cation (including pesticide use), cli- mate change, and invasive species, this assessment highlights a few less com- monly considered factors such as atmospheric nitri!cation from the burning of fossil fuels and the effects of droughts and changing precipitation patterns. -
The Prospect of Global Environmental Relativities After an Anthropocene Tipping Point
This is a repository copy of The Prospect of Global Environmental Relativities After an Anthropocene Tipping Point. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/112256/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Grainger, A (2017) The Prospect of Global Environmental Relativities After an Anthropocene Tipping Point. Forest Policy and Economics, 79. pp. 36-49. ISSN 1389-9341 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.01.008 © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ The Prospect of Global Environmental Relativities After an Anthropocene Tipping Point Alan Grainger School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. -
Who Speaks for the Future of Earth? How Critical Social Science Can Extend the Conversation on the Anthropocene
http://www.diva-portal.org This is the published version of a paper published in Global Environmental Change. Citation for the original published paper (version of record): Lövbrand, E., Beck, S., Chilvers, J., Forsyth, T., Hedrén, J. et al. (2015) Who speaks for the future of Earth?: how critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene. Global Environmental Change, 32: 211-218 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.03.012 Access to the published version may require subscription. N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper. Permanent link to this version: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-43841 Global Environmental Change 32 (2015) 211–218 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Global Environmental Change jo urnal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gloenvcha Who speaks for the future of Earth? How critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene a, b c d a e Eva Lo¨vbrand *, Silke Beck , Jason Chilvers , Tim Forsyth , Johan Hedre´n , Mike Hulme , f g Rolf Lidskog , Eleftheria Vasileiadou a Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Change, Linko¨ping University, 58183 Linko¨ping, Sweden b Department of Environmental Politics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany c School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK d Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK e Department of Geography, King’s College London, K4L.07, King’s Building, Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS, UK f Environmental Sociology Section, O¨rebro University, 701 82 O¨rebro, Sweden g Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, P.O. -
Reducing Meat and Dairy for a Healthier Life and Planet
LESS IS MORE REDUCING MEAT AND DAIRY FOR A HEALTHIER LIFE AND PLANET The Greenpeace vision of the meat and dairy system towards 2050 The Greenpeace vision of the meat and dairy system towards 2050 Foreword This report is based upon “The need already over-consuming meat and milk, to a more detailed technical Foreword the detriment of global human health. These review of the scientific evidence to reduce relating to the environmental Professor Pete Smith levels of consumption are not sustainable. and health implications of the demand for LESS production and consumption We could significantly reduce meat and milk livestock of meat and dairy products: I have been working on the sustainability consumption globally, which would improve Tirado, R., Thompson, K.F., Miller, of agriculture and food systems for over 20 products human health, decrease environmental K.A. & Johnston, P. (2018) Less is more: Reducing meat years, and over this time have been involved is now a impact, help to tackle climate change, and IS MORE and dairy for a healthier life and in hundreds of studies examining how to scientifically feed more people from much less land – REDUCING MEAT AND DAIRY planet - Scientific background reduce the climate impact of agriculture, and perhaps freeing some land for biodiversity on the Greenpeace vision of the how to make the global food system more mainstream conservation. And we do not all need to make FOR A HEALTHIER LIFE meat and dairy system towards sustainable. What I have come to realise over view” the once-and-forever decision to become 2050. Greenpeace Research this period is that our current food system, vegetarian or vegan – reduced consumption AND PLANET Laboratories Technical Report (Review) 03-2018 and its future trajectory, is simply not of meat and milk among people who sustainable, and we need to fundamentally consume “less and better” meat / milk could change the way we produce food if we are have a very significant impact.