[PPT] - Environmental Ethics and Land Management ENVR E-120 PowerPoint Presentation

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Environmental Ethics and Land Management ENVR E-120

http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Timothy C. Weiskel

Harvard University Extension School Fall Semester 2011

The Terrain and Main Components of Debate

Session 4 21 September 2011

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We each have our “niche” in life’s matrix (whether we know it or not)… How do you define your “niche?” How can we define it more generally in ecosystemic terms? “That niche used to be the cigarette-machine niche, then it was the water-cooler niche, and now it’s Mr. Pendleton’s niche” (Booth)

The Concept of Niche

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One way to describe a “niche” is to define it as a “position” in a food chain (or more precisely) a resource web.

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One way to describe a “niche” is to define it as a “position” in a food chain (or more precisely) a resource web.

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One way to describe a “niche” is to define it as a “position” in a food chain (or more precisely) a resource web. Or a “stage” in the flow of energy through biomatter.

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But with nested, reciprocal and cumulative causality, while larger systems seem to condition smaller systems within them, the reverse is also true. Geological systems condition the emergence of life forms, but, over time, life forms can also alter geology. Our atmosphere is the result of the waste of

bacteria. The “Cliffs of Dover” are

rock that used to be “alive.” Coral reefs are still alive … let’s hope. Do humans cause earthquakes? Silly question, right?

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But with nested, reciprocal and cumulative causality, while larger systems seem to condition smaller systems within them, the reverse is also true. Geological systems condition the emergence of life forms, but, over time, life forms can also alter geology. Our atmosphere is the result of the waste of

bacteria. The “Cliffs of Dover” are

rock that used to be “alive.” Coral reefs are still alive … let’s hope. Human behavior can accelerate ice and glacier melting, and that can, in turn, have seismic implications along unstable plates. Do humans cause earthquakes? Silly question, right?

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A Niche is an “N-dimentional hypervolume” A more accurate way to define a niche is to say…

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A Niche is an “N-dimentional hypervolume”

1

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A Niche is an “N-dimentional hypervolume”

1 2

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A Niche is an “N-dimentional hypervolume”

1 2 3

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All species have a potential niche and realized niche Potential Niche Realized Niche

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Other species can find their realized niche in our “potential niche” but not share our “realized niche”

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A species realized niche can change over time

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What happens when realized niches converge?

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Remember, niches abstractions (reflecting real behavior)

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Niches can be “shared,” leading to commensualism or symbiosis. Symbiosis, mutualism

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But species can also “move” to a different portion of their potential niche. Antibiosis, avoidance, antipathy

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In addition, the “shape” of the realized niche can change because of the new relationship with another species. parasitism ==> predation ==> annihilation

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Patterns of population variation in biological species.

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How have human beings grown over time? What have been the patterns of human growth in evolutionary time? How do we find out? We look for traces of human activity….starting with the non-random (or patterned) arrangements of enduring objects like stones….

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Anthropologists examine the regular patterns

f life processes

and the “improbable” traces they leave behind.

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Anthropologists examine the regular patterns

f life processes

and the “improbable” traces they leave behind. If something appears improbable, we seek an explanation.

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Anthropologists examine the regular patterns

f life processes

and the “improbable” traces they leave behind. If something appears improbable, we seek an explanation. Some explanations do not involve humans…

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But on examination, other kinds of improbable “rocks” seem to involve humans.

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If we look carefully at what seems to be piles of rocks in many parts of the world we will find non-random, patterned rocks, whose existence is improbable and therefore prompts us to seek an explanation. But other improbable patterns can only be explained by human agency.

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Over time, there are marked changes in the types of “tool kits” that humans use, and these point to different forms of behavior and social

rganization.

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Some new “tool kits” are more efficient in assisting populations to capture new energy sources ~ population growth.

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Human as Foraging Species Distribution - 12,000 BP

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Humans as Foraging Species Distribution - 2,000 BP

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Humans as Foraging Species Distribution - 75 BP

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Some scholars have begun to argue that the ecosystemic transformations engendered by the agricultural revolution marked a major and measurable shift in Earth’s climate, suggesting, therefore, that anthropogenic climate alteration may have greater antiquity than we have become accustomed to think.

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Some scholars have begun to argue that the ecosystemic transformations engendered by the agricultural revolution marked a major and measurable shift in Earth’s climate, suggesting, therefore, that anthropogenic climate alteration may have greater antiquity than we have become accustomed to think.

?

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Agriculture represents a new means of capturing solar energy and this leads to ==> a population ‘spurt’ in growth. As does the ‘energy spurt’ provided by the industrial revolution & fossil fuels...

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Along with a “new” set of stone tools that were more technically advanced and durable, the “neolithic” or “new stone age” is distinguished in the archaeological record by the appearance of several nearly simultaneous technologies that emerge along with sedentary agriculture – notably pots.

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Sedentary life patterns combined with storage technologies and record keeping technologies (writing, in particular) allow for a rapid, largely simultaneous burst of social and cultural invention leading to….

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Visible Language Series Begins

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Town ==> City ==> City State ==> League of States == Empire

The State

Extraordinarily rapid social evolution…

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Is this Middle-Eastern or Mayan Architecture? Strikingly similar forms appear around the world….

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The gradual displacement

f foraging societies

(hunter-gatherers) by expanding agricultural societies leads to a whole new calculus of the domestic sphere.

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The gradual displacement

f foraging societies

(hunter-gatherers) by expanding agricultural societies leads to a whole new calculus of the domestic sphere. This, in turn, kicks off an enormous “positive feedback loop” in all subsequent human history.

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Because of its mobile character, the calculus of the domestic sphere in foraging societies is based on the “limit of portability.”

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Because of its mobile character, the calculus of the domestic sphere in foraging societies is based on the “limit of portability.” Both production and reproduction are undertaken with regard to the overriding concern for the limit of portability.

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Because of its mobile character, the calculus of the domestic sphere in foraging societies is based on the “limit of portability.” Both production and reproduction are undertaken with regard to the overriding concern for the limit of portability. Don’t produce or acquire more than you can carry.

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Logic Changes with Agriculture

The logic of production and reproduction changes dramatically with the emergence of sedentary agriculture.

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Logic Changes with Agriculture

The logic of production and reproduction changes dramatically with the emergence of sedentary agriculture. Land becomes valued, needs to be worked with labor, the more labor the better, especially if it needs to be defended, the more defenses are needed, which require more agricultural surplus to support and therefore require people to acquire more land upon which to grow more food, etc. etc.

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Logic Changes with Agriculture

The logic of production and reproduction changes dramatically with the emergence of sedentary agriculture. Land becomes valued, needs to be worked with labor, the more labor the better, especially if it needs to be defended, the more defenses are needed, which require more agricultural surplus to support and therefore require people to acquire more land upon which to grow more food, etc. etc. This is an ever escalating “positive feedback” loop - an escalating “vicious circle.”

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More is better….

However much is produced, with new storage technology and desiccated grains, it is possible to accumulate ever more -- multi-annual surpluses. Record keeping allows for inter-generational inheritance of both surpluses and debts. The larger one’s family is, the greater the domestic labor force that one can command. Unskilled, repetitive and boring work needs to be done and women and children can be pressed into service.

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Growth is good….

The positive function of child labor as a tractable labor force in the newly organized system combined with the sedentary settlement pattern gives a whole new dynamic to the domestic domain.

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Growth is good….

The positive function of child labor as a tractable labor force in the newly organized system combined with the sedentary settlement pattern gives a whole new dynamic to the domestic domain. Production is geared up to expand reproduction, which in turn fuels further production with the application

f child labor.

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Growth is good….

The positive function of child labor as a tractable labor force in the newly organized system combined with the sedentary settlement pattern gives a whole new dynamic to the domestic domain. Production is geared up to expand reproduction, which in turn fuels further production with the application

f child labor.

Growth becomes a “good thing” as opposed to something that ought to be avoided.

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Neolithic Ethnocentrism

We need, however, to be aware of our “neolithic ethnocentrism.”

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Neolithic Ethnocentrism

We need, however, to be aware of our “neolithic ethnocentrism.” Moreover we must watch very carefully how the collective human econiche shifts with agriculture.

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Neolithic Ethnocentrism

We need, however, to be aware of our “neolithic ethnocentrism.” Moreover we must watch very carefully how the collective human econiche shifts with agriculture. New forms of symbiosis have emerged.

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Neolithic Ethnocentrism

We need, however, to be aware of our “neolithic ethnocentrism.” Moreover we must watch very carefully how the collective human econiche shifts with agriculture. New forms of symbiosis have emerged. We have co-evolved with our domesticates.

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Neolithic Ethnocentrism

We need, however, to be aware of our “neolithic ethnocentrism.” Moreover we must watch very carefully how the collective human econiche shifts with agriculture. New forms of symbiosis have emerged. We have co-evolved with our domesticates. We have gained many things in the process AND we have lost many things as well….

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Our culture has trained us to think of social evolution as if it were a progressive process, leading to refinement and improvement of the human condition….this may not be so in the long run.

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We will need to

vercome

this neolithic bias in our

utlook if

we wish to survive. Our culture has trained us to think of social evolution as if it were a progressive process, leading to refinement and improvement of the human condition….this may not be so in the long run.

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Agriculture represents a new means of capturing solar energy and this leads to ==> a population ‘spurt’ in growth. As does the ‘energy spurt’ provided by the industrial revolution & fossil fuels... Remember, collectively our species has changed its realized econiche over time.

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Humans are now the biggest “natural” “problem,” destabilizing systemic functions in the Earth system.

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If human populations are to stabilize within the system, their net growth rates will have to return to zero.

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…..and then there’s the problem of our stuff….

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In fact, to survive we will need to overcome our ‘homonid ethnocentrism’– that is, our anthropocentrism… Evolution is NOT a story of “progress” – whatever that may be. It about progression – a movement of one state to another. Evolution cannot tell you what is “right” (or wrong) – only what is left (left standing). This illusion has proved to be one of the most erroneous and persistent formulations of our self-understanding that has ever existed…..

We need above all to remember that evolution is NOT a morality play…

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In fact, to survive we will need to overcome our ‘homonid ethnocentrism’– that is, our anthropocentrism… Evolution is NOT a story of “progress” – whatever that may be. It about progression – a movement of one state to another. Evolution cannot tell you what is “right” (or wrong) – only what is left (left standing). This illusion has proved to be one of the most erroneous and persistent formulations of our self-understanding that has ever existed….. How long will the human

species be “left standing” when its life support system collapses? . We need above all to remember that evolution is NOT a morality play…

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In fact, to survive we will need to overcome our ‘homonid ethnocentrism’– that is, our anthropocentrism… Evolution is NOT a story of “progress” – whatever that may be. It about progression – a movement of one state to another. Evolution cannot tell you what is “right” (or wrong) – only what is left (left standing). This illusion has proved to be one of the most erroneous and persistent formulations of our self-understanding that has ever existed….. How long will the human

species be “left standing” when its life support system collapses? Answer: Not long. We need above all to remember that evolution is NOT a morality play…

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Both our Anthropocentric and our Neolithic Bias Contains Some Important Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse

A Theory of Community A Theory of System A Theory of Authority A Theory of Change A Theory of Agency A Theory of Time

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Let’s try to imagine for a moment what a difference the neolithic makes… Aldo Leopold gives us a clue. How do we look at the “wild”? At the “sown”?

Prairie Birthday

Try to imagine a different “niche sensibility”…

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“There are idle spots on any farm…” “The erasure of a human subspecies is largely painless to us, if we know little enough about it…” “We grieve only for what we know…”

“How could a weed be a book?....”

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“How could a weed be a book?....”

“Few grieved when the last buffalo left Wisconsin, and few will grieve when the last silphium follows him to the never, never land.”

What should we take into account in

ur ethical reasoning? For what

should we grieve?

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We should, perhaps, stand back a little further and ask the same question…

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We should, perhaps, stand back a little further and ask the same question… What should we take into account in

ur ethical reasoning? For what

should we grieve?

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Aldo Leopold

The Forager - (A “gatherer’s” reflections).

Let’s listen more closely this time…

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Aldo Leopold

The Forager - (A “hunter’s” reflections).

Let’s listen more closely this time…

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Aldo Leopold

His observations can serve to highlight for us, at least in an anecdotal manner, just how different our sensibilities are from those

f foragers – the

hunter/gatherers which constituted roughly 99% of human history.

Let’s listen more closely this time…

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Some important truths about the agricultural “moment”…in human development

As Aldo Leopold senses, agriculturalists live in a biologically impoverished world of their own making. They have chosen to derive their energy from a narrow range of grasses, tubers and

trees. The typical “niche-width” of the agriculturalist is

considerably narrower than that of the forager.

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Some important truths about the agricultural “moment”…in human development

As Aldo Leopold senses, agriculturalists live in a biologically impoverished world of their own making. They have chosen to derive their energy from a narrow range of grasses, tubers and

trees. The typical “niche-width” of the agriculturalist is

considerably narrower than that of the forager. Further, they have not achieved any measure of “independence” from

nature. On the contrary they are even more dependent upon the

vicissitudes of rainfall, temperature and extreme weather.

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Some important truths about the agricultural “moment”…in human development

As Aldo Leopold senses, agriculturalists live in a biologically impoverished world of their own making. They have chosen to derive their energy from a narrow range of grasses, tubers and

trees. The typical “niche-width” of the agriculturalist is

considerably narrower than that of the forager. Further, they have not achieved any measure of “independence” from

nature. On the contrary they are even more dependent upon the

vicissitudes of rainfall, temperature and extreme weather. Much of the agriculturalist's social structure is designed to compensate for this greater degree of ecosystemic vulnerability. .

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Some important truths about the agricultural “moment”…in human development

As Aldo Leopold senses, agriculturalists live in a biologically impoverished world of their own making. They have chosen to derive their energy from a narrow range of grasses, tubers and

trees. The typical “niche-width” of the agriculturalist is

considerably narrower than that of the forager. Further, they have not achieved any measure of “independence” from

nature. On the contrary they are even more dependent upon the

vicissitudes of rainfall, temperature and extreme weather. Much of the agriculturalist's social structure is designed to compensate for this greater degree of ecosystemic vulnerability. We will need to overcome the biases we have derived from thinking that our “social structure” is “natural.” It is not. It has been devised to compensate for the relative stability we have lost in the transition to dependence upon agriculture.

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Some important truths about the agricultural “moment”…in human development

As Aldo Leopold senses, agriculturalists live in a biologically impoverished world of their own making. They have chosen to derive their energy from a narrow range of grasses, tubers and

trees. The typical “niche-width” of the agriculturalist is

considerably narrower than that of the forager. Further, they have not achieved any measure of “independence” from

nature. On the contrary they are even more dependent upon the

vicissitudes of rainfall, temperature and extreme weather. Much of the agriculturalist's social structure is designed to compensate for this greater degree of ecosystemic vulnerability. We will need to overcome the biases we have derived from thinking that our “social structure” is “natural.” It is not. It has been devised to compensate for the relative stability we have lost in the transition to dependence upon agriculture.

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The First Step is to Recognize the Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse Our (common) Theory of Community Our (common) Theory of System Our (common) Theory of Authority Our (common) Theory of Change Our (common) Theory of Agency Our (common) Theory of Time How can we overcome our ‘Neolitic Ethnocentrism?