- On Planetary Environmental History: Big History; Time Chart Planet Earth; The Anthropocene; Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed
- On US Environmental History: US Environmental History 1; US Environmental History 2
Word Count: 1066
This week’s articles were especially broad in both differing subject matter and timeframe covering everything from Big History to Jared Diamond’s Collapse. Despite their breadth of interest, there are three key lessons we can learn from the environmental history of the universe, the earth and the United States respectively: 1. Perspective Matters 2. Human Beings are not exempt from the concept of extinction 3. Do not discount the environmental efforts from the past just because they didn’t completely solve the problem. Analyzing these three lessons in the context of the readings will provide a better understanding of the relationship between Human History and Sustainability.
By definition, History does not seem like an alterable concept; events that happened in the past are stationary and unchanging, making them seem objective and unbiased. While this is certainly true for the idea of history, the execution of teaching history is a far more controversial and potentially biased practice. This is exemplified in a movement credited towards David Christian known as Big History. Christian believed that the general study of history was inadequate due to its limited scope and anthropological focus. Big History seeks to reframe history by viewing the beginning as the Big Bang rather than the emergence of modern/recorded human history. It resists specialization and searches for universal patterns and trends as well as integrates studies of the cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity using empirical evidence to explore cause and effect relationships. When the focus of history is how humankind fits within the universe rather than just human accomplishment, we can better understand our symbiotic rather then controlling relationship with nature and the earth. Although it seems simple, this change of perspective is a powerful tool for the environmentalist movement in getting younger generations to live in harmony with earth and its inhabitants rather than seek to exploit them. The growing emphasis on perspective is also seen within the article on the Anthropocene, a proposed geological epoch (time frame) coinciding with significant human impacts on the earth’s geology and ecosystems. This impact is seen through a variety of indicators: Massive species and biodiversity loss, dramatic increase in carbon in the atmosphere, and radionuclides that will last millions of years. While the new name for the epoch has yet to be officialized, it is already in common vernacular for the scientific community making its acceptance only a matter of time. The start date itself is being significantly debated and for good reason as the epoch’s conception is vital for its public perception: the glory years of human achievement and industry or the day that we headed towards extinction. The often-repeated phrase, “history is written by the victors” (attributed to Winston Churchill) is very apt in this discussion as it speaks volumes to the power perspective has on historical education and its ability to reframe our view of environmentalism.
When discussing the extinction of animal species, we often forget the despite our higher intelligence human populations are not exempt from that fate. This idea is summed up, albeit rather crudely, by Jared Diamond (historical generalization extraordinaire) in his book Collapse: How Societies Chose To Fail or Succeed. Although some of sources are questionable if not downright refuted, Diamond identifies “five factors that contribute to collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and the society’s response to the foregoing four factors” (Wikipedia). Regardless of certain shortcomings, Diamond’s main idea is that the environmental problems we face today have led to the collapse of societies in the past due particularly due to overpopulation is a sound analysis. Especially with the exponential growth of science and technology in the last century, it is an important reminder that humanity is not invincible especially when faced with external environmental pressures. Extinction is an idea also well-rooted in American history, particularly with discovery and subsequent drop of the Nuclear Bomb on Japan. Never before had humanity so completely altered not only Hiroshima and Nagasaki but the whole world as nuclear fallout will now coat every forest, river, and city across the globe for millions of years to come. In Steven Stoll’s US Environmentalism since 1945, the author traces the environmentalist movements rise in the wake of World War II as a philosophical and political movement protesting industrial production’s role in ecological instability. After experiencing the devastation humanity could now wrought, environmentalists sought to “redefine human society itself as a subset of the global environment” (Stoll, 2) to better understand our place in the world ecosystem. The Cold War that followed emphasized the newfound fragility of human existence; that we had created something that could cause the entire human race to go extinct with the push of a button ushered in an era of greater understanding to our imperiled future.
Another key lesson found in U.S. Environmental history is the idea of not discounting the environmental efforts from the past just because they didn’t completely solve the problem. When reading both Steven Stoll’s article and chronology of key events, there were so many environmental victories that from my perspective do not receive enough credit from modern day environmentalists such as “1951 The Nature Conservancy was founded and by 2000 has 900,000 members and has protected ten million acres” (Stoll, 156). While there is certainly enough bad news to go around regarding political apathy towards climate change and pro-environmentalism measures, U.S. history is still filled with amazing events of both individuals and government agreeing to make nature a priority. From Rachel Carson’s silent spring to Congress passing the Air Pollution Control Act that was a precursor to all subsequent clean-air legislation there is much to be learned from the past about how to market and enact change. While I understand the both the world and the United State’s reaction to environmental measures leaves much to be desired, only focusing on our historical failures will not do as much good as focusing on our historical victories. Though our political climate is currently oscillated towards indifference and even hostility towards proposed pro-environmental policies, the change in mindset from the 1930s to 1940s shows that a complete philosophical shift is possible. Being a part of a generation that literally suffers from climate change depression, hearing more about positive events from the past rather than just looking at the looming hockey stick graph would both encourage and revitalize the environmental movement fueling it with hope rather than fear.
Question: Do you believe the Anthropocene will be classified as beginning with the industrial revolution, dropping of the first nuclear bomb or something else?
Introduction to Environmental Studies 