EARTH DAYS: PBS Monday 4/19 at 9pm

WGBH Preview here.

News From South America: James Cameron goes Native

See this audio slideshow of James Cameron in the Amazon, with his face painted like a native here:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/11/world/americas/20100411-brazil-cameron-amazon/index.html?ref=americas

On a more serious note, Cameron teemed with native inhabitants of the region to fight the construction of the Belo Monte dam on the Amazon River, which the Brazilian government plans to build, that would be the 3rd largest dam in the world.

The natives were shown the movie "Avatar" shortly before Cameron's arrival, as most of them did not know who he was.

The accompanying article is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/americas/11brazil.html?src=me

- Sarah

The economics of climate change

Just saw this article in today's New York Times Magazine, written by Paul Krugman. I haven't yet read the whole thing but the crux of his argument seems to be this:

"once you filter out the noise generated by special-interest groups, you discover that there is widespread agreement among environmental economists that a market-based program to deal with the threat of climate change — one that limits carbon emissions by putting a price on them — can achieve large results at modest, though not trivial, cost."

The link to that article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/01/100301fa_fact_macfarquhar

An interesting tidbit about Krugman, who I know a lot of people love to hate (I'm rather ambivalent). Apparently his wife is also an economist, and the reason for his success. According to a recent New Yorker article, she is the brains behind many of his NY Times columns, edits each of them, and is essentially the reason for his success. Why isn't her name listed alongside his byline?
(that article - here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/01/100301fa_fact_macfarquhar)

Friends of Nature (China)

Here is a great place to read about current Chinese environmental issues. I visited the place in the summer of 2008 while in China. It is one of, if not the first, Chinese NGO. It has an English-language quarterly. It is run by a lovely couple (both scientists) who are fluent in English if anybody chooses to contact them. (Husband was educated in the U.S., and the wife in the U.K.) I tried to find the clip I took of his lecture but it is trapped on my dead laptop. Sorry.

http://www.fon.org.cn/channal.php?cid=616

Silent Spring/Rachel Carson

Hello! Here are two good sites for Carson. The first is the organization set up to celebrate her legacy. The second is the one Professor Deese referenced in class, an "anti-Carson" site. Apparently, she was the devil - or not. You decide.

http://www.rachelcarson.org/

http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/summ02/Carson.html

This third one, nobody will visit. It's dry and boring but it will give you idea what is going on in the scientific realm of chemical use. It's for the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

pubs.acs.org/journal/jacsat

Joachim Radkau gives me food for thought

On page 68, Joachim Radkau writes:

"Nomadism is not a primeval way of life, nor is it likely to have evolved directly out of the stone age hunting way of life; instead, nomads generally live from trade with sedentary cultures and already presupposes [sic] the domestication of animals. For those nomads who moved across the wide expanses of the desert, the fundamental innovation was the domestication of the camel, presumably achieved around 3,500 years ago".

I recently asked myself how it could be that in the region with the longest, arguably richest history of sedentarism nomadism-- a philosophy in which people refuse to be settled-- could be stronger than anywhere else in the world. For those not all that familiar with the credentials of the Middle East in the history of sedentarization, Catal Huyuk, located in modern-day Turkey, is recognized as mankind's first major attempt at settling-down; the crops cultivated earliest anywhere were figs in what is now Israel; the pioneer cities on Earth were in "the land between the rivers" in present-day Iraq; Egypt, which today could be called part of the Middle East with little argument, was of course the site of the most mythologized, perhaps most revered early riverine civilization; and Damascus, the capital of Syria, is said to be the municipality that has been continually occupied for the longest time. I was not aware of how dependent on settled peoples and processes associated with settlement Middle Eastern nomads likely were in laying the groundwork for their way of life until reading the above passage. Now, I can see that one could argue that Middle Eastern nomads are so seemingly set in their ways (and adept at violently defending them if need be) because they have had such a lengthy history of interaction with the settled communities in their vicinity, which are of the greatest antiquity of any on the planet.

I am always trying to come up with subjects about which I could possibly write books, and the sedentarism-nomadism paradox of the Middle East, which before struck me as one such subject, now seems to me to be a matter already settled (pun). So, as for the subjects of books that could possibly come from me, I am now left with my plan for Africa, my theory about the psychology of evaluating people's physical attractiveness (it hit me in 2006 and has only gotten stronger since), and something relating to my first (and what will almost certainly prove on my deathbed to have been my only) love, professional wrestling. If there is any interest at all out there in responding to this, I would like to know from other people in the class what books (preferably ones unlike others already out there) they think they could write.

intellectual history of the environment

Has anyone read this? Seems a bit like Worster's "Nature's Economy" - Bill McKibben covers romantics, imperialists, mechanism, and the crucial shift from thinking about nature as a spiritual subject to considering it a valid object of scientific, empirical study. But this book comes with some modern updates to Worster's study - the incorporation of significant people who are not dead white guys, including Alice Walker as well as Al Gore (ok, he is a white guy, but he's still alive and active in shaping current environmental thinking). It looks like he's very interested in showing the internal conflicts in the field of environmental policy-making and demonstrating that activists do not now and have not really ever agreed on what the "right way" of thinking about the environment is. Plus, McKibben even specifies right there in the title ("American Earth") that this is going to be a history of AMERICAN environmental thought...something I wish Worster had done.

http://www.slate.com/id/2207168/

Environmental issues in the Middle East

Hi guys - this whole website (greenprophet.com) about environmental issues in the Middle East is incredibly interesting, but I thought you'd think this article was particularly cool, especially after we talked about Edmund Burke's argument that the people of the Middle East (especially under Muhammad Ali - the ruler of Egypt, not the boxer) have largely been responsible for their own building projects. Also, Hassan Fathy's book "Architecture for the Poor" sounds like a good read - something that would interest both Brand and Guha!

http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/02/26/17943/hassn-fathy-sustainable-architecture/

Protest against the Stewart Brand view

Good Afternoon again friends! This is a CNN article about Greenpeace protesting against genetically modified corn in Mexico. This link should create some discussion if mixed in with Stewart Brand. The issue raised by environmentalists was that the genetically altered corn could mix and ruin the native corn crop of mexico. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/20/greenpeace.mexico/index.html?iref=allsearch

Africa and Environmentalism

Good Afternoon friends! This is a rich website pertaining to the idea that climate change will negatively impact the third world countries first. http://allafrica.com/sustainable/

Empire Forestry Association becomes the Commonwealth Forestry Association

Homepage: http://www.cfa-international.org/index.html

Brief history in the Handbook: http://www.cfa-international.org/Handbook_conspectus.html

"In 1962...the Empire Forestry Association changed its name to the Commonwealth Forestry Association by a Supplemental Royal Charter"

Check out their Global Warming/Sustainability/Reforestation Video:

Human History and Energy Regimes: Empathy is the Key?

When you google "human history and energy regimes" you come up with a lot of posts about Jeremy Rifkin's new book The Empathic Civiilzation. http://empathiccivilization.com/about

Rifkin claims that "[n]othing could be more important at this juncture in our history as a species than to have a meaningful cultural debate about the role empathy has played in the development and conduct of human affairs. Our ever more complex energy-consuming global civilization is careening the human race to the very brink of extinction. We need now, more than ever, to retrace our steps, to understand how we got here, so that we can find a new, more secure footing that can free us from the entropic shackle and allow us to thrive while living more lightly on Earth and in harmony with our fellow creatures and the ecosystems that nurture life. Our scientists tell us that we have but a few years to find a new economic road map for civilization -one that takes us into a new energy regime that is more sustainable and able to break the fever that is heating up the biosphere.

To accomplish this undertaking requires that we know how human consciousness has developed over eons of history as we transitioned into a succession of ever more complex energy-consuming civilizations. By rediscovering our cognitive past, we find important clues to how we might redirect our conscious future. With our very survival at stake, we can no longer afford to remain unmindful about how empathic consciousness has evolved across history and at what expense to the Earth we inhabit."

Jeremy Rifkin:

According to his website promoting the book: http://empathiccivilization.com/author

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Rifkin

OR, "As head of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., leftist political activist Jeremy Rifkin has organized demonstrations, formed coalitions, and initiated lawsuits in behalf of a number of causes, most recently against persons, groups, and institutions whose activities in biotechnology--especially genetic engineering--he sees as a potential threat to life." according to Biography Resource Center [Snell Library Databases page]: Biography from Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2010. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu/servlet/BioRC Document Number: H1000082959

Climate Change in literature

So, while listening to NPR in the car a few days ago I heard this really fascinating interview with the British novelist Ian McEwan. After taking a trip to the arctic with a group of other artists, writers, and humanists, he was inspired to write a novel about climate change, the recently-released book, Solar. As I'm writing my paper on books about the history and science of climate change, I think it is interesting to consider how contemporary writers are incorporating the issue into fiction.

I've not yet read the book, so I can't vouch for it's quality (reviewers have mostly agreed that it's not McEwan's best book). But this is the first book of contemporary literature I have come across that grapples with the question of climate change and what it means for humanity, which in itself is interesting, given that climate change is the issue of the day. It seems a difficult topic for a novelist to tackle, given that it is such a heated political topic and there is much uncertainty surrounding what course climate change will take in the future -- unless the novelist is a science fiction writer, I suppose. I'm interested to read it and see how (and if) McEwan successfully gets a moral point across without sounding too preachy . . .

Anyway, the interview is here:
http://www.wbur.org/npr/125470747

And a review here:
http://www.wbur.org/npr/125434400

- Sarah

"Resources and Conflict": A Post Related to My Final Paper

When I was looking for videos on African environmnetalism and development on the internet, I inevitably came across features on the venerable Wangari Maathai, with whom all of us should be quite familiar at this point. Many of the videos with Maathai are over ten minutes long, but some were nice and short. One such "quickie" can be watched at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA0qGlnc-30&feature=fvw. Its topic inspired this post, and many of Maathai's remarks in the video gave me points to address herein.

I believe it was Stewart Brand who told us that mega-wars engendering grave depopulation will be the result when there are too many people to be supported given the prevailing methods of food production and general harnessing of environmental resources. With the unprecedented population growth in Africa in recent decades, for which states as a rule have been unprepared, wars over resources which bring about the death of scores and scores may, then, prove hard to avoid. Wars over resources (which are typically within existing states) are already alarmingly common in Africa, however, only more as a function of political instability than overpopulation. Of the three books on which I will be writing my final paper, The Challenge for Africa by Wangari Maathai-- who of all the authors tries the hardest to discuss all African problems-- is the only one that touches on resource wars, Crisis and Opportunity overlooking violent seizure in its examination of economical resource management and Africa's Ecology, as for the science of land surfaces and the science of human aggression and appeasement, only concerning itself with the former. Her writing on the northern Sudan-Darfur-Chad imbroglio is what stands out to me the most on the matter.

To talk, now, of goings-on in our class, Professor Deese asked me if I was aware of the incredible mineral richness of Congo-Kinshasa. I am, and I am also aware of the atrocities to the end of material enrichment that have been going on there since its conquest by the much, much smaller Belgium and conversion into a personal fiefdom of King Leopold II (who, as it disgustingly turns out, never actually visited the place). After independence from Belgium, whose rule was so murderously demanding of rubber and other commodities that, I remember reading in King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild, in certain places the vultures had been able to consume so much carrion that they, having become grossly overweight, could no longer fly, Jospeh Mobutu in short order built a reputation as one of Africa's (and the world's) most blackhearted dictators, monopolizing for himself and his stooges the country's superabundant resources through perpetual conflict. Mobutu, in his raping of his own country, helps us understand the social science tenet known as the Weingast paradox (named after Barry Weingast, reading "any institution with the power to protect property also has the power to take it away"), as he chose time and time again to "take away" rather than "protect," which the United States Government, excepting forfeiture through criminal conduct or nonpayment and the occasional case of "eminent domain," always does. To get back to my plan of border adjustment for Africa, Congo-Kinshasa should definitely be partitioned, both because it is humongous at present and its resources being split up, as evenly as possible, among several new states should make the government of each state more likely to choose to "protect"-- because there would be less to "take away," if for no other reason.

To connect "resources and conflict" to the concept of changing Africa's state setup on which I gave a speech, I of course think that altering Africa's borders in a way informed by ethnic distinctions and environmental disparities would serve to decrease fighting for resources both between states and inside of them, and I wish to express that such feuding would be even more regular if only some states were not so miserable, so downtrodden. Niger is, from a human standpoint, the last country in the world in which one should want to live, according to the UN Human Development Index, and the appalling underdevelopment there is largely attributable to the horrific environmental situation. It is resource-poor, and it is the country I had most firmly in mind when I spoke of some states being straitjacketed into being both desertified (the expansion of the Sahara, I am guessing, impacts Niger more negatively than any other country) and landlocked. The government of Niger, I am sure, is too cash-strapped and disorganized to launch a strike against a neighboring state with the aim of bettering its resource situation; the "conflict" over "resources" relevant to Niger comes when natives of the country, having recognized that Niger is effectively unlivable as is, are persecuted by those in the polities (which include Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire) to which they have fled who feel they are taking up too much space, et cetera. Before independence, Niger was governed by France as just one section of the huge French West Africa, meaning it was politically tied to much naturally wealthier parts of the continent and, ultimately, a worldwide empire stretching from St. Pierre and Miquelon to the Marquesas. It was never meant to be self-sufficient under formal imperialism, and it is not, by any stretch, self-sufficient when left to its own devices-- so Niger needs to cease to exist as a self-contained state, for the good of its people!

Equatorial Guinea is a different case entirely, as it is one of the higher-functioning sub-Saharan African states and conflict for its oil and gas stores could be on the horizon. An irony here is that Equatorial Guinea, the only part of Africa south of the Sahara granted to Spain at the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884, went to the Spanish, by the end of the nineteenth century mostly a nonfactor in power politics, because it was a sliver of territory thought to have few prospects. Now its small size and economic attractiveness mean it could be fodder sooner or later for the adjacent countries of Gabon (which is also a respectable oil producer, in fact an associate member of OPEC) and Congo-Brazzaville (which is less potent than Gabon but still potent enough to be a threat); the relative homogeneity of the population and the mere fact that there has not been historical precedent indicates to me that serious internal resource conflict is unlikely. The decent prosperity of Equatorial Guinea (whose most famous animal export, the first and only of its kind known to science, the mascot of Barcelona even after its death, can be seen at: http://www.virginmedia.com/science-nature/wildlife/albino-animals.php, on a big-time aside) should be spread around maximally, so as not to precipitate conflict, and the refiguring of Equatorial Guinea, if its people would assent to as much, could certainly be of assistance in that beneficent evening-out process! But I will finish by confessing that invasion by Gabon or Congo-Brazzaville is not all that likely and Equatorial Guinea and Botswana, on the basis of their solid development and social cohesion, are the sub-Saharan African nations least in need of participation in a program like the one I am proposing, at least for strictly their own benefit.

Douglas Weiner's Essay: To Russia with Vitriol

A: What nation on Earth is most like Heaven?
B: The Soviet Union.
A: How is that?
B: We have nothing to wear, we have only apples to eat, and they tell us it is paradise.

That joke was apparently popular among citizens of the Soviet Union, and, in his positively scathing essay on the "predatory tribute-taking state," Douglas Weiner strives to let readers know just how far removed the Soviet Union of reality was from the "paradise" of theory for workers and the very environment both. The USSR is indubitably the target of most of his venom, but the czarist Russian Empire of yore and the unsettled "democratic" Russia of today garner more than enough criticism of their own for it to be said that they, too, are victimized by diatribes. I believe that there have been several works of history stressing the remarkable preservation of "ancien regime" practices after the violent changeover from absolutism to Bolshevism, relating to politico-military matters. To the best of my knowledge, Weiner's essay is the first to highlight environmental aspects of that peculiar reliance on the familiar amid rhetoric of convulsive change, that consumption of "old wine in a new bottle". And he goes even further, saying that the stance of Russia's rulers toward subjects and resources has never, from the Viking invasions that laid the groundwork for the first Russian states to this very moment, undergone true alteration, always being a blight-- of ravenousness and unsustainability-- on humanity's record.

Weiner treats Russia across history as a reckless gambler, rushing into damaging projects which were sometimes irrationally Brobdingnagian in scale (especially under the Soviet Union) and only rarely bore enough fruit to validate having been pursued in the first place; I do not know how exactly the death-wish "game" Russian roulette got its name, but it appears as if Russian leaders have, in Weiner's view, been playing it as regards their environmental policy for over a millennium-- playing the much more pernicious version, in which five chambers are loaded with one empty, instead of the reverse. It seems hard to me to periodize the history presented in the essay, since Weiner's whole argument is that there have been no fundamental, epoch-making changes in Russian "environmentalism" at any time-- and to this argument of constancy the fact that the first 75% of the essay is together as one section is almost certainly related. That said, individual projects seem the best way to get at the specific content of Weiner's work. I found the section about the Aral Sea (which is still being depicted on world maps as having the same size it did generations ago but, as Weiner says, will likely have to be removed from them as a body of water altogether within twenty years) to be grippingly tragicomedic and, based on my conversations with a Kazakh person I knew when I was an undergraduate, who spoke of the "Aral Pond," absolutely accurate. I had no idea about the biological weapons storehouses in environmentally degrading locations before perusing the essay, and I only hope that the chances of the facilities being disturbed (with outbreaks ineluctably following) are not as high as Weiner suggests. If Stewart Brand is to be believed at all, however, Chernobyl was not that much of a catastrophe and the surrounding area is now little different from other temperate, forested ones, with Weiner of the more traditional opinion that the meltdown was an abomination and the vicinity ought to be quarantined for centuries to come; Brand gives hard science in support of his viewpoint while Weiner does not even attempt as much, so it would be ill-advised to take everything the latter states about the retired plant-- "Ukraine's shame"-- at face value.

To offer some more criticism, I think Weiner should have tried to work some direct talk of culture, which should easily be recognized as one contributor to the predatory governance he alleges has been in place in Russia from the outset, into this. Did Russians who were not giving orders themselves have attitudes destructive to the environment? Whether they did or they did not, could you, Mr. Weiner, take a stab at telling us the why and the wherefore? My own definition of culture (by which even individuals living shoulder-to-shoulder in the same locality may be said to differ culturally) is "pattern of production". In light of that, I would have been sure to integrate discussion of Russian culture into any such account of depraved depredations. By the way, my definition of class (in which, obviously, even individuals living shoulder-to-shoulder in the same locality differ) is "pattern of consumption"-- and the "pattern" only rarely changes over the course of one's life, as Mike Tyson, who was born into a "lower class" situation of living hand-to-mouth, i.e., spending basically all that he had acquired as soon as it had been acquired, and continued to burn through his earnings rapidly even after his income skyrocketed, by purchasing an albino tiger as a pet, throwing a $400,000 birthday party for himself, etc., leading him to cry bankruptcy once he was no longer a force between the ropes, helps to demonstrate. Some class analysis definitely would have enriched this essay as well. The maneuvering to build a "classless society" (which, by my definition, would mean a society in which there would be little variation in clothing and diet and little stimulus for the development of genuine personality-- limitations of which socialist regimes have in actuality been accused, in the joke appearing above and elsewhere) under Marxism should have justified some major, perhaps misguided efforts toward fast development because the early Soviet leaders knew only too well that Russia was not where Marxism (according to the theory itself) should have become the guiding light of the state first, in consideration of its underdevelopment, but Weiner displays no such understanding, no such sympathy. At the end of the essay, I was expecting some mention of the environmentalism (or the neglect thereof) of the Commonwealth of Independent States, but Weiner never even mentions that organization, only treating "successor states" individually. Finally, I would like to proffer some factoids that I think would have strengthened Weiner's essay had he included them: to buttress the claim that Russia is currently in dire social straits, that the difference in life expectancy between men and women there (14 years) is greater than it is anywhere else in the world and that former serfs had to pay heavy taxes in the first years after their emancipation to compensate the "bereaved" boyars, to show just how rotten-to-the-core some of Russia's rules and rulers in truth have been.

P.S.: Speaking of Russian roulette, I have been trying to come up with a way to combine it and solitaire into a single game. Can anyone help?

what had to be cut from my speech

Sub-Saharan Africa as it is constituted as I speak has limited potential to develop nationalisms that will conduce to stability within states and, later, harmoniousness between them, if one follows either of the two dominant theories of instilling nationalism in populations. The aforementioned kowtowing to Ethiopia through the national standards tells me, loud and clear, unmistakably, that to an extent the "high culture" of the concerned African countries is an Ethiopian one. Ernest Gellner, in his famed writings on nations and nationalism, asserts that constructing and celebrating a "high culture" is the key component of inculcating a sense of nationhood in peoples, and in his writings he actually touches on the failings of African states to legitimize themselves, by saying that the "high cultures" African states generally applaud are those of their respective former colonizers, rather than ones built from the abundant materials present in Africa itself. Wangari Maathai echoes that sentiment in her book. Formulating and then strengthening "high cultures" should be considerably easier and appreciably more successful if state lines are ever redrawn in such a way that only peoples that are genuinely akin to one another or at least give the international community ample reason to believe that they are capable of pacific cohabitation live side-by-side. That a state like the Sudan can exist is a joke, with a genetic and cultural chasm separating the peoples of its north and its south, who have been warring uninterruptedly since the end of imperialism, who would be quickly divided from one another by state lines under the plan I am proposing, with some resource-sharing concessions worked out in the interest of forestalling further war between the areas. When it comes to the other major theory of nationalism, pivoting on "print capitalism," the tragically low literacy levels in several African states means that much general educational work must first be done before there can be any real possibility of Africans coming to imagine communities in the manner Benedict Andersen delineated. I am convinced that a more logical parceling of Africa's land, in line with its ethnic and ecological realities, will help with literacy and serve to strengthen a sense of community and oneness with the environment to such an extent that Africans may not even have to do much imagining to view themselves as belonging to nations-- environmentally viable ones at that.

And if anything else need be said to illustrate that the African countries of today cannot even rightly be called "nations," look to the lectures of Ernest Renan, the leading intellectual definer of the nation in late nineteenth century Europe when it as a concept was still in utero. To quote Renan: "A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute this soul or spiritual principle. One lies in the past, one in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present-day consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage that one has received in an undivided form". Outside of the past 150 years, starting with European subjugation and the trauma inextricably linked thereto, few African peoples now resident in the same state can claim that they have a considerable complex of "shared memories," and commentators like Wangari Maathai would likely be appalled at the results of plebiscites asking Africans if they wholeheartedly consent to living in the same states as certain other peoples. On a side note, even though the United States does not pass either of Renan's tests with flying colors, there is incredible plenty here unknown in any sub-Saharan African country, and Gini coefficients tell us that that incredible plenty is rather equitably spread, so the social issues born of the less-than-ideal national community here are nowhere near as damaging as those in African countries where there is generalized indigence, wealth tending to make people more cosmopolitan and the belief that wealth can be attained through honest, hard work, not just through inheritance and rapacity, tending to make people more productive and less rebellious.

"Human Perceptions of Connectedness to Nature"

The following is a link to a PDF of an article in the "Human Ecology Review" from 2008 that discusses human perceptions of their place in nature and how those perceptions affect human-environment interactions. The article is interesting as a work of primary research, where the authors conducted three surveys or respondents in the United States, and analytically evaluated their answers to understand the correlation to environmentally-responsible behavior. The authors claim to have conducted this investigation to "gain a better understanding
of the complications of managing our natural areas" (pg. 10). I think this is extremely relevant to the argument the I.G.Simmons was making, particularly regarding how/why humanity has responded to conditions such as climate change, and the tendency for humanity toward dominate behavior.

http://www.humanecologyreview.org/pastissues/her151/viningetal.pdf

The Environmental Turn in Literary and Cultural Studies"

Just in case not everyone has checked their email, thought I should post this on the blog as well...

"The Environmental Turn in Literary and Cultural Studies"

A colloquium with Lawrence Buell, Harvard
Ursula Heise, Stanford
Karen Thornber, Harvard

Thursday, April 8, 6:15 p.m., Barker 114 (12 Quincy Street, near Lamont
Library), Harvard - 5 minutes from Harvard T station

What can be gained from cross-pollinating the environmental arts and
humanities with other fields across the social and natural sciences?

How can environmental-humanistic attention to interpretive inquiry help
address today's crises of pollution, environmental justice, species
endangerment, and climate change?

Earth Hour 2010

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100326-earth-hour-2010-record-landmarks/

Don't know if you guys have heard about this...another great benefit of cities: if we all turn our lights off at the same time, people notice!

Stuart Brand on On Point

For anyone who really enjoyed Stuart Brand, he was interviewed on NPR's On Point back in October, along with Amory Lovins. It helps that Tom Ashbrook asks great questions.

It looks, too, like that interview is followed by a discussion with Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature.

It's worth listening to!

http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/10/stewart-brands-ecopragmatism

- Sarah

Land Speculator Michael Winer Wins 2009 Rubber Dodo Award

Land Speculator Michael Winer Wins 2009 Rubber Dodo Award

Just another case of arcadia v. imperialists...at least there seems to be a sense of humor and out-right mockery about it now! I particularly enjoy that Sarah Palin was the first winner of this award!

William McDonough on Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle

Hi friends - I haven't read this yet, but a friend of mine recommended it to me ...


Cradle to Cradle
Selected review from amazon.com

From Scientific American: McDonough and Braungart (an architect and a chemist) are partners in a firm that creates ecologically intelligent designs for corporations. They argue for a shift from the cradle-to-grave model of manufacturing, in which most of the materials that go into making products end up as waste. They champion a cradle-to-cradle model, in which the materials are "circulated infinitely in industrial cycles ... without loss of quality or damage to our environment or ourselves." Editors of Scientific American Editorial Reviews

Biography of William McDonough

http://www.mcdonough.com/bio.htm

Description of book Cradle to Cradle

http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm

Leo Murray's video

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

HIST 7223 Syllabus

HIST 7223 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
R.S. Deese
Northeastern University
Spring 2010
rsdeese@gmail.com
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 8-9 am

Course Description

This Graduate Seminar is designed for students committed to studying the broad sweep of global history from an environmental perspective. This course will focus on the dynamic relationship between human communities, civilizations, and the earth itself. The subjects we will address, such as the history of climate change, agriculture, industrialization, globalization, and the evolution of new energy technologies, will be explored in an environmental context that cuts across both national boundaries and broad historical time periods from ancient times to the present.
Attendance at all class meetings is mandatory. Unless you have a documented medical or family emergency, you need to come to every class.
Required Course Materials
*Brand, Stewart. Whole Earth Discipline (Atlantic Books, 2010) 

Burke, Edmund, and Kenneth Pomeranz, eds. The Environment and World 
History (California: 2009)

*Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring (1962; new edition Houghton Mifflin, 2002)

*Guha, Ramachandra. How Much Should a Person Consume? (California: 2006) 

*Maathai, Wangari. The Challenge for Africa (Pantheon, 2009) 

McNeill, J.R. Something New Under the Sun (WW Norton, 2001) 

Radkau, Jaochim. Nature and Power (Cambridge, 2008) 

*Simmons, I.G. Global Environmental History (U. of Chicago Press, 2008) 

*Worster, Donald. Nature's Economy (Cambridge, 1994) 

*Weart, Spencer. The Discovery of Global Warming (Harvard, 2008)

Basic Ground Rules

1. Turn off all cell phones, MP3 players, etc. before all class meetings begin.

2. Always come on time to all class meetings, and participate in all discussions. Please don’t be shy about speaking up in class discussions, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Virtually all original scholarship begins by posing questions that others have overlooked or dismissed as simply not worth asking; therefore, the very question you might be afraid to ask because it seems naïve or unorthodox could well be the most interesting and groundbreaking question that anyone could raise. Don’t hesitate to ask it. Also, please remember that I am more than happy to field your questions and address your concerns via email, telephone, and during my regular office hours.

3. Always come to class prepared to discuss all readings for that week. When you do the assigned reading each week, be sure to underline passages that you see as important, and write down questions that you would like to raise in our section meetings and in my office hours.

Grade Breakdown

Presentation 20%
Short Papers and Participation 35%
Final Paper 45%

Papers
For this course you will be required to write seven very short (approx. 750 words) Critical Response Papers---one on each of the titles marked with an asterisk (*) above. The Critical Response Papers will be collected at the start of class each week from January 25th through the end of March. The Historiography Paper (2500-3000 words) will be due on April 12th, and the schedule of the presentations will be determined during the first week of class. Late papers will be penalized 5% each day past the due date.
Presentation
You will also be required to give a 10-15 minute presentation on a topic of your choosing, involving one title from the course syllabus and two titles from off the list. This presentation will form the basis of your Historiography Paper, which will examine the same three titles explored in your oral presentation.

Regulations Against Plagiarism
Needless to say, the work you present must be entirely your own and all sources must be diligently credited in your footnotes and bibliography. Any attempt at plagiarism, representing the work of another person as your own, will be result in failure in this course and severe disciplinary action by Northeastern University.

IMPORTANT: Please read the Academic Conduct Code to understand policy of Northeastern University regarding plagiarism. The punishment for any form of plagiarism at this institution is, as it should be, very severe. As you are writing your term papers, please don’t hesitate to contact me beforehand if you have any questions concerning the proper citation of source materials.
HIST 7223 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY Prof Deese
Spring 2010


January 11 Introduction

January 18 No class, Holiday

January 22 Friday class, make-up day
Worster, Donald. Nature's Economy (Cambridge, 1994) 

January 25 Worster Critique Due
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring (1962; new edition Houghton Mifflin, 2002)

February 1 Carson Critique Due
McNeill, J.R. Something New Under the Sun (WW Norton, 2001) 

February 8 Film TBA

February 15 No class, Holiday (no make-up)

February 22 Weart Critique Due
Weart, Spencer. The Discovery of Global Warming (Harvard, 2008)

March 3 No class, Spring Break

March 8 Simmons Critique Due
Simmons, I.G. Global Environmental History (U. of Chicago Press, 2008) 

March 15 Guha Critique Due
Guha, Ramachandra. How Much Should a Person Consume? (California: 2006) 

March 22 Brand Critique Due
Brand, Stewart. Whole Earth Discipline (Atlantic Books, 2010) 

March 29 Maathai Critique Due
Maathai, Wangari. The Challenge for Africa (Pantheon, 2009) 

April 5 Burke, Edmund, and Kenneth Pomeranz, eds. The Environment and World History (California: 2009)

April 12 Historiography Paper Due
Radkau, Jaochim. Nature and Power (Cambridge, 2008) 

April 19 No class, Holiday (no make-up)