Nature and Society

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Nature and Society
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Nature

• Nature
• Physical reality
• Social creation
• Our understanding is necessarily social
• Our understanding changes over time and across
  space
• i.e., nature as dangerous nature as spiritual
  health
• Nature as beauty
• Nature as biodiversity
• Nature as envelope
• Major concern
• human impacts on nature and the resulting
  consequences for humans

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US Environmental Philosophies

• Judeo-Christian tradition
• Man (sic) is superior to nature
• Nature should be tamed or dominated
• Nature exists for our use
• Man (sic) as Stewart over nature
• Need to maintain a healthy environment

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Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)

• Emphasized the interrelatedness of the natural
  world
• Food Chain Species depend upon other species to
  survive
• e.g., fish depend on flies
• Power of nature
• Might overthrow humanity if left unchecked

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Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)

• Nature as antidote
• to the negative effects of technology on U.S.
  landscapes and character
• Romanticism
• All creatures are infused with a divine presence
• That commands respect
• And comes from humble participation in the
  natural community

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

• Transcendentalism
• People should rise above nature and the
  limitations of the body
• To where the spirit dominates the flesh
• Mystical and spiritual life replaces the
  primitive and savage one

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George Perkins Marsh, 1801-1882

• Humans are significant agents in environmental
  change
• Conservation
• Natural resources should be used wisely
• We should be good Stewarts of the environment
• Preservation
• Certain species, habitats and resources should
  remain off-limits to humans
• Irrespective of the resource value

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The Ancient Cross Timbers
Cross Timbers (red) and Post Oak Savanna (green)
forest types along the eastern margin of the
southern Great Plains.
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Contemporary Environmental Groups

• Conservation oriented
• Environmental defense fund
• World watch institute
• Nature conservancy
• Sierra club
• Tactics
• Work within the law

• Preservation
• Earth First
• Tactics
• Extralegal
• E.g., spiking trees

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Greenpeace

• Greenpeace
• Focus on environmental polluters
• International in scope
• Combines both legal and extra-legal strategies

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Other ideas of nature

• Environmental Ethics
• Society has a moral obligation to treat nature
  according to the rules of moral behavior that
  exist for treating human beings
• Animals, vegetation, rocks etc. have certain
  rights that are independent of us

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Other ideas of nature

• Patriarchy
• Social ideas that value men more highly than
  women is the root cause of our environmental
  problems
• Deep ecology
• Self realization humans must recognize that we
  are part of the non-human world
• Biospherical egalitarianism the biosphere is
  the central focus of all life and all its
  components deserve respect

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Other ideas of nature

• Environmental Justice
• The geography of pollution is the result of the
  structural inequities of society
• Where do we locate the polluting factory?
• Or the landfill?
• Or the highway?
• Or the light rail line?

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Recent Evolution of Environmental Thought

• Interest in society/Nature has increased
  significantly since the early 1970s
• Events
• Environmental disasters, e.g., 3-mile island
  nuclear leak, Love Canal, Cuyahoga River
  (Cleveland)
• Writings
• Rachel Carsons Silent Spring
• A book about the negative
  effects of pesticides

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Recent evolution of environmental thought

• 2nd Earth Summit
• 1992, Rio de Janeiro
• Commission on Sustainable development
• Meeting the needs of the present without
  compromising the needs of future generations
• Some improvement
• International monitoring institutions
• Phasing out of leaded gasoline
• Rising scientific and popular interest in
  environmental issues

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Conflicts w/ Sustainable Development
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IPAT

• Our impact on the environment
• IPAT
• I impact on Earths resources
• P population
• A affluence, as measured by per capita income
• T a technology factor

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Nature-Society Interactions

• Technology
• Defined as
• Physical artifacts (e.g., machines)
• Activities (e.g., steelmaking)
• Knowledge or know-how (e.g., biological
  engineering)
• Affects the environment
• harvesting of resources
• wastes from manufacturing
• wastes from consumption

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Human Action and Environmental Change

• Twin impacts of industrialization and
  urbanization leading to global environmental
  impacts
• Energy use
• Land use change

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Global Energy Resources

• Fossil fuels (77 of total)
• 35 oil
• 24 coal
• 18 natural gas
• Other fuels
• 6 Hydro Electric Power (HEP)
• 5 Nuclear
• 12 Biomass

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Energy Use

• At every stage of the generation of energy we
  impact the environment
• Mining
• Loss of vegetation and topsoil
• Erosion and water pollution
• Acidic and other toxic drainage

Open pit coal mining in Germany
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Transportation Oil spills
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Energy Use

• Burning oil and/or coal generate Air pollution
  Acid rain
• Destroy forests, soils
• Corrodes marble and limestone buildings

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Energy Use

• Natural gas
• Less noxious than oil or coal
• Use is increasing
• Risk of explosions and leaks from distribution
  systems is a problem
• Nuclear Energy
• Once considered the best alternative
• Has declined in most Core Countries because of
  problems with reactor safety, disposal of waste
• Some semi-peripheral countries, e.g., India, S.
  Korea and China are increasing use of nuclear
  power
• Geopolitics of nuclear power
• Growing tensions (ability to convert civilian
  nuclear power to military use

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Energy Use

• HEP
• Once considered a clean alternative
• Major negative impacts on
• Downstream flows
• Evaporation
• Changes in sediment transportation and deposition
• Changes in river bank structure and impacts on
  aquatic life

Aswan High Dam, Egypt.
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Biomass

• Biomass (wood)
• Common in peripheral countries
• Air pollution
• Rapid decrease in forest resources
• Smoke over Africa Mozambique, near Beira,
  covered by smoke from cooking-fires and biomass
  burning

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Alternative Energy Sources
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Solar
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Wind
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Other Cleantech
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Impacts on Land Use

• Two types
• Conversion
• Wholesale change from one type to another
• Modification
• Alteration
• rail line over a grassland prairie

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Deforestation

• Logging, settlement, agricultural use, fuelwood
  rapidly decreasing overall levels of forestation
• 1 acre/second
• Impacts
• Global climate change (forests absorb CO2) a
  major climate warming gas
• New Medicines (e.g., aspirin)
• Loss of biodiversity
• Some core countries are increasing their forested
  areas
• See map on global deforestation

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Global Deforestation
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Grasslands

• Mostly arid and semi-arid areas
• Widespread overgrazing is leading to their
  destruction
• Wars, drought and overpopulation are also major
  causes of grassland depletion
• Desertification in some areas
• Particularly large areas in Africa, e.g., Sahal

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Desertification In Africa
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Wetlands

• Long considered a nuisance
• Used to be drained and filled in for development
• Now, increasingly valued for their flood and
  water cleaning abilities
• Also, important for biodiversity