tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/environmental-history-23769/articles
Environmental history – The Conversation
2024-03-11T19:12:49Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225263
2024-03-11T19:12:49Z
2024-03-11T19:12:49Z
Indigenous fire management began more than 11,000 years ago: new research
<p>Wildfire burns between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111493">3.94 million and 5.19 million square kilometres</a> of land every year worldwide. If that area were a single country, it would be the seventh largest in the world. </p>
<p>In Australia, most fire occurs in the vast tropical savannas of the country’s north. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01388-3">new research</a> published in Nature Geoscience, we show Indigenous management of fire in these regions began at least 11,000 years ago – and possibly as long as 40,000 years ago.</p>
<h2>Fire and humans</h2>
<p>In most parts of the planet, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-060614-105038">fire has always affected</a> the <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/carbon-cycle/">carbon cycle</a>, the distribution of plants, how ecosystems function, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-biodiversity-and-why-does-it-matter-9798">biodiversity</a> patterns more generally.</p>
<p>But climate change and other effects of human activity are making wildfires more common and more severe in many regions, often with catastrophic results. In Australia, fires have caused major economic, environmental and personal losses, most recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0716-1">in the south of the country</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-bad-fire-year-australia-records-over-450-000-hotspots-these-maps-show-where-the-risks-have-increased-over-20-years-204679">In a bad fire year, Australia records over 450,000 hotspots. These maps show where the risks have increased over 20 years</a>
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<p>One likely reason for the increase of catastrophic fires in Australia is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-land-is-burning-and-western-science-does-not-have-all-the-answers-100331">end of Indigenous fire management</a> after Europeans arrived. This change has caused a <a href="https://theconversation.com/research-reveals-fire-is-pushing-88-of-australias-threatened-land-mammals-closer-to-extinction-185965">decline in biodiversity</a> and the buildup of burnable material, or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-only-one-way-to-make-bushfires-less-powerful-take-out-the-stuff-that-burns-129323">fuel load</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Infographic showing the process of extracting and analysing a sediment core." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1697&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580362/original/file-20240307-22-4djhm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1697&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">How sediment coring works.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://EpicAustralia.org.au">Emma Rehn, Haidee Cadd, Kelsey Boyd / Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage</a></span>
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<p>While southern fires have been particularly damaging in recent years, more than two-thirds of all Australia’s wildfires happen during the dry season in the tropical savannas of the north. These grasslands cover about 2 million square kilometres, or around a quarter of the country. </p>
<p>When Europeans first saw these tropical savannas, they believed they were seeing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-first-research-confirms-australias-forests-became-catastrophic-fire-risk-after-british-invasion-176563">“natural” environment</a>. However, we now think these landscapes were maintained by Indigenous fire management (dubbed “<a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cf30ff26df8f90001ae648d/t/5fde80827f4e6a336722c664/1608417413847/Rhys+jones+Fire-stick+farming.pdf">firestick farming</a>” in the 1960s). </p>
<p>Indigenous fire management is a complex process that involves strategically burning small areas throughout the dry season. In its absence, savannas have seen the kind of larger, higher-intensity fires occurring late in the dry season that likely existed before people, when lightning was the sole source of ignition. </p>
<p>We know fire was one of the main tools Indigenous people used to manipulate fuel loads, maintain vegetation and enhance biodiversity. We do not know the time frames over which the “natural” fire regime was transformed into one managed by humans.</p>
<h2>A 150,000-year record of fire and climate</h2>
<p>To understand this transformation better, we took an 18-metre core sample from sediment at Girraween Lagoon on the outskirts of Darwin. Using this sample, we developed detailed pollen records of vegetation and charcoal, and paired them with geochemical records of climate and fire to reveal how fire patterns have changed over the past 150,000 years.</p>
<p>Now surrounded by suburbs, Girraween Lagoon (the “Place of Flowers”) is a significant site to the <a href="https://larrakia.com/about/the-larrakia-people/">Larrakia</a> and <a href="https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/n29">Wulna</a> peoples. It is also where the <a href="https://youtu.be/MH_MObR3G54?si=KyYkZuyewCrHvtmj">crocodile-attack scene</a> in the movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090555/">Crocodile Dundee</a> was filmed.</p>
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<p>The lagoon was created after a sinkhole formed, and has contained permanent water ever since. The sediment core we took contains a unique 150,000-year record of environmental change in Australia’s northern savannas. </p>
<p>The core records revealed a dynamic, changing environment. The vegetation around Girraween Lagoon today has a tall and relatively dense tree canopy with a thick grass understory in the wet season. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-once-lived-in-a-vast-region-in-north-western-australia-and-it-had-an-inland-sea-219505">People once lived in a vast region in north-western Australia – and it had an inland sea</a>
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<p>However, during the last ice age 20,000–30,000 years ago, the site where Darwin sits now was more than 300 km from the coast due to the sea level dropping as the polar ice caps expanded. At that time, the lagoon shrank into its sinkhole and it was surrounded by open, grassy savanna with fewer, shorter trees. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of a collection of clear tubes filled with dark sediment." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580318/original/file-20240307-30-rr2em0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sediment cores retrieved from Girraween Lagoon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Bird / James Cook University</span></span>
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<p>Around 115,000 years ago, and again around 90,000 years ago, Australia was dotted with gigantic inland “<a href="https://theconversation.com/drying-inland-seas-probably-helped-kill-australias-megafauna-37527">megalakes</a>”. At those times, the lagoon expanded into a large, shallow depression surrounded by lush monsoon forest, with almost no grass. </p>
<h2>When human fire management began</h2>
<p>The Girraween record is one of the few long-term climate records that covers the period before people arrived in Australia some <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968">65,000 years ago</a>, as well as after. This unique coverage provides us with the hard data indicating when the natural fire regime (infrequent, high-intensity fires) switched to a human-managed one (frequent, low-intensity fires).</p>
<p>The data show that by at least 11,000 years ago, as the climate began to resemble the modern climate that established itself after the last ice age, fires became more frequent but less intense.</p>
<p>Frequent, low-intensity fire is the hallmark of Indigenous fire regimes that were observed across northern Australia at European arrival. Our data also showed tantalising indications that this change from a natural to human-dominated fire regime occurred progressively from as early as 40,000 years ago, but it certainly did not occur instantaneously. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo showing green shoots of plant life springing up in a burnt landscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580320/original/file-20240307-28-bu5jp9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Vegetation recovering after a human-ignited ‘cool’ fire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cassandra Rowe / James Cook University</span></span>
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<p>Unlocking Girraween’s secrets with modern scientific techniques has provided unprecedented insights into how the tropical savannas of Australia, and their attendant biodiversity, coevolved over millennia under this new Indigenous fire regime that reduced risk and increased resources.</p>
<p>The rapid change to a European fire regime – with large, intense fires occurring late in the dry season – abruptly regressed patterns to the pre-human norm. This ecosystem-scale shock altered a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1494">carefully nurtured</a> biodiversity established over tens of thousands of years and simultaneously <a href="https://i.unu.edu/media/tfm.unu.edu/page/384/fire-regimes-in-north-Australian-savannas.pdf">increased greenhouse gas emissions</a>.</p>
<p>Reversing these dangerous trends in Australia’s tropical savanna requires <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2001.00555.x">re-establishing an Indigenous fire regime</a> through projects such as the <a href="https://carbonmarketinstitute.org/projects/west-arnhem-land-fire-abatement-walfa-project/">West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement</a> managed by Indigenous land managers. By implication, the reintroduction of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2022218118">Indigenous land management</a> in other parts of the world could help reduce the impacts of catastrophic fires and increase carbon sequestration in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cassandra Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Bird receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
Indigenous fire management shaped Australian tropical savannas over millennia, until the arrival of Europeans pushed the landscape back into a dangerous, unmanaged state.
Cassandra Rowe, Research Fellow, James Cook University
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
Michael Bird, JCU Distinguished Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214854
2023-12-28T20:37:19Z
2023-12-28T20:37:19Z
‘Ecology on steroids’: how Australia’s First Nations managed Australia’s ecosystems
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566174/original/file-20231218-29-q9azfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=895%2C0%2C2523%2C1842&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including the distress and death of First Nations people.</em></p>
<p>On October 9 1873, George Augustus Frederick Dalrymple reclined in a boat on the glorious North Johnstone River in the coastal Wet Tropics. Dalrymple was in raptures. A riot of palms, bananas, ferns and lilies descended to the waters edge, and large-leafed taro grew in strips along the riverbank over tens of hectares. He <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2233550">came across a large village</a> with rows of neatly made bark and palm leaf huts. Dappled paths led to managed patches of open forest, groves of fruit trees, bananas and yams. Nearby, a small fleet of moored catamarans sat bobbing.</p>
<p>In the colonial literature, there are many such descriptions of beautiful and bountiful pre-European tropical landscapes. It was clear that people had helped create such a rich paradise <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Bill-Gammage-Biggest-Estate-on-Earth-9781743311325">through their land management</a></p>
<p>By 1886, many rainforest people of tropical north Queensland had been “dispersed” – killed – and swathes of this biodiversity hotspot began being <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Penny-van-Oosterzee-Cloud-Land-9781761068409/">cleared for sugarcane</a>. </p>
<p>First Nations groups such as Australia’s rainforest people had <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257836980_Aborigines_and_Fire_in_the_Wet_Tropics_of_Queensland_Australia_Ecosystem_Management_Across_Cultures">skilfully managed</a> entire ecosystems over the long term, in what has been termed “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/handbook-of-contemporary-animism/death-and-grief-in-a-world-of-kin/F67F7B7A2B9C225A3D5A24446BD3CE4E">ecology on steroids</a>”. These <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Penny-van-Oosterzee-Cloud-Land-9781761068409">future-making</a> methods protected landscapes from climate change and buffered them against extinction. </p>
<p>Australia’s First Nations did this through the cold and dryness of the last ice age, and as the seas rose through the droughts and floods of the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38626-3">El Niño Southern Oscillation</a> climate cycle. </p>
<p>As we face an uncertain climate future, it’s valuable to look at how people weathered such change. </p>
<h2>Decoupling landscape from climate change</h2>
<p>When people first came to Australia, the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/486/">Wet Tropics</a> were not wet. The Pleistocene climate was cool and windy, with mega monsoons and long periods of diabolical drought. If you had looked east from what is now Cairns, you would have seen not oceans and coral atolls, but plains and valleys filled with grasslands and forest. The sea lay tens of kilometres off the continental shelf. </p>
<p>The oldest record of human occupation in Australia is found in the Top End. Here, in a magnificent cave system in Arnhem Land, people prepared a meal of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339303242_The_first_Australian_plant_foods_at_Madjedbebe_65000-53000_years_ago">native fruits and processed pandanus</a> using an adaptable toolkit. This meal took place <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968">65,000 years ago</a>, when savannah stretched all the way to the island of New Guinea. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map showing how Papua New Guinea and Australia were connected during the last ice age" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When the sea levels were lower, people could walk from Australia to Papua New Guinea. Girraween lagoon is marked on the map.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Bird/Damien O'Grady</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Over thousands of years, Australia’s people developed a vibrant cosmology. For First Nations people Country was sentient. The land was not a mindless resource but part of your family – and came with family obligations. Everyone, whether you were human, an animal, a plant, a river, fire, the sky or wind, was closely watched. People were <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258039276_Niche_construction_and_Dreaming_logic_Aboriginal_patch_mosaic_burning_and_varanid_lizards_Varanus_gouldii_in_Australia">embedded within ecosystems</a>. </p>
<p>Recently scientists <a href="https://ris.cdu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/24523204/Rowe_et_al_2019_Holocene_savanna_dynamics_in_the_seasonal_tropics_of_northern_Australia.pdf">sampled the deep mud</a> of Girraween lagoon in the Top End searching for pollen and charcoal that would provide a window into this deep time. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men drilling for scientific samples" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The deep mud of Girraween lagoon near Darwin is a window into the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Bird/Damien O'Grady</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Some 13,000 years ago, the landscape was parched. But as the northern hemisphere ice sheets melted, the seas rose and the monsoons began to return. By the mid-Holocene, between 9,000 and 4,000 years ago, the monsoons were arriving regularly. The lagoon filled up, nestled in a landscape of moisture-loving shrubs and brushed by relatively cool fires. </p>
<p>But then, the climate lurched to one of the long periods of horrendous drought instigated by an El Nino weather system. </p>
<p>Curiously, destructive fires did not follow. The deep mud core showed fire became less, not more, intense, as the forest shaded out the volatile grasses that cause intense fires in savanna. Even as drought increased, the Top End landscape filled with layers of diverse herbs and shrubs, with a variety of trees and groves of monsoon forest closer to the lagoon. </p>
<p>This patterning was likely the handiwork of people taming fire and putting it to work. Through patch burning, they created a rich landscape of diverse habitat that sustained people and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258039276_Niche_construction_and_Dreaming_logic_Aboriginal_patch_mosaic_burning_and_varanid_lizards_Varanus_gouldii_in_Australia">created niches</a> for a wide range of species. </p>
<p>Today, a quarter of Australia’s fire-prone savannahs, mostly managed by First Nations peoples, are returning to patchy fire regimes. These reduce the big wildfires associated with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301479721006307">European pastoralism</a> and reduce emissions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594">To address the ecological crisis, Aboriginal peoples must be restored as custodians of Country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Extinction busters</h2>
<p>Perhaps few places encapsulate the harshness of Australia’s environment more than the Great Sandy Desert. From before the last ice age, the ancestors of today’s Martu people would have witnessed great floods rushing down the Sturt Creek into an extensive lake system, Paruku (Lake Gregory). These lakes were <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272158856_EXCAVATIONS_AT_PARNKUPIRTI_LAKE_GREGORY_GREAT_SANDY_DESERT">ten times larger than today’s system</a>, ringed by dunes covered in scrubby vegetation and flammable spinifex. </p>
<p>Over <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314306369_Aboriginal_mitogenomes_reveal_50000_years_of_regionalism_in_Australia">perhaps 50 millennia</a>, the Martu used fire to create mosaic landscapes. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, the Martu were forced to leave to make way for <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/sources-radiation/more-radiation-sources/british-nuclear-weapons-testing">nuclear missile tests</a>. Without cultural burning, it took <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330976086_Subsistence_Transitions_and_the_Simplification_of_Ecological_Networks_in_the_Western_Desert_of_Australia">mere years</a> for fuel to build up and large wildfires to incinerate the landscape. </p>
<p>You can see the change clearly. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258039276_Niche_construction_and_Dreaming_logic_Aboriginal_patch_mosaic_burning_and_varanid_lizards_Varanus_gouldii_in_Australia">Satellite images and aerial photograhy</a> showed the size of the average fire went from 64 hectares under Martu management to over 50,000 ha by the 1980s. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fire patterns in central Australia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mosaic burning reduces fire intensity and promotes fresh growth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stefani Crabtree</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In turn, this drove <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330976086_Subsistence_Transitions_and_the_Simplification_of_Ecological_Networks_in_the_Western_Desert_of_Australia">dramatic shifts</a> to the food web. Over the two decades of Martu absence, ten species of small mammal became locally extinct, including the rufous hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong, bilby, mulgara and brushtail possum. What’s more, 14 mammals, three birds and two reptiles became threatened. Cats, foxes, camels and buffel grass became widespread. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, the Martu were able to return. Back on Country, they <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330976086_Subsistence_Transitions_and_the_Simplification_of_Ecological_Networks_in_the_Western_Desert_of_Australia">worked with scientists</a> to reconstruct pre-1960s food webs from their memories, recalling not only species hunted, but rich detail of the behaviour, interactions and life histories. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://ministers.pmc.gov.au/burney/2023/celebrating-dedication-martu-indigenous-protected-area">Indigenous Protected Areas</a> covering millions of hectares have been added to the national estate. The Western Desert Martu Ranger program manage <a href="https://www.niaa.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/environment/western-desert-martu-ranger-programme">6.5 million hectares</a>. </p>
<p>This return to First Nations management is long overdue, as human-made climate change intensifies. We will need to relearn these ancient techniques of managing country on a broader scale to cope with the changes to come. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-knowledge-and-the-persistence-of-the-wilderness-myth-165164">Indigenous knowledge and the persistence of the 'wilderness' myth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny van Oosterzee is a Director of Biome5 Pty Ltd which was a linkage partner in an ARC research project on cost-effective restoration for carbon and biodiversity based on her property Thiaki. Penny has recently published a book, Cloud Land, with Allen & Unwin based on the Thiaki restoration project. The book focuses on Australia's Wet Tropics Rainforest and Rainforest peoples.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Hunter is a Djabugay man and chair of Terrain NRM, a natural resources management group.</span></em></p>
When people first came to Australia 65,000 years ago, the Earth was in an ice age. Then the seas rose, drought and floods came – and still people endured.
Penny van Oosterzee, Adjunct Associate Professor James Cook University and University Fellow Charles Darwin University, James Cook University
Barry Hunter, Acting CEO, North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, Indigenous Knowledge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214750
2023-10-03T15:17:32Z
2023-10-03T15:17:32Z
Sycamore Gap: what the long life of a single tree can tell us about centuries of change
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551726/original/file-20231003-25-gsc8so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=124%2C405%2C4878%2C2887&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Rey Photography / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Only a few individual trees could be rightly labelled as world famous, but the tree at Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England was one of them. No wonder its recent felling provoked <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66967101">public outcry and collective mourning</a>. </p>
<p>The tree’s dramatic and photogenic setting made it a culturally significant landmark, often used as a symbol of the surrounding Northumberland region. However, this single tree also symbolised our relationship with the landscape in this part of the world, both past and future.</p>
<p>Sycamores (<em>Acer pseudoplanatus</em>) are not a native species but were introduced to Britain around 500 years ago and properly established themselves <a href="https://academic.oup.com/forestry/article-abstract/94/5/704/6209413?redirectedFrom=fulltext">over the past 200 years</a>. As aggressive colonisers, for a long time sycamores were an enemy of both conservationists and foresters. </p>
<p>In 1662 the writer and gardener <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246548466_Leslie_AD_2005_The_ecology_and_biodiversity_value_of_Sycamore_Acer_pseudoplatanus_with_particular_reference_to_Great_Britain_Scottish_Forestry_Vol_59_No_3_p19_-26">John Evelyn</a> wanted them “banish’d from all curious gardens and avenues” for the mess they created from leaves often splattered with a sticky liquid secreted by small insects, known as honeydew. </p>
<p>It is in fact this honeydew and leaf fall that create some of the ecological value of sycamores, since the aphids that produce the honeydew are an invaluable source of food for predatory insects and birds. Sycamores are also often found in soil with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112722007459">lots of different fungal species</a>, and they’re an important habitat for lichens.</p>
<p>Sycamores are able to resist strong winds and cold and are also a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/forestry/article/92/1/108/5161158">likely replacement</a> for those ash trees which are being attacked by a fungal pathogen known as ash dieback. The species <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/2/297">can also be “coppiced”</a> (cut back to a stump to prompt new growth from multiple other shoots): a woodland management technique in use for thousands of years. </p>
<p>This means there is a possibility the Sycamore Gap tree could regrow from its remaining stump, though it would take more than a century to regain its previous size.</p>
<h2>300 years of change</h2>
<p>The sycamore needed this tough coloniser biology to survive its 300 year or so lifespan in Northumberland, where it endured significant environmental changes over the centuries. As a young tree, it saw the end of the “Little Ice Age” which brought wet and cold summers to upland Britain. </p>
<p>Those summers became <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09596836221074036">drier and brighter</a> in the 20th century, until anthropogenic climate change really took hold and the tree recently withstood its <a href="https://na.unep.net/geas/getUNEPPageWithArticleIDScript.php?article_id=53">hottest decade on record</a>.</p>
<p>The landscape of Northumberland is also not fixed, but has seen significant alterations often driven by thousands of years of human economic and social change. At the beginning of the tree’s life, upland Northumberland had already shifted away from mixed arable and pastoral to predominantly sheep and cattle farming. </p>
<p>This was driven by a complicated combination of more expensive rent for farmers, climate change, depopulation related to <a href="https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1075326">earlier border wars and plague</a>, and the process of “enclosure” where previously common land was claimed as private property.</p>
<p>Some marks of ancient crop cultivation are still visible in the landscape, such as the ridges and troughs left by early ploughing systems. But you can spot the impacts of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01433768.2007.10594588">intensified pastoralism</a> through time in the pollen of past plants, trapped and preserved in the mires and loughs (the local word for lake). </p>
<p><a href="https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1979.tb01673.x">Pollen records from around Northumberland</a> show a steady increase in the abundance of grasses at the expense of heathers as moorlands were converted to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01433768.1998.10594501">species-poor pasture</a>, enabled by field enclosures in the 18th and 19th centuries that also promoted soil “<a href="https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1075326">improvements</a>” which made the land better for agriculture to the detriment of many plant species.</p>
<p>Changes in the abundances of different pollen types through time also show that although woodland was <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440304001839">largely cleared in pre-Roman times</a>, there was a further decline in the number of native trees on the landscape <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095968369400400206">in recent centuries</a>. At the same time parks and plantations were created featuring exotic tree species such as sycamore, which soon became <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01433768.2007.10594588">established in the wild</a>. </p>
<p>However, the sheer dominance of pastures and open farmland near Hadrian’s Wall led to this one sycamore becoming an icon of Northumberland, in part, because of the relative rarity of trees on the landscape.</p>
<p>Since the beginning of the industrial revolution there has been a creeping <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01433768.2007.10594588">loss of biodiversity</a> in the region, shown as a reduction in the number of species in the pollen record. This loss in plant diversity has <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/september/one-in-six-species-at-risk-of-going-extinct-in-great-britain.html">accelerated since the 1950s</a>. The present day marks the lowest point in our relationship with nature over the tree’s lifespan. </p>
<p>In one of the many reactions to its felling, the sycamore was described as a <a href="https://metro.co.uk/video/hairy-bikers-si-king-outraged-sycamore-gap-tree-murder-3026325/">sentinel</a> of Northumberland, which aptly sums up the tree’s singular position on the landscape and its witness to the pressures we have inflicted on our natural places. That’s why the possibility of the stump’s regrowth is so symbolic, as we look to regrow biodiversity and our relationship with nature, both in upland Britain and across the world.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 20,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The iconic tree lived through the Little Ice Age, modern climate change, and an alarming drop in biodiversity.
Bronwen Whitney, Professor in Physical Geography, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Matthew Pound, Associate Professor in Physical Geography, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207118
2023-09-19T23:58:08Z
2023-09-19T23:58:08Z
Colonists upended Aboriginal farming, growing grain and running sheep on rich yamfields, and cattle on arid grainlands
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533337/original/file-20230622-15408-ue0mbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C9%2C794%2C425&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yam daisies on the left, cattle on the right</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cutting out the cattle, Kangatong/Eugene Von Guerard, 1856 </span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>First Nations readers are advised this article contains references to colonial violence against First Nations people.</em></p>
<p>In 1788 the First Fleet brought two bulls and four cows from the Cape of Good Hope and put them on grass on Bennelong Point, where Sydney Opera House is now. But there wasn’t much grass, and it wasn’t much good, so the cattle took off. Seven years later they were found 65 kilometres southwest, on the <a href="https://www.belgennyfarm.com.au/history/site-history/the-cowpastures-and-its-wild-cattle">Cowpastures</a> near Camden, a flourishing herd. By 1820 they were supporting an abattoir and a couple of tanneries. </p>
<p>The cows had found land that was deliberately made for grazing animals – kangaroos. In small patches and on extensive plains, Dharawal managers had performed cool burns to promote rich grass near water. When the cattle found this grass, they stayed.</p>
<p>It was the start of dispossession. Grazing animals trod on or ate the staple tubers such as murnong, on which local groups relied. These grew in rich beds, but were easily trampled. As colonists moved inland, they took Aboriginal land used for growing grain and ran sheep or cattle on it. </p>
<p>The effects of this upheaval are still with us today. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cows on Cowpasture New South Wales" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533344/original/file-20230622-16065-56d1vv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cowpastures at Camden were covered with grass for a reason.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arthur Willmore, The cow pastures, New South Wales. 1874</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Without fire, the trees took over</h2>
<p>The newcomers who took the Camden country tried to keep it open, without scrub. There, John and Elizabeth Macarthur developed the <a href="https://merinos.com.au/australian-merino/">Australian merino</a> sheep. But they did not understand fire, and the bush got away. As <a href="https://rune.une.edu.au/web/handle/1959.11/18449">early as 1817</a>, the Macarthurs’ land “had become crowded – choked up in many places by thickets of saplings and large thorn bushes [<em>Bursaria spinosa</em>] and the sweet natural herbage had for the most part been replaced by coarse wiry grasses which grew uncropped”. </p>
<p>In 1848, Thomas Mitchell <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9943/9943-h/9943-h.htm">observed the effects</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The omission of the annual periodical burning by the natives (sic), of the grass and young saplings, has already produced in the open forest lands nearest to Sydney, thick forests of young trees, where, formerly, a man might gallop without impediment, and see whole miles before him. Kangaroos are no longer to be seen there; the grass is choked by underwood.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On good grass, stock fed themselves – they needed only shepherds or stockmen – but European crops grew reluctantly on Sydney sandstone. In 1789, English farmer James Ruse grew corn on better land at Rose Hill near Parramatta, but it still yielded poorly. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/before-the-colonists-came-we-burned-small-and-burned-often-to-avoid-big-fires-its-time-to-relearn-cultural-burning-201475">Before the colonists came, we burned small and burned often to avoid big fires. It's time to relearn cultural burning</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 1794, Ruse sold his block and joined the settlers crowding the rich flats of the Hawkesbury River. Here, he produced the <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/australian-agricultural-and-rural-life/first-farms">first successful</a> wheat crop.</p>
<p>Soon, corn, English <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2019/opinion/saving-our-wheat-from-climate-change">wet wheat</a> and barley were supplying government stores and the Sydney market.</p>
<p>On those Hawkesbury flats, Dharug people had long grown a key staple: tubers. They could not afford to lose the land. They gave some up, but the settlers wanted it all. In 1794, guerilla war <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Sydney_Wars/0mZZDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">broke out</a>. It lasted 22 years – Australia’s longest war – until in 1816 British soldiers finally <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/sydney-wars">broke Dharug resistance</a>. </p>
<h2>Tubers and grain</h2>
<p>Unlike the newcomers, the Dharug rarely ate grain. They preferred tubers. This was common – wherever it was wet enough, people across Australia relied on tubers, notably <a href="https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2898257">warran</a> (<em>Dioscorea hastifolia</em>) in the southwest, and the yam daisy, murnong (<em>Microseris lanceolata</em>) in the southeast.</p>
<p>Women regularly dug over tuber fields to make the soil crumbly, and replanted tuber tops for the next harvest. For mile after mile where they had worked, the ground looked ploughed. At Sunbury, near Melbourne, Isaac Batey, a gardener in England, <a href="https://lily-tangerine-jegb.squarespace.com/s/David-Frankel-An-Account-of-Aboriginal-Use-of-the-Yam-Daisy-pages-2-3.pdf">saw a slope</a> of: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>rich basaltic clay, evidently well fitted for the production of myrnongs. On the spot are numerous mounds with short spaces between each, and as all these are at right angles to the ridge’s slope, it is conclusive evidence that they were the work of human hands extending over a long series of years.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Yam daisy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533343/original/file-20230622-20-wxcrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yam daisy tubers were a staple for many groups in the south-east.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In country too dry for tubers – most of Australia – people <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2841785">grew grain</a>, notably native millet (<em>Panicum decompositum</em>). They chose land near water, burned the ground, spread seed, blocked channels to spread water, watched the seasons to know when to return, reaped the crop by pulling or stripping with stone knives, dried, threshed and winnowed the grain, and stored it in skin bags or ground it into flour.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="native millet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542747/original/file-20230815-3698-dh1bzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Native millet (<em>Panicum decompositum</em>) grows happily across most of the arid interior. It was a vital foodstuff.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/macleaygrassman/8242315785">Harry Rose/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the Narran River, northwest of Lightning Ridge, the explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9943/9943-h/9943-h.htm#trop-04">observed in 1848</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dry heaps of this grass, that had been pulled expressly for the purpose of gathering the seed, lay along our path for many miles. I counted nine miles along the river, in which we rode through this grass only, reaching to our saddle-girths.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Dispossession and reversal</h2>
<p>Even allowing for the modern expansion of irrigation <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/research/natural-environment/land/unlocking-northern-australia">in the north</a>, people probably farmed more of Australia in 1788 than we do now. </p>
<p>But we don’t crop the widespread grainlands of the arid interior. We leave them to cattle or camels. Our crops largely grow on tuber country, so a great many tubers have diminished or disappeared. How people use the land has essentially reversed since 1788, based on <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Biggest_Estate_on_Earth/u-R8BNRYSbMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bill+gammage+biggest+estate+on+earth&printsec=frontcover">my research</a> into the subject. </p>
<p>This upended the lives of many species. It let inland birds such as galahs, crested pigeons, and later, little corellas, expand their range. When Europeans arrived, galahs were typically inland birds. Now they’re common from coast to coast. What changed? My research <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/47799/4/galahs_long.pdf">suggests</a> it was colonisation. Galahs feed on the ground. To get at tall inland grasses, they relied on Aboriginal grain cropping before contact. Afterwards, introduced stock shook or trampled grass – and expanded the galah’s range.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533341/original/file-20230622-17-zwid3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Famed colonial painter Eugene von Guerard captured traditionally managed parkland in many paintings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The crater of Mt Eccles west from Mt Napier, 1856</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But ground-dwelling small and medium-sized mammals and birds declined. Dozens of species became extinct or endangered. The <a href="http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?paper=EC14122">toolache wallaby</a> was gone in less than a century. The <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=136#:%7E:text=The%20decline%20and%20extinction%20of,herbivores%20and%20changed%20fire%20regimes.">lesser stick-nest rat</a> and the paradise parrot disappeared not long after newcomers, their stock, and new predators like cats and foxes invaded their habitats. Today, even the <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/species/koalas/listing-under-national-environmental-law">koala is endangered</a>. </p>
<p>Those who had cared for these species – the people of 1788 and after – were devastated by invasion. It’s possible they had more war dead than white Australia’s 103,000 in <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search/people?roll=Roll%20of%20Honour">all its wars</a>. </p>
<p>Survivors were commonly driven or taken from their country, and the land they managed so carefully was made a resource to exploit, or left to burn randomly. </p>
<p>So much was lost. Gone are the stories, the dances, the paintings, the languages of ten thousand campfires, gone knowledge of land, sea and sky, the skill to care for every habitat, to grow local crops and husband native animals, to feel truly at home. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biggest-estate-on-earth-how-aborigines-made-australia-3787">The biggest estate on earth: how Aborigines made Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Gammage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Newcomers in Australia found and took rich pastures made by Aboriginal fire. Without fire, pastures would revert to forest or scrub.
Bill Gammage, Emeritus Professor, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209788
2023-08-07T00:46:05Z
2023-08-07T00:46:05Z
Plastic rocks, plutonium, and chicken bones: the markers we’re laying down in deep time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540679/original/file-20230802-23-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C13%2C2982%2C1553&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rocks keep time. Not on our human-scale time, but deep time: the almost unimaginable span of billions of years which have already come and gone. </p>
<p>Let’s say you’re in the far future and you’re looking for evidence of previous civilisations. Where would you look? The first place would be in the rocks. </p>
<p>For decades, experts have debated whether our world-spanning impact on the planet represents the sign of a new geological period, the Anthropocene. Only recently, scientists selected a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-canadian-lake-holds-the-key-to-the-beginning-of-the-anthropocene-a-new-geological-epoch-209576">small lake</a> in Canada as the site that best records our impact.</p>
<p>That’s because the waters of the lake don’t mix, which means sediment falling into the lake is laid down neatly and in incredible detail. Over long periods, the lake’s <a href="https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glacial-geology/varves/">varved sediments</a> have preserved an excellent, undisturbed record of the Anthropocene. </p>
<p>But what would have to be in those sediments to leave indelible evidence of our presence? Here are five of the markers we’re leaving for the future. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1678814180848050177"}"></div></p>
<h2>What markers are we laying down in rock?</h2>
<p>We break up deep time into parts. Everyone is familiar with periods such as the Jurassic. But what separates them? Usually, a change in the global environment so large it leaves permanent evidence visible in the rock layers. That could be an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event">asteroid strike</a>, gargantuan <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs-ancient-fossils/extinction/deccan-traps-volcanoes">volcanic eruptions</a> in what is now India or trillions of bacteria <a href="https://asm.org/Articles/2022/February/The-Great-Oxidation-Event-How-Cyanobacteria-Change">injecting oxygen</a> into the atmosphere and making respiration possible. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="ocean cliffs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540660/original/file-20230802-27-iod8xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Experts learn to read rock layers like a book of deep time. Each layer on these cliffs tells a story of changing environments over millions of years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So to declare that we’re in a new geological epoch – and that we’ve left the balmy post-ice age Holocene behind – requires finding evidence of unmistakably clear markers. Here are five possibilities. </p>
<h2>1. Plastics and plastic rocks</h2>
<p>Plastics aren’t naturally produced – they’re manufactured from feedstock such as oil, coal, cellulose and fossil gas. Finding plastics in a sediment or rock layer is a clear sign that the layer dates from modern times. </p>
<p>There are also plastiglomerates, the mutant offspring of plastics and rock. These have been found in several places worldwide. They can be produced when plastic is heated, such as <a href="https://phys.org/news/2023-03-scientists-disturbing-remote-island-plastic.html">in campfires</a>, or in bushfires. But they’re also being found in other places <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01037-6">such as creeks</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Concrete</h2>
<p>Concrete is now the <a href="https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/contribution/concrete-a-stratigraphic-marker-for-the-anthropocene">most abundant</a> human-made “rock” on the planet’s surface. Future archaeologists could dig down through mud and detritus to identify when widescale use of concrete first became obvious. This would tell them they’d struck the 20th century. Concrete, of course, has been used for millennia – ancient Roman concrete is <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concrete-durability-lime-casts-0106">still standing</a> in some places. But it didn’t become ubiquitous until recently. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="tunelboca beach anthropocene" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540649/original/file-20230802-27-6zixs7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cement, brick and industrial waste has been laid down in newly formed beachrock at Tunelboca beach in Spain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Chicken bones</h2>
<p>Humans like chicken. As of 2018, we <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/science/chicken-anthropocene-archaeology.html">were eating</a> about 65 billion of these birds a year. At any one time, there are 23 billion chickens alive. But why would chicken bones be a telltale sign we were here? Because of how common they are – and because our long reliance on these birds has changed them dramatically. They no longer resemble their sleek <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/how-wild-jungle-fowl-became-chicken">jungle fowl</a> antecedents – they’re far larger, grow quicker and eat differently. Broiler (meat) chickens can’t survive without human intervention. These changes are <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.180325">so profound </a>that it’s as if we’ve bred a new species, according to paleobiology and Anthropocene expert Jan Zalasiewicz, who <a href="https://phys.org/news/2023-07-proof-humans-reshaped-world-chickens.html">told AFP</a>: “It usually takes millions of years […] but here it has taken just decades to produce a new form of animal.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="broiler chicken farm" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540657/original/file-20230802-29-yj4k10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Broiler chickens grow much faster than their wild ancestors – and we breed billions upon billions every year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Plutonium and nuclear residue</h2>
<p>Nuclear testing began in the 1940s and accelerated through the 1950s and 60s before being phased out. Testing of new bombs <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/nuclear-tests-have-changed-but-they-never-really-stopped/">now happens</a> without exploding them. But those decades of testing in the 20th century have left behind a pollution time marker in our environment. </p>
<p>Explosive testing scattered traces of radiation across the entire planet. Plutonium, in particular, makes an excellent marker of 20th century human impact. While it does <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-transuranic-elements-s">occur naturally</a>, it’s only at incredibly low levels. The amount of plutonium spread by testing has left a clear spike, like a fingerprint, in the environment. Even now, we can identify samples from the 1950s and 1960s by <a href="https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/contribution/radioactive-fallout-as-a-marker-for-the-anthropocene">the presence</a> of plutonium and other radionuclides. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-canadian-lake-holds-the-key-to-the-beginning-of-the-anthropocene-a-new-geological-epoch-209576">A Canadian lake holds the key to the beginning of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. Fossil fuels and climate change</h2>
<p>We’ve been digging up and burning fossil fuels for a long time. People were using coal for heat thousands of years ago. But we really got going during what’s been dubbed the <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674545038">Great Acceleration</a> in the mid-20th century, as many countries got richer, populations exploded, and demand for cars, planes and electricity soared. Burning these fuels leaves behind large volumes of fly ash and carbon particles, which fall to Earth, are laid down in rock in some areas. The carbon (CO2) pollution from burning the fuels will also eventually be recorded in rock. Future civilisations would be able to detect our presence because of the remarkably fast spike in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. </p>
<h2>Markers upon markers</h2>
<p>There are many more markers, from sudden shifts in distribution of animal species, soil erosion and pollution, to refined metals, to looming mass extinctions of species. </p>
<p>Even so, the Anthropocene has not yet been declared. And it may never be. That’s because there are still many questions to sort out. Will these markers be recognisable long term? And – as some geologists argue – can we even say this is a distinct epoch, given it’s only just begun in geological terms? </p>
<p>All of this will be hashed out in discussions through this year. By the end of next year, we’ll learn the scientific fate of the Anthropocene. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-anthropocene-start-in-1950-or-much-earlier-heres-why-debate-over-our-world-changing-impact-matters-209869">Did the Anthropocene start in 1950 – or much earlier? Here's why debate over our world-changing impact matters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duncan Cook receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
We’re having a big impact on the planet. But what marks will we leave behind in deep time?
Duncan Cook, Associate Professor in Geography, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204011
2023-04-24T13:32:39Z
2023-04-24T13:32:39Z
‘Noisome stinking scum’: how Londoners protested river pollution in the 1600s
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521856/original/file-20230419-26-po7kx1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5240%2C672%2C3957%2C1497&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">London imagined from above by artist Claes Jansz. Visscher, in 1616.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_panorama,_1616.jpg">wiki</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government and water companies have recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/31/raw-sewage-spilled-english-rivers-824-times-day-last-year">heavily criticised</a> for allowing raw sewage and <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/phosphorus-pollution-river-target-clean-it-up-cc9789fkt">other pollutants</a> to spill into the nation’s waterways. </p>
<p>While a recent flurry of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/06/england-river-bathing-area-applications-foi-requests">stories</a> and <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/uk-rivers-20-high-risk-pollution-chemicals-sewage-plastic-wildlife-trusts-2174378">reports</a> could make this crisis feel very new to us, river pollution and concerns over it have a long history. This is something I have uncovered while doing a PhD focused on <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/eportfolios/danielgettings">attitudes to water in England between 1550 and 1750</a>, a period historians refer to as “early modern”. My research shows that, even in the era of Shakespeare’s “<a href="https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/shakespeares-london">filth-clogged</a>” Thames, river pollution was far from acceptable.</p>
<p>Precisely when the first river protection laws emerged in Britain is not clear, though we know that Roman law contained regulations <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/fresh-water-in-roman-law-rights-and-policy/548B1C559B3D6ACEDF50C4576DD14603">with fines for polluting</a> water, so early ideas may have been brought over through their occupation.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="old map of London river" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1723&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1723&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=2165&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=2165&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=2165&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from the ‘Copperplate’ map of London in the 1550s, showing the River Fleet flowing through London to the Thames.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Copperplate_map_Fleet.jpg">wiki / Saunders and Schofield (eds), Tudor London: a map and a view (2001)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From as early as 1489, protections for rivers were starting to take on language that made clear that preservation was a chief concern. An act <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915526&view=1up&seq=563">from the first years of Henry VII’s reign</a> made the Thames and its protection the domain of the mayor of London as its “conservator”. </p>
<p>This usage in the context of the Thames represents, according to academics <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Man_and_the_Natural_World/qACGVWiq8SIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Keith Thomas</a> and <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Environmental_Degradation_in_Jacobean_Dr/o3W47yAw2fQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Bruce Boehrer</a>, the first use of the idea of “conservation” in the English language in relation to protecting the natural world.</p>
<p>But this was far from a new idea. When challenged on his right to the river by later kings in the 1500s, the then mayor pointed out that “<a href="https://archive.org/details/b30454554_0001/page/32">conservation and correction</a>” of the Thames had fallen to city leaders since at least 1407. </p>
<p>Pollution of the river was a key concern, and this “conservation” was specifically defined in terms of preventing people from “annoying” the river by <a href="https://archive.org/details/b30454554_0001/page/34">casting “any Soil, Dust, Rubbish, or other Filth into it.”</a></p>
<p>Despite these restrictions, Tudor London clearly did cast “other Filth” into its rivers. The Fleet river (left) was a <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Environmental_Degradation_in_Jacobean_Dr/o3W47yAw2fQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">“notorious”</a> sewer by the 17th century, and as the map shows, it flowed directly into the Thames. </p>
<p>The author Ben Jonson, whose house was near the Fleet, took the state of the river as inspiration for his poem <a href="https://hollowaypages.com/jonson1692epigrams.htm">“On the Famous Voyage”</a> which paints a nauseatingly vivid picture of the waterway’s condition through a mock voyage down it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Your dainty Nostrils (in so hot a Season,
When every Clerk eats Artichokes and Peason,
Laxative Lettuce, and such windy Meat)
Tempt such a passage? when each Privies Seat
Is fill’d with Buttock? And the Walls do sweat
Urine, and Plasters? When the Noise doth beat
Upon your Ears, of Discords so unsweet?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Increasingly however, the state of rivers like the Thames came under criticism. Thomas Powell lamented the river’s treatment in a <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A55567.0001.001/1:4?ALLSELECTED=1;c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;hi=0;rgn=div1;singlegenre=All;size=25;sort=occur;start=1;subview=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;xc=1;q1=A+sanctuary+for+the+tempted">1679 religious work</a>, suggesting people treated God in a similar way to the river: poorly. “The Thames brings us in our Riches, our Gold, Silks, Spices: and we throw all our filth into the Thames”.</p>
<p>There were also specific health concerns. John Evelyn’s 1661 work <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A38788.0001.001?c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;rgn=full+text;view=toc;xc=1;q1=Fumifugium">Fumifugium</a> criticised the polluted air in the capital. Part of the complaint was the damage that Evelyn claimed polluted air was doing to the water both in the city, and to those who lived downstream who he said emerged after bathing covered in a “web” of dust and grime.</p>
<p>Evelyn’s issues with the air highlight the importance of smell <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Aroma.html?id=reej6W7PgXEC&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">in early modern understandings of disease</a>. If “corrupt” or “putrid” air was key to the spread of illness, the stench of the River Fleet was not only unpleasant – it was life threatening. </p>
<p>The threat of pollution therefore took two forms. There was the waste that ended up in the river, and the smell that resulted from it.</p>
<p>Both dangers appeared in those scenarios where authorities did step in and take action against polluters. In 1627, a case was brought by London residents <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A13053.0001.001/1:2?ALLSELECTED=1;c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;rgn=div1;singlegenre=All;sort=occur;subview=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;xc=1;q1=The+survey+of+London+containing+the+original,+increase">against a house that made “allom”</a>. Alum, as it is known today, was produced through the “boiling of urine” and the complaints were aimed at the “noisome stinking scum of a frothy substance” that it was dumping into the water. </p>
<p>Both the smell and contamination were claimed to have “cast many of [the nearby residents] into extremity of great sicknesses” and the building was shut down. Perhaps a more effective <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/environment-agency-united-utilities-river-pollution-damage-2215714">response than the UK manages today</a>.</p>
<p>You might think that this was as bad as it could get, but <a href="https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/xmlui/handle/20.500.12024/A36048">a 1696 pamphlet</a> suggested that the Thames was actually better off than most English rivers, which enjoyed fewer protections and in contrast were “choaked up with Filth”.</p>
<p>In a world without permanent sewage or waste disposal systems, it is perhaps unsurprising that some early modern rivers ended up in the state they did despite legal protections. But the reaction to their pollution shows us that, even in a time with limited alternatives, this scenario was not simply accepted without complaint.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Gettings does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Even in a time with limited alternatives, polluted waterways were not simply accepted without complaint.
Daniel Gettings, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190578
2022-09-29T19:16:14Z
2022-09-29T19:16:14Z
The night is full of animal life, but scientists know very little about it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484547/original/file-20220914-18-xmkk2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Naturalists and life scientists have long debated how insect-eating bats navigate their dark world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bats-flying-against-sun-golden-sky-129518465">Sarun T/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human disturbance is rapidly changing the nature of the nocturnal world. Intensive farming, suburban spread, artificially lit cities, and continuously busy road systems mean <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29903973/">daytime species</a> are becoming increasingly active throughout the night. Ecologists <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25225371/">suggest</a> that the majority of land animals are either nocturnal or active across both the day and night. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/too-hot-to-sleep-nights-are-warming-faster-than-days-as-earth-heats-up-186958">Recent research</a> has also shown that the night is warming considerably faster than the day. The stifling night-time heat experienced across Europe this summer is indicative of this, placing nocturnal animals under even greater stress. </p>
<p>The transforming night adds new sensory pressures concerning finding food, a mate, and navigating a world permeated by artificial illumination. Environmental change is severely threatening the ability of nocturnal animals to coexist with humans. The conservation of nocturnal species has therefore become urgent. </p>
<p>Despite the abundance of night-time life, the understanding of nocturnal species has evaded science throughout history. Physical restraints on human navigation in the dark are partially responsible for this. This scientific blind spot is referred to as the “nocturnal problem”.</p>
<p>The legacy of this inaccessibility remains a barrier to our understanding of nocturnal life today. However, given the environmental threat now facing the nocturnal world, this will have profound consequences should it remain unaddressed. A better understanding of nocturnal life is critical to ensure its effective protection.</p>
<h2>The origins of the ‘nocturnal problem’</h2>
<p>So how did the nocturnal problem arise and why does it still impede science?</p>
<p>Constrained by their own reliance on vision, early scientists struggled to imagine the different ways in which animals might navigate in the dark. The myths that built up around familiar nocturnal creatures, such as hedgehogs, are evidence of historical attempts to fill the scientific gap.</p>
<p>The Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that hedgehogs poached apples and carried them off on their spines. Such mythology was commonly included within Victorian natural history texts as an introduction to more factual descriptions of hedgehog anatomy, such as their capacity for smell and other bodily adaptations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A hedgehog passing a road with a car light illuminating the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even the experiences of hedgehogs remain to some degree unknown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hedgehog-passing-street-night-car-lights-1280471914">Lukasz Walas/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But even artificial illumination afforded very limited access. Illumination fundamentally changes the nature of the nocturnal world, with impacts on animal behaviour. A good example is the attraction of moths to street lights.</p>
<p>The historical debate surrounding how insect-eating bats navigate their dark world illustrates the problem. Numerous attempts have been made to understand bat senses. However, it was not until the late 1930s, more than 150 years after experimentation on bats had begun, that the scientists Donald R. Griffin and Robert Galambos identified echolocation – the ability to navigate via the emission and detection of sound signals. </p>
<p>Griffin would later describe the secrets of bat senses as a “magic well”, acknowledging the fundamental challenge of comprehending senses so different from our own. </p>
<p>But efforts to understand nocturnal senses could only take scientists so far. In 1940, American naturalist Orlando Park declared that the biological sciences suffered from a “nocturnal problem”, in reference to the continued inability to understand the nocturnal world. This was reflected in the more recent philosophical text of Thomas Nagel, which posed the question <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/ugmodules/humananimalstudies/lectures/32/nagel_bat.pdf">what it like is to like to be a bat?</a></p>
<h2>Persistence of the nocturnal problem</h2>
<p>Despite technological developments, including the introduction of infrared photography, aspects of nocturnal life continue to elude modern science. </p>
<p>While technology has afforded scientists a much better understanding of echolocation in bats, our way of thinking about bat senses remains limited by our own dependence on vision. When describing echolocation, scientists still suggest that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3172592/">bats “see” using echoes</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1296266269008654336"}"></div></p>
<p>The elusive Australian Night Parrot was presumed extinct for much of the 20th century. Although they have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/science/night-parrot-ghost-bird-australia.html">recently rediscovered</a>, scientists remain unable to estimate their population size accurately while questions over the threats facing the species persist. </p>
<p>Despite an improvement in scientific research, nocturnal life remains understudied. In 2019, life scientist <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/702250">Kevin J. Gaston</a> called for an expansion of research into nocturnal life. History shows us that when there are scientific gaps in knowledge about the night, cultures create their own truths to fill those gaps. The consequences of doing so may be significant. </p>
<p>The night is ecologically rich and efforts to fill these gaps in scientific understanding should be prioritised. The nocturnal world is threatened by environmental change, and its future depends on our commitment to getting to know the darkness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190578/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Andy Flack received funding for this research from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The funding relates to the project 'Dark-dwellers as more-than-human misfits'.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Would was a Research Associate on Dr Andy Flack's AHRC Leadership Fellows Project 'dark-dwellers as more-than-human misfits.' </span></em></p>
Humans have long struggled to understand the nocturnal world. As environmental change becomes increasingly acute, understanding their lives has never been more critical.
Andy Flack, Senior Lecturer in Modern and Environmental History, University of Bristol
Alice Would, Lecturer in Imperial and Environmental History, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176035
2022-02-28T00:37:17Z
2022-02-28T00:37:17Z
At Unguja Ukuu, human activity transformed the coast of Zanzibar more than 1,000 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445313/original/file-20220209-17-1brmlqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5199%2C1730&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anna Kotarba-Morley</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The medieval settlement of Unguja Ukuu, on the Zanzibar Archipelago off the coast of Tanzania, was a key port in an extensive Indian Ocean trade network that linked eastern Africa, southern Arabia, India and Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>Our archaeological research shows how human activities between the seventh and twelfth centuries AD <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15564894.2022.2030441">irreversibly modified the shoreline around the site</a>. At first, these changes may have helped the trading settlement develop, but later they may have contributed to its decline and abandonment. </p>
<h2>Ancient seafaring</h2>
<p>For millennia, the Indian Ocean has been the maritime setting for an early form of globalisation. Large trade networks operated across the vast ocean, foreshadowing modern global shipping networks. Unguja Ukuu was a crucial location in this early trade and an important node in the nascent slave trade out of continental Africa.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-war-elephants-to-cheap-electronics-modern-globalisation-has-its-roots-in-ancient-trade-networks-125483">From war elephants to cheap electronics: modern globalisation has its roots in ancient trade networks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Unguja Ukuu was an active settlement from the mid-first millennium until the early second millennium AD. Archaeological evidence and historical accounts suggest Unguja Ukuu is one of the earliest known trading settlements on the Swahili coast.</p>
<h2>The rise and fall of trading ports</h2>
<p>To understand how and why early ports thrived or declined, it is important to know how the coastal landscape influenced the way traders operated. This includes their choice of mooring locations and their connections to inland locations. </p>
<p>But the question of how these commercial activities in turn modified the coastline has received less attention.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443920/original/file-20220202-25-1ojip7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Satellite image of the location of Unguja Ukuu and the surrounding landscape. Insets: A) the extent of the tidal channel leading to the settlement; B) satellite view of the settlement site; c) the Uzi channel leading towards the creek. Illustration by Juliën Lubeek.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GoogleEarth</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unguja Ukuu prospered in an ecologically marginal zone, hemmed in between the sandy back-reef shore of Menai Bay and mangrove-banked creeks to the east. </p>
<p>Menai Bay afforded shelter from monsoonal storms and navigable waterways across the shallow inner shelf to the shore. It also provided food and other materials from the mangrove habitat. </p>
<p>This landscape enabled the emergence of the farming, fishing, and trading settlement of Unguja Ukuu.</p>
<h2>Sediment, sand and shells</h2>
<p>We studied sediments, back-beach sands, and shells at Unguja Ukuu to understand how the settlement had affected its own environment. We found the accumulation of coastal sediments over centuries led to significant changes in the landscape.</p>
<p>Detritus from the settlement, such as food remains, hearths and other domestic waste, helped the beach spread outward into the sea. Our analyses show how human waste and the compaction of ancient surfaces drove the coastline change, supporting the emergence of a major trading site. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445062/original/file-20220208-23-ibrjsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445062/original/file-20220208-23-ibrjsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445062/original/file-20220208-23-ibrjsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445062/original/file-20220208-23-ibrjsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445062/original/file-20220208-23-ibrjsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445062/original/file-20220208-23-ibrjsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445062/original/file-20220208-23-ibrjsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photograph of the north section of Trench UU14 with a schematic representation of facies.
and the interpretations of the anthropogenic signatures in the sediments. Author provided.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As more land was used for urban living and agriculture, more sediment moved from the land to the sea. This contributed to rapid growth of beach fronts, physically altering the coastal landscape and the ecological conditions of the adjacent sea-scape. </p>
<p>These changes in turn could have resulted in habitat shifts and silting of the lagoon which possibly contributed to Unguja Ukuu’s decline. </p>
<h2>Early human impacts</h2>
<p>Human-made processes might also be implicated in the decline and eventual abandonment of Unguja Ukuu in the second millennium AD. This was an important period in the socio-political and economic transformation of coastal African societies, marking the emergence of maritime Swahili culture. </p>
<p>But suggesting a purely environmental cause for the settlement’s abandonment would be too simplistic. The interaction of coastal villages and harbours with their dynamic landscapes may have had a role in this regional reorganisation of settlements, harbours, and trade flows.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-term-anthropocene-jumped-from-geoscience-to-hashtags-before-most-of-us-knew-what-it-meant-130130">How the term 'Anthropocene' jumped from geoscience to hashtags – before most of us knew what it meant</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>New advances in archaeological science techniques, combined with systematic archaeological analyses, are increasingly allowing us to disentangle natural from human-made drivers of events. Such work often reveals <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18603-4">far earlier human impacts than once envisioned</a>, shedding light on the early roots of Earth’s current geological epoch: the Anthropocene, in which human activity is a key force reshaping the planet. </p>
<h2>Human-made soil</h2>
<p>Our work records snapshots of the evolution of a natural coastal system at the fringes of an early settlement. </p>
<p>River sediments were covered by beach sands containing increasing amounts of human waste accumulating from the mid-seventh century AD. This backshore activity area was used for small-scale subsistence activities (including processing shells for meat), trade, and the dumping of industrial waste. </p>
<p>Earlier urban development shaped Unguja Ukuu’s soils over the long term and through periods of settlement decline and abandonment from the twelfth century AD onwards. A dark earth “anthrosol” (human-made soil) continues to evolve on these archaeological deposits today, supporting cultivation in and around the modern town. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/soil-its-what-keeps-us-clothed-and-fed-146">Soil: it's what keeps us clothed and fed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Dark human-made soils such as these, formed by rapid decay of organic- and phosphate-rich waste from the settlement, may be used as markers for as-yet undiscovered archaeological sites on the eastern African coast. Their distinctive dark colour renders the soils easily identifiable on satellite images and other remote-sensing datasets.</p>
<h2>Understanding the past to shape the future</h2>
<p>Our study clearly shows how human modification of natural environments affected coastal landscapes on an East African island more than 1,000 years ago. These findings are a reminder that humans have been changing our environment for thousands of years - sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. </p>
<p>Studying history and archaeology is not simply about learning from our ancestors’ mistakes so that we don’t repeat them. It is also about ensuring that scientifically rigorous data that show how human activity in the past often altered the landscapes and environments in which people lived is effectively communicated, to both governments and the public. </p>
<p>If we can do this we might be able to make better informed sustainable choices for the future of our planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna M. Kotarba-Morley receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Crowther receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike W Morley receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Boivin received funding for this research from the European Research Council.</span></em></p>
Human waste created the landscape for a medieval Indian Ocean trading port and may eventually have led to its demise.
Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, Flinders University
Alison Crowther, Senior Lecture in Archaeology, The University of Queensland
Mike W. Morley, Associate Professor, Flinders University
Nicole Boivin, Director, Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155768
2021-02-25T13:52:06Z
2021-02-25T13:52:06Z
Red kites and ravens swooped through Elizabethan London – and helped keep the city clean
<p>We sometimes think of cities as concrete deserts inhabited only by humans, pigeons and rats. But that has never been true. In London, for example, the streets are lined with <a href="https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/london-plane/">plane trees</a>, foxes come out at night, and starlings and house sparrows whistle from the rooftops.</p>
<p>If you’ve driven on the M4 motorway out of the UK capital you might have spotted something bigger picking at roadkill. Common ravens and <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/red-kite/">red kites</a> are larger than hawks and falcons, and though they may peck at the city’s outskirts today, in the time of Shakespeare and the Great Plague they were common inside London too. </p>
<p>These carrion birds would nest in the city’s trees and high buildings and swoop through the streets eating waste food and offal. Some stories even maintain that they were strictly protected by law and killing them was punishable by death.</p>
<p>How did the average Londoner feel about sharing their city with these wild and imposing creatures? For my new report, <a href="https://t.co/zuetZF3pqx?amp=1">published in The London Journal</a>, I combed the historical record for travellers’ accounts, natural history notes and laws and discovered a lost world of mischief, humour and inter-species harmony.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A raven picks at a rabbit carcass on tarmac." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386423/original/file-20210225-15-sff7ge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386423/original/file-20210225-15-sff7ge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386423/original/file-20210225-15-sff7ge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386423/original/file-20210225-15-sff7ge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386423/original/file-20210225-15-sff7ge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386423/original/file-20210225-15-sff7ge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386423/original/file-20210225-15-sff7ge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ravens are often found scavenging carcasses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/raven-eating-remains-feral-rabbit-beside-1751236649">D.Cunningham/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tall tales from travellers</h2>
<p>The best evidence for ravens and red kites in London comes from the early modern period, between 1466 and 1777. In this time, travellers to London described these birds in daily life in some of the richest accounts left to historians. Their stories often use the ravens and red kites to paint London as a particularly wild and uncivilised place. </p>
<p>Sadly, these early travelogues aren’t the most reliable sources. Just as modern tourists tend to exaggerate how unique and exotic the places they visit are, the same was true in the past. Historical and <a href="https://revistas.uam.es/archaeofauna/article/view/8855/9076">archaeological evidence</a> suggests that ravens and kites were not unique to London. They have lived in many urban areas across Britain and elsewhere in Europe, at least since the Roman period.</p>
<p>That’s not to say the large birds were model Londoners. One of Britain’s most respected naturalists of the time, William Turner, wrote in a letter published in 1555 that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Such is the daring of our kites, that they often dare to take bread from children, fish from women, and cloths from hedges and from the hands of men. Indeed, very often they will take the hats from people’s heads during the time when they are nesting.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Incidentally, this habit of stealing cloth has endured among red kites. Today they even seem to have a special fondness <a href="https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/news/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-220496">for stealing underwear</a>.</p>
<p>So, if people at the time thought of ravens and red kites like we think of gulls that dive bomb people enjoying fish and chips, why did early modern Londoners put up with them?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An engraving depicting a Medieval city skyline filled with large birds." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385910/original/file-20210223-19-1sf1rpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1337%2C2044&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385910/original/file-20210223-19-1sf1rpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385910/original/file-20210223-19-1sf1rpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385910/original/file-20210223-19-1sf1rpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385910/original/file-20210223-19-1sf1rpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385910/original/file-20210223-19-1sf1rpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385910/original/file-20210223-19-1sf1rpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hortus Sanitatis (the first natural history encyclopaedia) depicts London life at the end of the 15th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_Sanitatis#/media/File:Hortus_De_avibus.jpg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Birds of a feather</h2>
<p>Wenzel Schaseck, a traveller from what is now the Czech Republic, reported in 1466 that it was a capital offence to harm red kites in London. Pierre Belon, a naturalist from France reported in 1555 that anyone caught doing violence to ravens anywhere in England would receive a heavy fine. The trouble is, I’ve looked and I can’t find any statute which protects ravens and kites. In fact, the Act Against Destruction Of Wildfowl (1533-4) actually encourages people to destroy ravens and other inedible species, like red kites. </p>
<p>The closest thing to a protection law which exists is in the Grain Act (1566), which set bounties on the heads of most of our wildlife for pest control. This act included an exception: bounties would not be paid for ravens and red kites found in towns and cities, which meant that no one would benefit from hunting the urban scavengers.</p>
<p>But why were their populations in London preserved for so long? John Taylor, known as the Water Poet – a celebrity Londoner of the 17th century – gives a more convincing reason for why people put up with the birds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ravens, kites, crows, and many other birds of prey, are tolerated to live unhurt, not for any good that is in themselves, but because they do good offices in devouring and carrying away our garbage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Londoners living in a time of unreliable waste disposal and plague epidemics seemed to value the industrious carrion-eating birds for the relative cleanliness they afforded. Today, we might even say they performed a useful ecosystem service by contributing to the city’s sanitation. Ravens and red kites in turn seem to have loved the messy, bustling London streets. They fitted in perfectly. Perhaps they didn’t need legal protection.</p>
<p>Ravens and red kites were lost from London in the 18th century and were soon eradicated across most of the rest of Britain. Improvements in sanitation, bounty hunting outside of the city, and the felling of trees may all have played a part in their departure from the capital’s skies.</p>
<p>But today, 300 years later, things are looking better. Ravens and red kites have recovered much of their lost range and the birds have even started to return to London, with both birds now occasionally nesting <a href="https://lnhs.org.uk/images/publications/LBR2016/LBR-2016-corrected.pdf">within the city limits</a>. Can Londoners, ravens and red kites learn to live together again?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Raye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Plague-wary Londoners tolerated mischievous red kites and ravens for their services to the city’s sanitation.
Lee Raye, Associate Lecturer in Arts and Humanities, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139182
2021-01-11T15:43:00Z
2021-01-11T15:43:00Z
Peat bogs: restoring them could slow climate change – and revive a forgotten world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378044/original/file-20210111-19-rl935r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C385%2C5360%2C3185&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/scottish-shieling-hut-on-peat-bog-1811122417">Helen Hotson/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bogs, mires, fens and marshes – just their names seem to conjure myth and mystery. Though today, our interest in these waterlogged landscapes tends to be more prosaic. Because of a lack of oxygen, they can build up vast quantities of organic matter that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/peat">doesn’t decompose properly</a>. This is known as peat. Peatlands could contain as much as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03406-6">644 gigatons of carbon</a> – one-fifth of all the carbon stored in soil on Earth. Not bad for a habitat that stakes a claim to <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/peatlands-and-climate-change">just 3%</a> of the planet’s land surface.</p>
<p>Peatlands were once widespread throughout the UK, but many have been dug up, drained, burned, built on and converted to cropland, so their place in history <a href="http://richardlindsayartsandletters.org.uk/peatlands-are-as-important-as-forests-to-the-global-ecosystem-world-conservation-congress">has been forgotten</a>. But while most of the debate around using natural habitats to draw down carbon from the atmosphere concerns planting trees and reforestation, some ecologists argue that <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49074872#:%7E:text=Restoring%20peat%20moors%20degraded%20by,have%20been%20drained%20for%20farming.">a far better solution</a> lies in restoring the peatlands that people have spent centuries draining and destroying.</p>
<p>With the government now <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/936567/10_POINT_PLAN_BOOKLET.pdf">proposing</a> to do this across the UK, it’s worth unearthing the hidden heritage of these landscapes, and how they once fuelled daily life.</p>
<h2>The bare necessities</h2>
<p>The peat bogs that you find in temperate countries like the UK can be centuries or even thousands of years old. Over the course of their long history, peatlands have provided the necessities of life for communities nearby. In medieval Britain, people harvested peat from fens, heaths, moors and bogs which were carefully managed and protected as common land for all to use. </p>
<p>From all these habitats, people had the right to cut peat for fuel and as a building material. Peat blocks were used for building walls; turf was used for roofing; and peat provided excellent insulation for walls and under floors. In some cases, entire buildings were carved out of the deeper peat within the land itself. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two people load chunks of solid earth into a cart." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359992/original/file-20200925-22-19acn61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359992/original/file-20200925-22-19acn61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359992/original/file-20200925-22-19acn61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359992/original/file-20200925-22-19acn61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359992/original/file-20200925-22-19acn61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359992/original/file-20200925-22-19acn61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359992/original/file-20200925-22-19acn61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peat fuel dug in Ireland during a coal shortage, 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Rotherham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plants that grew in peatlands were also harvested. Cut willow, or “withies”, were used in construction, while reeds, sedges and rushes were used for thatching. And these habitats offered abundant grazing for livestock and wildfowl like geese, not to mention fish that thrived in ponds.</p>
<p>Peat turf smoulders gently, and helped keep some fires alight continuously for a century or more. The fuel is smoky and produces what became known as the “peat-reek” – a pungent smell that at least warded off the ubiquitous midges and mosquitoes.</p>
<p>These medieval wetlands were <a href="http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10857/">rife with malaria</a> – a disease introduced to England by the Romans – and known as the marsh ague. Those raised in the Cambridgeshire Fens obtained <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/207425184.pdf">a degree of immunity</a> to the disease, but suffered yellow jaundice due to the effects it wrought on their livers, and tended to be rather stunted in stature.</p>
<p>By the 19th and 20th centuries, traditional rights for commoners to freely use peatlands had been swept away by government acts of enclosure, which converted land into private property. Subsistence use morphed into commercial exploitation, and peat was sold door-to-door or at markets. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black-and-white aerial photo of rural fields." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359996/original/file-20200925-14-1sy5b6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The peat fields of Somerset, south-west England, 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Rotherham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Peat was taken as litter for the horses that powered growing towns and cities, and then for the war horses of the first world war. As the 20th century wore on, remaining peatlands were harvested on an industrial scale for compost to satisfy Britain’s burgeoning passion for gardening.</p>
<h2>The carbon record</h2>
<p>Despite their central role in the lives of our ancestors, peatlands have left little residue on our ideas of the past. So total was our collective amnesia around these important sites that a researcher in the 1950s shocked many by <a href="https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/2016/05/13/the-norfolk-broads-revealed-as-man-made-features-the-discoveries-of-dr-joyce-m-lambert/">disproving the idea</a> that the Norfolk Broads were a natural wilderness. Joyce Lambert of Cambridge University showed that the Broads – a network of rivers and lakes in the east of England – were actually excavated medieval peat deposits that were abandoned and flooded. Far from wild, this landscape was carved by human hands over many centuries. </p>
<p>The forgetfulness is particularly odd in Norfolk, where peat fuel was harvested in enormous quantities. Norwich, one of England’s major medieval cities, was fuelled by peat turf for centuries. Norwich Cathedral used 400,000 bricks of solid peat for fuel each year. This reached its peak in the 14th and 15th centuries, and amounted to over 80 million peat bricks burned over <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/187636a0">two centuries</a>.</p>
<p>Today, sites that were <a href="https://www.ukeconet.org/store/p741/The_History_of_Domestic_Peat_Fuel_Exploitation_in_Relation_to_Carbon_%2526_Climate_Change.html">entirely stripped of peat</a> are common throughout the UK. Where peatlands once dwarfed entire landscapes, there are large stretches where no peat bogs exist.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man digs turg near a pond with a horse and cart nearby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359986/original/file-20200925-22-pd6q3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359986/original/file-20200925-22-pd6q3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359986/original/file-20200925-22-pd6q3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359986/original/file-20200925-22-pd6q3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359986/original/file-20200925-22-pd6q3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359986/original/file-20200925-22-pd6q3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359986/original/file-20200925-22-pd6q3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In some areas, pockets of peatland are all that remain of once vast tracts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Rotherham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All this exploitation released carbon dioxide, stored for thousands of years, to the atmosphere. Scientists have calculated that peat digging on Thorne Moors near Doncaster caused about <a href="https://www.ukeconet.org/store/p742/ESTIMATION_OF_THE_CARBON_CONTENT_OF_THE_HUMBERHEAD_LEVELS_WETLANDS_OVER_TIME_-_The_case_of_Thorne_Moors.html">16.6 million tonnes</a> of carbon to leak to the atmosphere from the 16th century onwards. That’s more than the annual output of <a href="https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator">15 coal-fired power stations</a> today. Peat digging around the world could have <a href="https://www.ukeconet.org/store/p741/The_History_of_Domestic_Peat_Fuel_Exploitation_in_Relation_to_Carbon_%26_Climate_Change.html">influenced the global climate</a> before the industrial revolution.</p>
<p>Putting all of that carbon back will be a challenge, as many former bogs are farmed. Peat-rich soils in the lowland bread basket of the UK supply the bulk of its domestically grown crops – and continue to haemorrhage carbon to the atmosphere. These arable farms on converted temperate peatlands are estimated to release <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/global-status-of-peatlands-and-their-role-in-carbon-cycling-a-report-for-friends-of-the-earth/oclc/60015973">41 tonnes of carbon dioxide</a> per hectare per year. And agriculture experts believe the fertility of these soils is being exhausted, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/24/uk-30-40-years-away-eradication-soil-fertility-warns-michael-gove">fewer than 50 harvests left</a> in the peat-fen countryside across much of lowland England.</p>
<p>With so much demand on the land, from growing food, to building houses and generating energy, it’s tempting to ask why we should make room for peatlands. But peatlands once provided all of these things and more. Recasting them as an ally in the fight against climate change only scratches the surface of their future usefulness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian D. Rotherham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The UK’s marshes, bogs and fens provided the bare necessities of daily life for many centuries.
Ian D. Rotherham, Professor of Environmental Geography and Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change, Sheffield Hallam University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151932
2020-12-23T15:10:59Z
2020-12-23T15:10:59Z
How British people weathered exceptionally cold winters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375467/original/file-20201216-15-1q3av2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4966%2C4117&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">February 1969 afforded a spot of skiing for Nottingham residents.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Nottingham Post, courtesy: Nottingham Local Studies photographic collection</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As global temperatures rise, snowy winters could become <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55179603">a thing of the past</a> in much of the UK, according to a recent Met Office analysis. Aside from depriving schoolchildren of the sheer fun of a snow day, climate change could lead the popular imaginary of British winters into uncharted territory.</p>
<p>Throughout the UK’s history, some winters have left more of an impression than others. Bringing icy gales and thick blankets of snow, these winters have remained lodged in the cultural memory. Some fomented despair and unrest, while others seemed to freeze events entirely.</p>
<p>My research helps reveal how the environment and human actions entwine to shape history. By studying weather observations and stories carefully recorded in diaries, letters and newspapers, it’s possible to trace winter’s icy fingerprints on the human drama. Here are three examples of winters which profoundly affected life during pivotal moments in British history.</p>
<h2>‘Times are now alarming’: the winter of 1795</h2>
<p>During the winter of 1794-1795, temperatures struggled to climb above freezing, hovering at a daily average of 0.5°C. January 1795 was the coldest month ever recorded in the Central England Temperature series – the world’s longest-running record based on thermometer readings, drawn from various sites between Bristol, Lancashire and London. Mercury readings that month plummeted to an average of <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/qj.49710042511">-3.1°C</a>.</p>
<p>Major rivers throughout the UK froze and roads were made impassable by snow. Grain was already scarce thanks to a hot and dry summer in 1794, but Britain was at war with revolutionary France, too, which disrupted imports and raised food prices even higher. <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=gentlemans">The Gentlemen’s Magazine</a>, a popular periodical from the time, warned of “unprecedented inclemency”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>men are awefully [sic] contemplating an extraordinary and rapid succession of momentous events.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps it was fear of insurrection that inspired charity among Britain’s noblemen. Land agent William Gould’s diary entry for January 21 1795 notes that he was instructed to give money, coal, beef and bread to the hungry around the Duke of Portland’s Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire. Elsewhere in the county, Reverend Samuel Hopkinson bought peat turf (a kind of fuel) to distribute to the poor on behalf of Earl Fitzwilliam. </p>
<p>Tensions did not subside with the thaw: scarcity and high food prices contributed to bread riots across the country in the following spring. “Times are now alarming”, reported the Clipston Paris Register on May 1 1795.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A contemporary illustration of a French food riot in 1789." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376551/original/file-20201223-13-iho8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376551/original/file-20201223-13-iho8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376551/original/file-20201223-13-iho8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376551/original/file-20201223-13-iho8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376551/original/file-20201223-13-iho8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376551/original/file-20201223-13-iho8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376551/original/file-20201223-13-iho8y0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The spectre of revolution haunted Britain’s long winter of 1795.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_riot#/media/File:A_Versailles,_%C3%A0_Versailles_5_octobre_1789_-_Restoration.jpg">Gallica Digital Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ‘almost Arctic severity’ of 1895</h2>
<p>Picture the classic Victorian Christmas scene. Snow covers the cobbles and candles flicker atop icy lampposts. Whatever you’re imagining, it’s almost certainly a homage to December 1894. Despite arriving in the twilight of Queen Victoria’s reign, the long winter imbues popular depictions of festive periods in the Victorian era – the backdrop to the redemption of Ebeneezer Scrooge.</p>
<p>Church records from Norfolk note that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The winter of 1894-5 was very long and cold. The frost began the last week in December 1894 and continued without interruption to the end of the third week in February… The ground was covered with snow all the time. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Worcestershire Record Office noted February’s “almost Arctic severity”. The Victoria Relief Fund was established and soup kitchens were set up in various parishes, foreshadowing social reforms that would confront poverty in subsequent decades.</p>
<p>At the Leicester and Rutland Record Office, a notebook recovered from an inspector visiting various schools in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to monitor lessons reveals snippets of the winter’s frivolities.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At Cowes, there was floating ice in the harbour for a long way… the Severn was skateable a little sooner than the Thames… men rode their bicycles across the latter.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At Linslade School, Market Harborough, one unfortunate pupil ended up </p>
<blockquote>
<p>with his tongue frozen to the iron handrails of the entrance steps… It appears the boy was trying the experiment, having read of a similar occurrence at Peterborough.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old photograph of a frozen river, taken on February 16 1895." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375246/original/file-20201215-13-1tem96g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cyclists cross the frozen River Trent in Nottingham.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections Ref. MS 258/3 (06-0119m)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ‘new-fashioned winter’ of 1940</h2>
<p>The winters of 1947 and 1963 linger as some of the most severe that people in the UK have weathered in living memory. But the winter of 1939-1940 was one of the coldest on record, and it arrived as the country anxiously contemplated another war in Europe.</p>
<p>The diary of Mary Elizabeth King charts farming life in Whittington, Staffordshire during this period, which became known as “the phoney war”. Sandwiched between the outbreak of war in autumn 1939 and the Nazi blitzkrieg of spring 1940, King’s commentaries on weather, wartime and the challenges of everyday life provide a sense of calm amid the gathering storm. </p>
<p>Below are excerpts from January 11 to February 13 1940:</p>
<p>January 11 </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The air is so clear, the skies are so high and the scenery shows such erudite beauty in the hoary frost – every bough and branch holds the magic of a fairy touch…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>January 18 </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The wintry weather continues throughout Europe. There is snow on Vesuvius… The Russian invaders of Finland have retreated for the time being, owing to severity of weather.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five Finnish soldiers in winter gear man a machine gun nest surrounded by snow." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376552/original/file-20201223-13-14ltawk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376552/original/file-20201223-13-14ltawk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376552/original/file-20201223-13-14ltawk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376552/original/file-20201223-13-14ltawk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376552/original/file-20201223-13-14ltawk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376552/original/file-20201223-13-14ltawk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376552/original/file-20201223-13-14ltawk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The harsh weather froze hostilities in Europe, but Finland’s Winter War with Russia raged on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War#/media/File:A_Finnish_Maxim_M-32_machine_gun_nest_during_the_Winter_War.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>February 1 </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The doors and walls of the house are like clear glass. The rain has frozen on them as it has fallen. The branches of the trees are iced in the same way… There is a height of snow – level two to three feet… Oh – it is a wonderful sight.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>February 13 </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The snow lies very hard and solid all around… The Postman came today for the first time since the snowfall, bringing with him a letter from Mercie - She says “People say it is an old-fashioned winter”. I think it is a new-fashioned winter – we have never seen the like of it before…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Britain’s winters become <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-snow-days-are-becoming-increasingly-rare-in-the-uk-152038">progressively milder</a>, people may never see the like of 1940 again. But these descriptive accounts and first-hand testimonials unveil the power of climate change over human lifetimes – and hint at the role weather will continue to play in Britain’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgina Endfield receives funding from The Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>
Food shortages, festivities and far-off fighting – Britain’s coldest winters were among its most memorable.
Georgina Endfield, Professor of Environmental History, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150324
2020-11-20T13:50:17Z
2020-11-20T13:50:17Z
How medieval Christian ideology changed the Polish environment forever – new study
<p>Few would seriously dispute that human activities are causing <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/climate-change-27">climate change</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/ecosystem-collapse-24931">destroying ecosystems</a>. It’s less understood why people do these things despite knowing the consequences, and why we seem unable to stop. </p>
<p>Human disruption of natural systems is nothing new, and nor are the ideologies and political and economic systems that drive it. A new study <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75692-4">published in Nature</a> captured a moment in history when a small society of people transitioned from one way of living to another, transforming the world around them as a result.</p>
<p>Researchers discovered the rapid destruction of pristine forest to make room for cereal agriculture in 14th-century Poland by looking at information stored in peat bogs. Deforestation accelerated sharply when management of the land was taken over by the Order of St John – knights who had taken religious vows, fought in the crusades and helped <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9R0fmcWVJAgC&q=poland#v=onepage&q=the%20polish%20cases%20are%3A%20the%20grant%20of%20land&f=false">colonise central</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_m-FAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=hoffmann+environmental+history&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO8Ijklo_tAhVNURUIHbZxCxAQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=in%20western%20polish%20lands&f=false">eastern Europe</a>. </p>
<p>Also known as the Joannites, their concern was maximising profits from their new estates, believing it a moral duty to “clear” landscapes and make them “productive”. They set peasants to work uprooting trees, turning the bare soil with heavy plows and iron harrows, and planting cereal crops.</p>
<h2>Deforestation and serfdom</h2>
<p>The research was carried out near Łagów, in western Poland, in an area of peatland that has been a nature reserve since 1970. <a href="https://theconversation.com/bogs-are-unique-records-of-history-heres-why-100627">Peat bogs</a> are damp, acidic and low-oxygen environments that are hostile to <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/archaeology/peat-bogs-are-freakishly-good-at-preserving-human-remains.htm">bacteria and fungi</a>. As a result, plant matter can accumulate here for centuries without decomposing. Researchers took peat core samples and used radiocarbon dating to establish a chronology of events. They analysed pollen, spores, charcoal particles, plant remains, and the single-celled organisms that inhabit the soil, which provided detailed evidence of environmental change. With surviving medieval written records and archaeological remains from the period, as well as evidence from documentary archives, the researchers charted the distribution, density and character of human settlements at the time.</p>
<p>With great clarity, the results showed how the onset of rapid deforestation affected the surrounding wetlands. From 500 AD onwards, the evidence alluded to a mixed broadleaf forest of hornbeam, oak, birch, beech, pine and alder, surrounding a wet alkaline fen. The numbers of each tree species and the density of the forest appeared largely stable until the arrival of the Order in 1350. At that point, sharp changes were discernible. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sunlit bog with tree saplings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Pawski Ług peatland, now dominated by Sphagnum moss since the loss of pristine forest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75692-4">Mariusz Lamentowicz</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The green algae that thrived in the fen disappeared totally by about 1400, to be replaced by peat moss. Evidence for hornbeam, previously the most prevalent tree, together with birch, beech and alder, drastically fell over the same period. The only tree that prospered was pine, which dominated in the record as the other trees disappeared. Cereals were present from the beginning of the record, but their quantity suddenly increased from 1350. Coprophilous fungi, which grows on animal dung, wasn’t discernible before then, but makes its appearance around 1400, coinciding with the rise of animal husbandry. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the destruction of the old broadleaf forests and the resulting soil erosion caused the fen wetlands to acidify, and eventually transform into peat bogs. The destruction of one habitat irrevocably altered another.</p>
<p>When the Order arrived in 1350, they enlarged the castle, built houses for servants and artisans, and created a commercial hub for the surrounding villages. Written records show how the land was parcelled among the peasant farmers who worked it for their feudal landlords, the Joannites. The peasants had to finance local churches and priests. Large farms were established with new farming practices such as three-field crop rotation. This all generated enough money to support the aristocratic knights, together with the priests, their church building, and perhaps more besides.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small castle with a single turret sits amid trees at dusk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The castle in Łagów, 2 kilometres from the peatland, which served as the Joannite headquarters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75692-4">Ryszard Orzechowski</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lost connections</h2>
<p>The study traced the ecology of the region of Łagów from 500 AD, but evidence of permanent human settlements goes back as far as 1300 BC. For more than two millennia, humans managed to live in the region without deforesting it. What changed? Above all else, human ideologies.</p>
<p>Prior to being enveloped in the Christian kingdom of Poland from the late 10th century, and no doubt for some time afterwards, the Slavic communities who lived in the area were “pagan” – a pejorative label used by Christian authorities. Whatever worldviews or practices it might once have described were so thoroughly and violently erased that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00214.x">we cannot recover them</a> with any confidence. </p>
<p>We do know that, in Christian eyes, pagans were too close to the natural world, too deferential to trees, springs, rivers and rocks. The archetypal image of the conversion of pagans east of the Rhine is that of the evangelising monk, St Boniface, hacking down an ancient and revered oak tree. In this story, the local population is so dismayed and awed as the tree crashes down that they immediately convert to Christianity. Boniface uses the wood of the tree to make a chapel. The alliance of warriors and missionaries intent on integrating the region and its natural resources into the Frankish Empire achieves another propaganda coup.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An engraving depicting a bearded man swinging an axe at an oak tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bonifatius Donareiche fells Donar’s Oak in an engraving from 1781.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Boniface#/media/File:Bonifatius_Donareiche.jpg">Bernhard Rode/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the past, our understanding of “Christianisation” depended on such celebratory stories. They formed the foundation myths of modern Europe: a continent unified through conversion to a shared religion and a culture that harked back to imperial Rome. These ideologies underwrote later European colonialism, connecting notions of “progress” and “enlightenment” with rendering landscapes profitable to humans. Their potency has made us blind to reality. </p>
<p>This study shows vividly and poignantly that such ideas are, and always have been, inseparable from their environmental consequences. Through its findings, we can see the precise ecological effects of the replacement of an old, sustainable, “pagan” way of living in the forests and wetlands of the Łagów region. What we thought was profit turns out to be mostly loss.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Power does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Historians and scientists discovered how colonisation in eastern Europe changed ecosystems – and the societies embedded in them.
Amanda Power, Associate Professor of Medieval History, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131857
2020-02-25T09:57:05Z
2020-02-25T09:57:05Z
To prepare climate strikers for the future, we need to rewrite the history books
<p>If radical action to reduce emissions isn’t taken in the next decade or so, many of today’s schoolchildren could live in a world that’s <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-worst-climate-scenarios-may-no-longer-be-the-most-likely/">3°C or 4°C hotter</a> by the time they enter their later years. Their working lives would be defined by <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-means-more-extreme-weather-heres-what-the-uk-can-expect-if-emissions-keep-increasing-112745">routine weather extremes</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-climate-is-like-reckless-banking-before-the-crash-its-time-to-talk-about-near-term-collapse-128374">widespread crop failures</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sea-level-rise-is-inevitable-but-what-we-do-today-can-still-prevent-catastrophe-for-coastal-regions-124129">catastrophic sea-level rise</a>.</p>
<p>With such grim prospects, the natural question facing young people is how did we get here? School climate strikers and the student-led <a href="https://www.teachthefuture.uk/">Teach the Future</a> campaign have called for wholesale reform of the education system to help answer this, and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-51492942">prepare the younger generation</a> for facing a future of intensifying climate and ecological crisis. </p>
<p>But the UK currently has <a href="https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/i6swtiz9ta/YG-Archive-02012020-OxfamClimateCrisis.pdf">no formal training</a> or support for teachers to carry out “climate education”. There is so little space in the curriculum that some schools teach it in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-social-health-and-economic-education-pshe">PSHE</a>, along with sex education, or “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/education/spiritual-moral-social-and-cultural-development">British values</a>”. Without clear guidance, schools might use materials <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/ranking-members-of-nat-resources-science-and-ed-and-workforce-committees-condemn-group-misleading-students-on-climate-science">designed to mislead students</a> about the science. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-narrate-a-history-beyond-the-triumph-of-humanity-to-find-imaginative-solutions-109819">Climate change: narrate a history beyond the 'triumph of humanity' to find imaginative solutions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The situation is now so bad that simply telling the truth about the climate crisis in the classroom also raises serious questions about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/feb/16/my-teenager-doesnt-see-the-point-of-life-is-it-my-fault-for-talking-politics-mariella-frostrup">the effect on a child’s mental health</a>. Parents could be forgiven for not wanting their children to hear it.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.thoughtboxeducation.com/climatecurriculum">even</a> a <a href="https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/CFS_Climate_E_web.pdf">curriculum</a> that <a href="https://www.educcateglobal.org/?fbclid=IwAR2pC1_iV1wCtnhsLPDlpklnC-QsoNGGciiYCU-3_shHqXG1nxuO6_MRnh8">offers</a> a better grasp of the facts of climate change and opportunities to reconnect with the natural world might not be effective on its own. Climate action will require fundamental and rapid changes in all spheres of life. Children need to know why we are in this situation, and what must come next. </p>
<p>Teachers have a crucial role to play in this process. They will have to help young people critique and rethink the deeply ingrained assumptions, attitudes and expectations that run throughout history, and now endanger much of life on Earth. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316209/original/file-20200219-10995-21gq47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316209/original/file-20200219-10995-21gq47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316209/original/file-20200219-10995-21gq47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316209/original/file-20200219-10995-21gq47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316209/original/file-20200219-10995-21gq47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316209/original/file-20200219-10995-21gq47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316209/original/file-20200219-10995-21gq47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The industrial revolution is often considered the starting point for mankind’s deviation towards destruction – but the roots go far deeper.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#/media/File:Griffiths'_Guide_to_the_iron_trade_of_Great_Britain_an_elaborate_review_of_the_iron_(and)_coal_trades_for_last_year,_addresses_and_names_of_all_ironmasters,_with_a_list_of_blast_furnaces,_iron_(14761790294).jpg">Samuel Griffiths/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Climate in the classroom</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study#key-stage-3">history curriculum</a> in the UK doesn’t list climate change among its examples of “challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day”. Human history isn’t considered to have significant environmental contexts or consequences, despite the fact that modern life is a product of the energy bonanza provided by fossil fuels.</p>
<p>A major problem with public understanding of the current predicament is that most information and interpretation comes from the sciences. Scientists can explain what is happening and make projections for what might happen in the future. It isn’t part of their discipline to know why human societies have made the choices that have taken us to this point. Yet contemporary climate and environmental crises are the products of human activity.</p>
<p>History is usually taught and imagined as a sequence of events through which human societies advanced from primitive technologies and patterns of social organisation to their current, highly complex and sophisticated state. These events are usually described as “developments”, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-narrate-a-history-beyond-the-triumph-of-humanity-to-find-imaginative-solutions-109819">or even as “progress”</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/european-colonisation-of-the-americas-killed-10-of-world-population-and-caused-global-cooling-110549">European colonisation of the Americas killed 10% of world population and caused global cooling</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When history is taught like this, students are left without any way of understanding why human societies and ecosystems are suddenly on the brink of collapse. There is no frame of reference for what, by any standards, is actually a vast, escalating failure of human choices. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316213/original/file-20200219-10980-1qir6my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316213/original/file-20200219-10980-1qir6my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316213/original/file-20200219-10980-1qir6my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316213/original/file-20200219-10980-1qir6my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316213/original/file-20200219-10980-1qir6my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316213/original/file-20200219-10980-1qir6my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316213/original/file-20200219-10980-1qir6my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The road to progress? Workers lay the first North American ‘macadam’ road in Maryland, US, 1823.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#/media/File:Rakeman_%E2%80%93_First_American_Macadam_Road.jpg">Carl Rakeman/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many large-scale human societies have failed to grasp the realities of life on a finite planet. Much of what these societies have done has been based on wilful blindness to the effects of exploitation. This fundamental ignorance has persisted and <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072343">in some ways grown</a> over the centuries, <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/if-we-talk-about-hurting-our-planet-who-exactly-is-the-we">even as technology has advanced</a>.</p>
<p>A climate history curriculum should unpick concepts like “development”, and basic assumptions about what “progess” looks like. When the climate crisis is taught as a byproduct of the modern world, it hides the deep history of human activities and value systems that continue to shape the present day. </p>
<h2>How we got here</h2>
<p>Over the centuries, powerful states tended to exhaust the resources of surrounding <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Deforesting_the_Earth.html?id=bDrV3F6TYCMC&redir_esc=y">landscapes</a>, producing sharp social hierarchies and celebrating the “victories” of male warrior <a href="https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/a-brief-introduction-to-the-art-of-ancient-assyrian-kings/">elites</a>. Written accounts of these battles and wars, and their politics, are the traditional core of historical study. </p>
<p>Students could instead think about how societies over the centuries have obtained, organised and used resources, and what the consequences have been for human inequality and the <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-05-roman-polluted-european-air-heavily.html">environment</a>. They should learn about modern European empires through their vast capture of human and environmental resources by conquest and colonisation. They need to understand how this related to industrialisation, and how exploiting racialised slave labour, and increasingly, fossil fuels, generated the energy that fuelled modernisation and the affluent lifestyles of today. </p>
<p>Accompanying this should be a much clearer view of what was lost in these processes. European ideas about land management displaced localised and ecologically appropriate practices, with disastrous, ongoing consequences for indigenous populations and colonised ecosystems. The greatest biodiversity today is <a href="https://theconversation.com/bolivia-contribution-of-indigenous-people-to-fighting-climate-change-is-hanging-by-a-thread-129399">found in areas managed by indigenous peoples</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-indigenous-cultures-is-crucial-for-saving-the-worlds-biodiversity-123716">Protecting indigenous cultures is crucial for saving the world’s biodiversity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Students could learn from the ways of living, <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ987714">thinking</a>, and <a href="https://ideamenulis.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/merriam-nonwestern-persp-learning-n-knowing.pdf">gaining knowledge</a> of different indigenous communities around the globe. Existing topics, such as the slave trade and the civil rights movement, would resonate differently to students who knew the continuing costs and consequences of empire.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C700%2C392&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C700%2C392&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287505/original/file-20190809-144851-dxuycj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous ways of living, including farming methods, are often more sustainable than their modern industrial equivalents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tuymihistoria.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR0JGt7rCejaBOVvpT8TIFLpUazKuvpDtKh5zTJhsWN4DfigfzldHFPAxwE">Blog de Historia General del Perú</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>History teaching could also look at <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-hastened-ancient-civilisations-collapse-study-17063">climate change in the past</a> and investigate how societies weathered environmental stress. Modern science could be recast as a tool that helps societies mitigate problems like climate change, rather than an engine of progress.</p>
<p>If today’s children are equipped with a deep and complex sense of how humans have inhabited environments, and the consequences for people and other species, they will understand the present situation far better, and make informed decisions about the future. They will be more resistant to arguments that prioritise economic growth over sustainability and social justice, and will have a clearer sense of how old power structures perpetuate modern problems. All of this is crucial to educating – and preparing – the climate strike generation.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1131857">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Power does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Instead of Tudors and Churchill, history students need to learn how civilisation has arrived at the point of no return.
Amanda Power, Associate Professor of Medieval History, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128071
2019-12-18T11:16:39Z
2019-12-18T11:16:39Z
How gardeners are reclaiming agriculture from industry, one seed at a time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306142/original/file-20191210-95120-rxl0aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Yy-dHQP-Ax0">Markus Spiske/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Agriculture has changed significantly in the past century. Bigger machines, bigger farms and bigger budgets allow fewer farmers to produce more food. Changes in science and policy have also resulted in an industry in which <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1337273">power over what we grow and eat</a> is increasingly held by very few.</p>
<p>Consider one of agriculture’s most basic inputs: the seed. Although there have long been farmers and merchants who specialised in growing and selling seeds, it wasn’t until the 20th century that people started talking about seed production as an industrial process. Thanks to changes in farming, science and government regulations, most of the “elite” seed that is bought and sold around the world today is mass produced and mass marketed — by just <a href="https://philhoward.net/2018/12/31/global-seed-industry-changes-since-2013/">four transnational corporations</a>.</p>
<p>This transition has made many people uneasy. As a result, a new movement is growing, one that aims to wrest power back through the renewal of an age-old agricultural task: setting aside some seeds from each season’s harvest to plant in the next. Community gardeners, home growers and small-scale farmers increasingly insist that seeds should be something <a href="https://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html">they produce themselves</a>, or get from a <a href="https://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/organise-a-seed-exchange">friend or neighbour</a>, rather than something they buy off the shelf. </p>
<p>For some, seed saving is a way of keeping history alive, for example by growing the vegetables their grandparents enjoyed. For others, it’s a way to save money, or to connect with their community. And today, it is increasingly a political statement – a choice that allows consumers to avoid fruits, vegetables and other foods produced at an industrial scale. Depending on the grower, it may even be all of these — <a href="https://seedsavers.net/shop/home/why-save-seeds/benefits-of-seed-saving/">and more</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306159/original/file-20191210-95111-1wr1kse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306159/original/file-20191210-95111-1wr1kse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306159/original/file-20191210-95111-1wr1kse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306159/original/file-20191210-95111-1wr1kse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306159/original/file-20191210-95111-1wr1kse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306159/original/file-20191210-95111-1wr1kse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306159/original/file-20191210-95111-1wr1kse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Seed saving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/packet-seeds-on-wooden-background-467518892">Eddgars/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Many seed savers are motivated by the idea that their actions contribute to keeping diverse crop varieties from disappearing, especially those ignored by industrial farms or commercial seed companies in their pursuit of profit. Organisations such as the <a href="https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl">Heritage Seed Library</a> (UK) and the <a href="https://www.seedsavers.org/">Seed Savers Exchange</a> (US), and the growers they represent, routinely connect the individual acts of growing, storing and sharing seed with a global conservation mission. In cultivating awareness of this connection, they have transformed a timeless task into a powerful political act.</p>
<p>So how exactly did this transformation occur? New historical research shows that concerned <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjhs-themes/article/from-bean-collection-to-seed-bank-transformations-in-heirloom-vegetable-conservation-19701985/1D973B01429B782FDB86B9206559C456">citizens and organisations</a> worked hard to <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cuag.12239">make it happen</a>.</p>
<h2>Vanishing vegetables</h2>
<p>The Heritage Seed Library, today a part of the British non-profit <a href="https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/">Garden Organic</a>, offers a case in point. This collection of 800 or so local and rare vegetable varieties has its roots in a campaign to save endangered vegetables that Garden Organic launched in the 1970s, back when it was known as the <a href="https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/our-history">Henry Doubleday Research Association</a>, or HDRA.</p>
<p>At the time, the HDRA was well established as source of expert advice on organic gardening in Britain. Its director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_D._Hills">Lawrence Hills</a> had founded the organisation in 1954 to encourage gardeners to experiment with natural pest deterrents, green manures and other alternatives to the synthetic chemicals that were becoming common in agriculture. </p>
<p>Among the many subjects on which the HDRA offered advice from its earliest days was helping “own growers” — backyard gardeners, allotment holders, and others growing food to eat themselves — to decide what varieties to plant. Hills was adamant that newer types of tomatoes, carrots and green beans lacked the flavours of earlier generations and performed worse in small-scale cultivation.</p>
<p>He was therefore dismayed to learn in the early 1970s that changes in British agricultural regulations would make it difficult for seed companies to sell “old-fashioned varieties”. He feared, rightly, that the small market for such seeds would not justify the price that a company would now have to pay to register these for legal sale. If seed companies weren’t stocking them – and growers accustomed to buying their seed weren’t saving them – these old-fashioned varieties would simply disappear.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306160/original/file-20191210-95138-otkjdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306160/original/file-20191210-95138-otkjdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306160/original/file-20191210-95138-otkjdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306160/original/file-20191210-95138-otkjdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306160/original/file-20191210-95138-otkjdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306160/original/file-20191210-95138-otkjdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306160/original/file-20191210-95138-otkjdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Official seed packets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/england-uk-january-25-2012-woman-223745686">Caron Badkin/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>In a 1975 letter to the Times, Hills announced an initiative of the HDRA intended to address this impending extinction crisis: establishing a collection of Europe’s “vanishing vegetables” at the HDRA. </p>
<h2>From bank to library</h2>
<p>Hills asked fellow gardeners to help him locate as many uncommon varieties as possible. Ambitious as it was, that collection was only the start.</p>
<p>The HDRA soon began a campaign to start a “seed bank”. Hills envisioned that this long-term storage facility would gather and preserve vegetable varieties from around the world. In this sense, it would be just like a few already existing <a href="https://www.genebanks.org/genebanks/">international seed banks</a>, which ensured that diverse seeds would be available for plant breeders in the future. Unlike those seed banks (also called “genebanks”), the vegetable collection that Hills imagined would have a public-facing component, a “seed library” that any grower, regardless of professional expertise, would be able to access.</p>
<p>Both seed bank and seed library eventually came to fruition, though not in a single institution. When it became apparent during planning that a government-supported <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/wcc/gru/genebank/">Vegetable Gene Bank</a> would mainly serve professional researchers, Hills and HDRA staff organised The Heritage Vegetable Seed Library for Research and Experiment — later shortened to the Heritage Seed Library — to serve the needs of ordinary gardeners. Launched in February 1978, the library gave away seed of its rare varieties to subscribing members. </p>
<p>The Heritage Seed Library was the more innovative of the two projects, and arguably the more transformative of British vegetable conservation in the long term. This was because it emphasised the need for the active participation of individual gardeners to to achieve conservation goals. The library only functioned with the help of “<a href="https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/seed-guardians">seed guardians</a>” who helped keep it stocked with seed. HDRA also encouraged library users to learn how to save their own seed.</p>
<p>Together with other HDRA initiatives, the seed library helped cement the idea that conservation of vegetable diversity would only succeed through the commitment of ordinary gardeners to purchasing, growing, saving and circulating seeds of useful or delicious varieties.</p>
<p>Today, many home and allotment garderners who save seeds see themselves as protectors of endangered plants – and their gardens as repositories of important biodiversity. They believe that their stewardship of vegetable diversity contributes to the possibilities for a better, fairer global food system in the future. The history of the HDRA reminds us that there was — and still is — work involved in connecting these individual acts of seed saving to the future of the world’s food.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Anne Curry receives funding from the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the Wellcome Trust.</span></em></p>
Saving seed is a way of protecting the world’s vegetable varieties, saving money, and increasingly, a political statement too.
Helen Anne Curry, Peter Lipton Senior Lecturer in History of Modern Science and Technology, University of Cambridge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/125489
2019-10-31T18:54:05Z
2019-10-31T18:54:05Z
Friday essay: thinking like a planet - environmental crisis and the humanities
<p>Many of us joined the Global Climate Strike on Friday, 20 September, and together we constituted half a million Australians gathering peacefully and walking the streets of our cities and towns to protest at government inaction in the face of the gravest threat human civilisation has faced. </p>
<p>It was a global strike, but its Australian manifestation had a particular twist, for our own federal government is an international pariah on this issue. We have become the Ugly Australians, led by brazen climate deniers who trash the science and snub the UN Climate Summit. </p>
<p>Government politicians in Canberra constantly tell us the Great Barrier Reef is fine, coal is good for humanity, Pacific islands are floating not being flooded, wind turbines are obscene, power blackouts are due to renewables, “drought-proofing” is urgent but “climate-change” has nothing to do with it, science is a conspiracy, climate protesters are a “scourge” who deserve to be punished and jailed, the ABC spins the weather, the Bureau of Meteorology requires a royal commission, the United Nations is a bully, if we have to have emissions targets, well, we are exceeding them, and Australia is so insignificant in the world it doesn’t have to act anyway. </p>
<p>It’s a wilful barrage of lies, an insult to the public, a threat to civil society, and an extraordinary attack on our intelligence by our own elected representatives.</p>
<p>The international Schools4Climate movement is remarkable because it is led by children, teenagers still at school advocating a future they hope to have. I can’t think of another popular protest movement in world history led by children. This could be a transformative moment in global politics; it certainly needs to be. The active presence of so many engaged children gave the rally a spirit and a lightness in spite of its grim subject; there was a sense of fun, a family feeling about the occasion, but there was a steely resolve too. </p>
<p>A girl in a school uniform standing next to me at the rally held a copy of George Orwell’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-orwells-1984-and-how-it-helps-us-understand-tyrannical-power-today-112066">1984</a> in her hands. Many of the people around me would normally expect to see in the 22nd century. Their power, paradoxically, is they are not voters. They didn’t elect this government! They are protesting not just against the governments of the world but also against us adults, who did elect these politicians or who abide them. There was a moment at the rally when, with the mysterious organic coherence crowds possess, the older protesters stepped aside, parting like a wave, and formed a guard of honour through the centre of which the children marched holding their placards, their leadership acknowledged.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-orwells-1984-and-how-it-helps-us-understand-tyrannical-power-today-112066">Guide to the classics: Orwell's 1984 and how it helps us understand tyrannical power today</a>
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<p>One placard declared: “You’ll die of old age; I’ll die of climate change”; another said: “If Earth were cool, I’d be in school.” One held up a large School Report Card with subject results: “Ethics X, Responsibility X, Climate Action X. Needs to try harder.” Another explained: “You skip summits, we skip school.” </p>
<p>In Melbourne, as elsewhere, teenagers gave the speeches; and they were passionate and eloquent. The demands of the movement are threefold: no new coal, oil and gas projects; 100% renewable energy generation and exports by 2030; and fund a just transition and job creation for all fossil-fuel workers and communities. There were also Indigenous speakers. One declared: “We stand for you too, when we stand for Country.”</p>
<p>There were 150,000 people in the Melbourne Treasury Gardens, a crowd so large responsive cheers rippled like a Mexican wave up the hill from the speakers. I reflected on the historical parallels for what was unfolding, recalling the Vietnam moratorium demonstrations and the marches against the first Gulf War, the Freedom Rides and the civil rights movement, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the suffragettes’ campaigns. </p>
<p>Inspired by this history, we now have the <a href="https://theconversation.com/extinction-rebellion-im-an-academic-embracing-direct-action-to-stop-climate-change-107037">Extinction Rebellion</a>, a movement born in a small British town late last year which declares “only non-violent rebellion can now stop climate breakdown and social collapse”. Within six months, through civil disobedience, it brought central London to a standstill and the United Kingdom became the first country to declare a climate emergency. We are at a political tipping point.</p>
<p>In Australia, the result of this year’s election tells us there is no accountability for probably the most dysfunctional and discredited federal government in our history, and now we are left with a parliament unwilling to act on so many vital national and international issues. The 2019 federal election was no status quo outcome, as some political commentators have declared. Rather, it was a radical result, revealing deep structural flaws in our parliamentary democracy, our media culture and our political discourse. For me it ranks with two other elections in my voting lifetime: the “dark victory” of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/issues-that-swung-elections-tampa-and-the-national-security-election-of-2001-115143">2001 Tampa election</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-gough-whitlams-dismissal-as-prime-minister-74148">1975 constitutional crisis</a>. Like those earlier dates, 2019 could shape and shadow a generation. It is time to get out on the streets again.</p>
<h2>Skolstrejk för klimatet</h2>
<p>The founder, symbol and the voice of the School Strike movement is, of course, Greta Thunberg. It is just over a year since August 2018 when she began to spend every Friday away from class sitting outside the Swedish parliament with a handmade sign declaring “School Strike for the Climate”. </p>
<p>When she told her parents about her plans, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/mbzg8q/the-climate-change-deniers-trying-to-discredit-greta-thunberg">she reported</a> “they weren’t very fond of it”. Addressing the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2018, <a href="https://youtu.be/HzeekxtyFOY">she said</a>: “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to your children.” Thunberg <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/21/greta-thunberg-tells-eu-your-greenhouse-gas-targets-are-too-low">quietly invokes</a> the carbon budget and the galling fact there is already so much carbon in the system “there is simply not enough time to wait for us to grow up and become the ones in charge.” </p>
<p>In late September, Thunberg gave a powerful presentation at the UN Climate Summit; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/26/greta-thunbergs-495-word-un-speech-points-us-to-a-future-of-hope-or-despair">Richard Flanagan compared</a> her 495-word UN speech to Abraham Lincoln’s 273-word Gettysburg Address. It’s a reasonable parallel that reaches for some understanding of the enormity of this political moment.</p>
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<p>It is sickening to see the speed with which privileged old white men have rushed to pour bile on this young woman. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin quickly recognised her power and sought to neutralise and patronise her. Scott Morrison chimed in. Australia’s locker room of shock jocks laced the criticism with some misogyny. It’s amazing how they froth at the mouth about a calm and articulate schoolgirl. They are all – directly or indirectly – in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/misogyny-male-rage-and-the-words-men-use-to-describe-greta-thunberg-124347">Misogyny, male rage and the words men use to describe Greta Thunberg</a>
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<h2>Denialism</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/weather-and-mind-games/">Denialism is worthy of study</a>. I don’t mean the conscious and fraudulent denialism of politicians and shock-jocks such as those I’ve mentioned. That’s pretty simple stuff – lies motivated by opportunism, greed and personal advancement, and funded by the carbon-polluting industries. It is appalling but boring. </p>
<p>There are more interesting forms of denialism, such as the emotional denialism we all inhabit. Emotional denialism in the face of the unthinkable can take many forms – avoidance, hope, anxiety, even a kind of torpor when people truly begin to understand what will happen to the world of their grandchildren. We are all prone to this willing blindness and comforting self-delusion. Overcoming that is our greatest challenge.</p>
<p>And there is a third kind of denialism that should especially interest scholars. It is when some of our own kind – scholars trained to respect evidence – fashion themselves as sceptics, but are actually dogged contrarians.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-three-types-of-climate-change-denier-and-most-of-us-are-at-least-one-124574">There are three types of climate change denier, and most of us are at least one</a>
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<p>One example is Niall Ferguson, a Scottish historian and professor of history at Harvard University, who calls climate science “science fiction” and recently joined the ranks of old, white, privileged men commenting on the appearance of Greta Thunberg. I’m not arguing here with Ferguson’s politics – he is an arch-conservative and I do disagree with his politics, but I also believe engaged, reflective politics can drive good history. </p>
<p>Rather, Ferguson’s disregard for evidence and neglect of science and scholarship attracts my attention. His understanding of climate science and climate history is poor: in a <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/09/02/ignore-greta-thunberg-science-fiction-end-world-not-nigh/ercNfQ9axB3g10MODcCmbJ/story.html">recent article in the Boston Globe</a> he assumed the Little Ice Age started in the 17th century, whereas its beginning <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/01/how-the-little-ice-age-changed-history">was three centuries earlier</a>. </p>
<p>How does a trained scholar, a professor of history, get themselves in this ignominious position? For Ferguson, contrarianism has been a productive intellectual strategy – going against the flow of fashion is a good scholarly instinct – but on climate change his politics and the truth have steadily travelled in different directions and caught him out. We can say the same of Geoffrey Blainey, another successful contrarian who has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/radical-historian-blainey-challenges-climate-change-orthodoxy-20190705-p524e8.html">cornered himself on climate change</a>. Like Ferguson he appears uninterested in decades of significant research in environmental history – and thus his healthy scepticism has morphed into foolish denialism.</p>
<p>Denialism matters because all kinds of it have delayed our global political response to climate change by 30 years. In those critical decades since the 1980s, when humans first understood the urgency of the climate crisis, total historical carbon emissions <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#cumulative-co2-emissions">since the industrial revolution have doubled</a>. And still global emissions are rising, every year. </p>
<p>The physics of this process are inexorable – and so simple, as Greta would say, even a child can understand. We are already committing ourselves to two degrees of warming, possibly three or four. Denialists have, knowingly and with malice aforethought, condemned future generations to what Tim Flannery calls a “grim winnowing”. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gloves-are-off-predatory-climate-deniers-are-a-threat-to-our-children-123594">Flannery wrote recently</a> “the climate crisis has now grown so severe that the actions of the denialists have turned predatory: they are now an immediate threat to our children.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gloves-are-off-predatory-climate-deniers-are-a-threat-to-our-children-123594">The gloves are off: 'predatory' climate deniers are a threat to our children</a>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298051/original/file-20191022-28120-1n2504x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298051/original/file-20191022-28120-1n2504x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298051/original/file-20191022-28120-1n2504x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298051/original/file-20191022-28120-1n2504x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298051/original/file-20191022-28120-1n2504x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298051/original/file-20191022-28120-1n2504x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298051/original/file-20191022-28120-1n2504x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The history of denialism alerts us to a disastrous paradox: the very moment, in the 1980s, when it became clear global warming was a collective predicament of humanity, we turned away politically from the idea of the collective, with dire consequences. Naomi Klein, in her latest book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43821569-on-fire">On Fire</a>, elucidates this fateful coincidence, which she calls “an epic case of historical bad timing”: just as the urgency of action on climate change became apparent, “the global neoliberal revolution went supernova”.</p>
<p>Unfettered free-market fanaticism and its relentless attack on the public sphere derailed the momentum building for corporate regulation and global cooperation. Ten years ago, thoughtful, informed climate activists could still argue that we can decouple the debates about economy and democracy from climate action. But now we can’t. At the 2019 election, Australia may have missed its last chance for incremental political change. If the far right had not politicised climate change and delayed action for so long then radical political transformation would not necessarily have been required. But now it will be, and it’s coming.</p>
<h2>A great derangement</h2>
<p>We are indeed living in what we might call “uncanny times”. They are weird, strange and unsettling in ways that question nature and culture and even the possibility of distinguishing between them. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298053/original/file-20191022-120204-ux7r09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298053/original/file-20191022-120204-ux7r09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298053/original/file-20191022-120204-ux7r09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298053/original/file-20191022-120204-ux7r09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298053/original/file-20191022-120204-ux7r09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298053/original/file-20191022-120204-ux7r09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298053/original/file-20191022-120204-ux7r09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The Bengali novelist Amitav Ghosh uses the term “uncanny” in his book The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29362082-the-great-derangement?from_search=true">Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable</a>, published in 2016. The planet is alive, says Ghosh, and only for the last three centuries have we forgotten that. We have been suffering from “the great derangement”, a disturbing condition of wilful and systematic blindness to the consequences of our own actions, in which we are knowingly killing the planetary systems that support the survival of our species. That’s what’s uncanny about our times: we are half-aware of this predicament yet also paralysed by it, caught between horror and hubris.</p>
<p>We inhabit a critical moment in the history of the Earth and of life on this planet, and a most unusual one in terms of our own human history. We have developed two powerful metaphors for making sense of it. One is the idea of <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthropocene-began-in-1965-according-to-signs-left-in-the-worlds-loneliest-tree-91993">the Anthropocene</a>, which is the insight we have entered a new geological epoch in the history of the Earth and have now left behind the 13,000 years of the relatively stable Holocene epoch, the period since the last great ice age. The new epoch recognises the power of humans in changing the nature of the planet, putting us on a par with other geophysical forces such as variations in the earth’s orbit, glaciers, volcanoes and asteroid strikes.</p>
<p>The other potent metaphor for this moment in Earth history is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn">Sixth Extinction</a>. Humans have wiped out about two-thirds of the world’s wildlife in just the last half-century. </p>
<p>Let that sentence sink in. It has happened in less than a human lifetime. The current extinction rate is a hundred to a thousand times higher than was normal in nature. There have been other such catastrophic collapses in the diversity of life on Earth: five of them – sudden, shocking falls in the graph of biodiversity separated by tens of millions of years, the last one in the immediate aftermath of the asteroid impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. We now have to ask ourselves: are we inhabiting – and causing – the Sixth Extinction?</p>
<p>These two metaphors – the Anthropocene and the Sixth Extinction – are both historical concepts that require us to travel in geological and biological time across hundreds of millions of years and then to arrive back at the present with a sense not of continuity but of discontinuity, of profound rupture. That’s what Earth system science has revealed: it’s now too late to go back to the Holocene. We’ve irrevocably changed the Earth system and unwittingly steered the planet into the Anthropocene; now we can’t take our hand off the tiller.</p>
<h2>Earth is alive</h2>
<p>I’ve been considering metaphors of deep time, but what of deep space? It has also enlarged our imaginations in the last half century. In July this year, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. I was 12 at the time of the Apollo 11 voyage and found myself in a school debate about whether the money for the Moon mission would be better spent on Earth. I argued it would be, and my team lost. </p>
<p>But what other result was allowable in July 1969? Conquering the Moon, declared Dr Wernher von Braun, Nazi scientist turned US rocket maestro, <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6283306/the-moonwalk-assured-mankind-of-immortality-report/">assured man of immortality</a>. I followed the Apollo missions with a sense of wonder, staying up late to watch the Saturn V launch, joining my schoolmates in a large hall with tiny televisions to witness Armstrong take his Giant Leap, and saving full editions of The Age newspaper reporting those fabled days. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298681/original/file-20191025-173528-nlnk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298681/original/file-20191025-173528-nlnk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298681/original/file-20191025-173528-nlnk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298681/original/file-20191025-173528-nlnk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298681/original/file-20191025-173528-nlnk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298681/original/file-20191025-173528-nlnk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298681/original/file-20191025-173528-nlnk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tom Griffiths ‘followed the Apollo missions with a sense of wonder’ and returned to his newspaper clippings this July.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rhetoric of space exploration was so future-oriented that NASA did not foresee Apollo’s greatest legacy: the radical effect of seeing the Earth. In 1968, the historic Apollo 8 mission launched humans beyond Earth’s orbit for the first time, into the gravitational power of another heavenly body. For three lunar orbits, the three astronauts studied the strange, desolate, cratered surface below them and then, as they came out from the dark side of the Moon for the fourth time, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/who-took-legendary-earthrise-photo-apollo-8-180967505/">they looked up and gasped</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Frank Borman: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! Here’s the Earth coming up. Wow, that is pretty!</p>
<p>Bill Anders: Hey, don’t take that, it’s not scheduled.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They did take the unscheduled photo, excitedly, and it became famous, perhaps the most famous photograph of the 20th century, the blue planet floating alone, finite and vulnerable in space above a dead lunar landscape. <a href="http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=71">Bill Anders declared</a>: “We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298060/original/file-20191022-117981-1iwe92i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298060/original/file-20191022-117981-1iwe92i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298060/original/file-20191022-117981-1iwe92i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298060/original/file-20191022-117981-1iwe92i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298060/original/file-20191022-117981-1iwe92i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298060/original/file-20191022-117981-1iwe92i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298060/original/file-20191022-117981-1iwe92i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>In his fascinating book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4789925-earthrise?ac=1&from_search=true">Earthrise</a> (2010), British historian Robert Poole explains this was not supposed to happen. The cutting edge of the future was to be in space. Leaving the Earth’s atmosphere was seen as a stage in human evolution comparable to our amphibian ancestor crawling out of the primeval slime onto land.</p>
<p>Furthermore, this new dominion was seen to offer what Neil Armstrong called a “survival possibility” for a world shadowed by the nuclear arms race. In the words of Buzz Lightyear (who is sometimes hilariously confused with Buzz Aldrin), the space age looked <em>to infinity and beyond!</em></p>
<p>Earthrise had a profound impact on environmental politics and sensibilities. Within a few years, the American scientist James Lovelock put forward “<a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/gaia.htm">the Gaia hypothesis</a>”: that the Earth is a single, self-regulating organism. In the year of the Apollo 8 mission, Paul Ehrlich published his book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/760870.The_Population_Bomb?from_search=true">The Population Bomb</a>, an urgent appraisal of a finite Earth. British economist Barbara Ward wrote <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2420325.Spaceship_Earth?from_search=true">Spaceship Earth</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1637566.Only_One_Earth">Only One Earth</a>, revealing how economics failed to account for environmental damage and degradation, and arguing that exponential growth could not continue forever. </p>
<p>Earth Day was established in 1970, a day to honour the planet as a whole, a total environment needing protection. In 1972, the Club of Rome released its controversial and influential report <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/647942.The_Limits_to_Growth">The Limits to Growth</a>, which sold over 13 million copies. In their report, Donella Meadows and Dennis Meadows wrestled with the contradiction of trying to force infinite material growth on a finite planet. The cover of their book depicted a whole Earth, a shrinking Earth. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298068/original/file-20191022-28104-vje8k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298068/original/file-20191022-28104-vje8k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298068/original/file-20191022-28104-vje8k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298068/original/file-20191022-28104-vje8k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298068/original/file-20191022-28104-vje8k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1270&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298068/original/file-20191022-28104-vje8k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298068/original/file-20191022-28104-vje8k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1270&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Earth systems science developed in the second half of the 20th century and fostered a keen understanding of planetary boundaries – thresholds in planetary ecology - and the extent to which they were being violated. The same industrial capitalism that unleashed carbon enabled us to extract ice cores from the poles and construct a deep history of the air. The fossil fuels that got humans to the Moon, it now emerged, were endangering our civilisation.</p>
<p>The American ecologist and conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote in 1949 of the need for <a href="https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/the-land-ethic/">a new “land ethic”</a>. Leopold envisaged a gradual historical expansion of human ethics, from the relations between individuals to those between the individual and society, and ultimately to those between humans and the land. He hoped for an enlargement of the community to which we imagine ourselves belonging, one that includes soil, water, plants and animals. </p>
<p>In his book of essays, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210404.A_Sand_County_Almanac_and_Sketches_Here_and_There?from_search=true">A Sand County Almanac</a>, there is a short, profound reflection called “Thinking like a mountain.” He tells of going on the mountain and shooting a wolf and her cubs and then watching “a fierce green fire” die in her eyes.</p>
<p>He shot her because he thought fewer wolves meant more deer, but over the years he watched the overpopulated deer herd die as the wolfless mountain became a dustbowl. Leopold came to understand the beautiful delicacy of the ecosystem, which holds “a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself. Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.” </p>
<p>Today, 70 years after Leopold’s philosophical leap, we are being challenged to scale up from a land ethic to an earth ethic, to an environmental vision and philosophy of action that sees the planet as an integrated whole and all of life upon it as an interdependent historical community with a common destiny, to think not only like a mountain, but also like a planet. We are belatedly remembering the planet is alive.</p>
<h2>Climate science is climate history</h2>
<p>Climate change and ecological crisis are often seen as purely scientific issues. But as humanities scholars we know all environmental problems are at heart human ones; “scientific” issues are pre-eminently challenges for the humanities. Historical perspective can offer much in this time of ecological crisis, and many historians are reinventing their traditional scales of space and time to tell different kinds of stories, ones that recognise the agency of other creatures and the unruly power of nature.</p>
<p>There is a tendency among denialists to lazily use history against climate science, arguing for example “the climate’s always changing”, or “this has happened before”. Good recent historical scholarship about the last 2000 years of human civilisation is so important because it corrects these misunderstandings. That’s why it’s so disappointing when celebrity historians like Niall Ferguson and Geoffrey Blainey seek to represent their discipline by ignoring the work of their colleagues.</p>
<p>Climate science is unavoidably climate history; it’s an empirical, historical interpretation of life on earth, full of new insights into the impact and predicament of humanity in the long and short term. Recent histories of the last 2,000 years have been crucial in helping us to appreciate the fragile relationship between climate and society, and why future average temperature changes of more than 2°C can have dire consequences for human civilisation. </p>
<p>We now have environmental histories of antiquity, and of medieval and early modern Europe – studies casting new light on familiar human dramas, including the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the Black Death in the medieval period, and the unholy trinity of famine, war and disease during the Little Ice Age of the 17th century. </p>
<p>These books draw on natural as well as human history, on the archives of ice, air and sediment as well as bones, artefacts and documents. And then there is John McNeill’s history of the 20th century, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/118559.Something_New_Under_the_Sun?from_search=true">Something New Under the Sun</a>, which argues “the human race, without intending anything of the sort, has undertaken a gigantic uncontrolled experiment on earth”.</p>
<p>These new histories encompass the planet and the human species, and provocatively blur biological evolution and cultural history (Yuval Noah Harari’s “brief history of humankind”, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens?from_search=true">Sapiens</a>, is a bestselling example). They investigate the vast elemental nature of the heavens as well as the interior, microbial nature of human bodies: nature inside and out, with the striving human as a porous vessel for its agency. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299576/original/file-20191030-165458-czvssv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In Australia, we have outstanding new histories linking geological and human time, such as Charles Massy’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34951739-call-of-the-reed-warbler?from_search=true">Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture – A New Earth</a> and Tony Hughes d’Aeth’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34145925-like-nothing-on-this-earth?from_search=true">Like Nothing on This Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt</a>.</p>
<p>Australians seem predisposed to navigate the Anthropocene. I think it’s because the challenge of Australian history in the 21st century is how to negotiate the rupture of 1788, how to relate geological and human scales, how to get our heads and hearts around a colonial history of 200 years that plays out across a vast Indigenous history in deep time. </p>
<p>From the beginnings of colonisation, Australia’s new arrivals commonly alleged Aboriginal people had no history, had been here no more than a few thousand years, and were caught in the fatal thrall of a continental museum. But from the early 1960s, archaeologists confirmed what Aboriginal people had always known: Australia’s human history went back aeons, into the Pleistocene, well into the last ice age. In the late 20th century, the timescale of Australia’s human history increased tenfold in just 30 years and the journey to the other side of the frontier became a journey back into deep time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-when-did-australias-human-history-begin-87251">Friday essay: when did Australia’s human history begin?</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>It’s no wonder the idea of big history was born here, or environmental history has been so innovative here. This is a land of a radically different ecology, where climatic variation and uncertainty have long been the norm – and are now intensifying. Australia’s long human history spans great climatic change and also offers a parable of cultural resilience. </p>
<p>Even the best northern-hemisphere scholars struggle to digest the implications of the Australian time revolution. They often assume, for example, “civilisation” is a term associated only with agriculture, and still insist 50,000 years is a possible horizon for modern humanity. Australia offers a distinctive and remarkable human saga for a world trying to come to terms with climate change and the rupture of the Anthropocene. Living on a precipice of deep time has become, I think, an exhilarating dimension of what it means to be Australian. Our nation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uluru-statement-showed-how-to-give-first-nations-people-a-real-voice-now-its-time-for-action-110707">obligation to honour the Uluru Statement</a> is not just political; it is also metaphysical. It respects another ethical practice and another way of knowing.</p>
<h2>Earthspeaking</h2>
<p>In 2003, in its second issue, Griffith Review put the land at the centre of the nation. The edition was called <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/editions/dreams-of-land/">Dreams of Land</a> and it’s full of gold, including an essay by Ian Lowe sounding the alarm on the ecological and climate emergency – which reminds us how long we’ve had these eloquent warnings. As Graeme Davison said on launching the edition in December 2003:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At the threshold of the 21st century Australia has suddenly come down to earth. […] Earth, water, wind and fire are not just natural elements; they are increasingly the great issues of the day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is instructive to compare this issue of the Griffith Review, with the edition entitled <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/editions/writing-the-country/">Writing the Country</a>, published 15 years later last summer. In the intervening decade and a half, sustainability morphed into survival, native title into Treaty and the Voice, the Anthropocene infiltrated our common vocabulary, the republic and Aboriginal recognition are no longer separable, and land decisively became Country with a capital “C”. In 2003 the reform hopes of the 1990s had not entirely died, but by 2019 it’s clear the dead hand of the Howard government and its successors has thoroughly throttled trust in the workings of the state.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most powerful contribution in GR2 – and it was given the honour of appearing first – was an essay by Melissa Lucashenko called “Not quite white in the head”. This year’s Miles Franklin winner, Lucashenko was already in great form in 2003. Tough, poetic and confronting, the words of her essay still resonate. Lucashenko writes of “earthspeaking”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299578/original/file-20191030-17924-1fmck53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Melissa Lucashenko earlier this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Supplied by Miles Franklin Literary Award, Belinda Rolland</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“I am earthspeaking,” she says, “talking about this place, my home and it is first, a very small story […] This earthspeaking is a small, quiet story in a human mouth.” </p>
<p>“Big stories are failing us as a nation,” suggests Lucashenko. “But we are citizens and inheritors and custodians of tiny landscapes too. It is the small stories that attach to these places […] which might help us find a way through.”</p>
<p>I think earthspeaking is a companion to thinking like a planet. Instead of beginning from the outside with a view of Earth in deep space and deep time, earthspeaking works from the ground up; it is inside-out; it begins with beloved Country. So it is with earthspeaking I want to finish.</p>
<p>Four months ago I was privileged to sit in a circle with Mithaka people, the traditional Aboriginal owners of 33,000 square kilometres of the Kirrenderi/Channel Country of the Lake Eyre Basin in south-western Queensland. In 2015, the Federal Court handed down a <a href="https://mithaka.com.au/native-title/">native title consent determination for the Mithaka</a> enabling them to return to Country. Now they have begun a process of assessing and renewing their knowledge. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298075/original/file-20191022-28129-y1qzht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298075/original/file-20191022-28129-y1qzht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298075/original/file-20191022-28129-y1qzht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298075/original/file-20191022-28129-y1qzht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298075/original/file-20191022-28129-y1qzht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298075/original/file-20191022-28129-y1qzht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298075/original/file-20191022-28129-y1qzht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">33,000 square kilometres of the Lake Eyre Basin were returned to the Mithaka people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I was invited to be involved because I have studied the major white writer about this region, a woman called <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/duncan-kemp-alice-monkton-12444">Alice Duncan-Kemp</a> who was born on this land in 1901 where her family ran a cattle farm, and grew up with Mithaka people who worked on the station and were her carers and teachers. Young Alice spent her childhood days with her Aboriginal friends and teachers, especially Mary Ann and Moses Youlpee, who took her on walks and taught her the names and meanings and stories that connected every tree, bird, plant, animal, rock, dune and channel. </p>
<p>From the <a href="https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/desert-channels">1930s to the 1960s Alice wrote four books</a> – half a million words – about the world of her childhood and the people and nature of the Channel Country, and although she did find a wide readership, her books were dismissed by authorities, landowners and locals as “romantic” and “nostalgic” and “fictional”. </p>
<p>Her writing was systematically marginalised: she was a woman in cattle country, a sympathiser with Aboriginal people, she refused to ignore the violence of the frontier and she challenged the typical heroic western style of narrative. The huge Kidman pastoral company bought her family’s land in 1998, bulldozed the historic pisé homestead into the creek, threw out the collection of Aboriginal artefacts, and continues to deny Alice’s writings have any historical authenticity. Yet her books were respected in the native title process and were crucial to the Mithaka in their fight to regain access to Country. </p>
<p>It was very moving to be present this year when Alice’s descendants and Moses’ people met for the first time. It was not just a social and symbolic occasion: we had come together as researchers and we had work to do. Across a weekend we pored over maps and talked through evidence, combining legend, memory, oral history, letters and manuscripts, published books, archaeological studies, surveyors’ records, and even recent drone footage of the remote terrain, all with the purpose of retrieving and reactivating knowledge, recovering language and reanimating Country. We could literally map Alice’s stories back onto features of the land, with the aim of bringing it under caring attention again.</p>
<p>This process is going on in beloved places right across the continent. <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/life-and-death-on-dyarubbin/">Grace Karskens</a> and <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/lost-found-translation-who-can-talk-to-country/">Kim Mahood</a> write beautifully in GR63 about similar quests, and of their hope written words dredged from the archive “might again be spoken as part of living language and shared geographies.”</p>
<p>Earthspeaking and thinking like a planet are profoundly linked. As the Indigenous speaker at the Melbourne Climate Strike said, “We stand for you when we stand for Country.” In these frightening and challenging times, we need radical storytelling and scholarly histories, narratives that weave together humans and nature, history and natural history, that move from Earth systems to the earth beneath our feet, from the lonely, living planet spinning through space to the intimately known and beloved local worlds over which we might, if we are lucky, exert some benevolent influence. </p>
<p>We need them not only because they help us to better understand our predicament, but also because they might enable us to act, with intelligence and grace.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This essay was adapted from the Showcase Lecture, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Queensland, Wednesday, 9 October 2019</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Griffiths does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Historical perspective can offer much in this time of ecological crisis,. Many historians are reinventing their traditional scales of space and time to tell different kinds of stories that recognise the unruly power of nature.
Tom Griffiths, Emeritus Professor of History, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/120392
2019-08-02T12:22:41Z
2019-08-02T12:22:41Z
The White House is upending decades of protocol for policy-making
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286518/original/file-20190731-186809-1835ta4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ford, Carter, George H.W. Bush and Clinton led four of the first administrations to fully embrace policy analysis.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Whether it’s <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/asylum-seekers-that-followed-trump-rule-now-dont-qualify-because-of-new-trump-rule">overhauling asylum procedures</a>, adding a question about <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-supreme-court-asked-for-an-explanation-of-the-2020-census-citizenship-question-119567">citizenship to the 2020 Census</a>, or rolling back <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/06/17-automakers-ask-trump-to-hold-off-on-fuel-economy-rollback/">fuel standards</a>, a pattern has emerged when the Trump administration changes policies and creates new ones.</p>
<p>An announcement is made, media attention follows, the policy is formally proposed and finalized – generating more news coverage along the way. In many cases, judges suspend the new policy as <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/8/18076324/daca-supreme-court-trump-when-lawsuit">lawsuits work their way through</a> the system. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/trumps-deregulatory-efforts-keep-losing-in-court-and-the-losses-could-make-it-harder-for-future-administrations-to-deregulate/">Unusually</a>, the Supreme Court often ends up determining whether the new policy can go into effect.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2000.11643493">All presidents since the 1960s</a> have embraced a process known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/policy-analysis">policy analysis</a> that requires careful consideration and deliberation at every step of the way. In most cases, the public also gets to weigh in before a final decision is made. Based on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=R1CcxM8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> about regulatory decision-making, I’ve observed a sea change in how Trump’s team is dealing with public policy compared to previous administrations.</p>
<h2>Administrative Procedure Act</h2>
<p>For the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F003231879404600211">first 150 years of this country’s history</a>, Congress, not presidents, decided on policies by enacting laws. </p>
<p>Starting <a href="https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-basics/when-and-why-was-fda-formed">around 1900</a>, lawmakers began to delegate this task to independent agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, and to government agencies under the president’s control. The pace of this shift stepped up <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-1/delegation-of-legislative-power">during the New Deal</a>, three decades later.</p>
<p>But because this arrangement can empower unelected bureaucrats, <a href="https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2448&context=facpubs">questions about accountability</a> arose. Chief among them: Could decisions made by unelected officials that affected millions of people be allowed in a democracy? Requiring public participation and systematic analysis became routine and required for most policy changes as a result.</p>
<p>The mandate for public participation came first.</p>
<p>In 1946, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-administrative-procedure-act">Administrative Procedure Act</a>. It established <a href="https://www.justia.com/administrative-law/rulemaking-writing-agency-regulations/notice-and-comment/">rulemaking procedures</a> that required agencies creating new policies to alert the public, seek comments, and then consider that input before making most policies final. <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.2307/1073060">Many states followed suit</a> with their own versions of this measure.</p>
<h2>Silent Spring</h2>
<p>The environmental, worker safety, and other social movements that arose during the 1960s and early 1970s led Congress to create agencies like the <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/birth-epa.html">Environmental Protection Agency</a> and the <a href="https://www.osha.gov/as/opa/osha-at-30.html">Occupational Safety and Health Administration</a>. Lawmakers then delegated authority to make policy to those new agencies regarding the issues within their purview.</p>
<p>For example, the public pressure for greater automobile safety in the wake of consumer safety activist Ralph Nader’s book “<a href="https://nader.org/books/unsafe-at-any-speed/">Unsafe at Any Speed</a>” prompted Congress to empower the Department of Transportation to more strictly regulate automakers. Scientist <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/rachel-carson">Rachel Carson’s</a> “<a href="http://www.rachelcarson.org/SilentSpring.aspx">Silent Spring</a>,” a seminal book that exposed the damage caused by pesticides, expedited the passage of <a href="https://environmentallaw.uslegal.com/federal-laws/clean-air-act/">numerous environmental statutes</a> in the <a href="http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/silent-spring/overview">U.S. and elsewhere</a> and the creation of the <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/">EPA during the Nixon administration</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286639/original/file-20190801-169696-b0micg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alice Rivlin championed the practice of methodically assessing the potential impact of new policies and policy changes, while letting the public weigh in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Financial-Meltdown/443af838982c4b7795573f72e68d3ebe/23/0">AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the wake of these new responsibilities, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23065473?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">starting with Gerald Ford</a>, all presidents, Republican and Democratic alike implemented and refined the requirements for analysis and input from the public prior to the unveiling of new policies. The analysis requirement championed by pioneers like <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/podcast-episode/alice-rivlin-a-career-spent-making-better-public-policy/">Alice Rivlin</a>, who served as President Bill Clinton’s budget chief, has led to <a href="https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784714765">many successes</a>.</p>
<p>One example is when the <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/lead-poisoning-historical-perspective.html">EPA decided in the 1980s</a> to require the <a href="https://web.mit.edu/ckolstad/www/Newell.pdf">removal of all lead from gasoline</a> because the analysis of costs and benefits showed how many lives would be saved or improved by its elimination. I relayed another success story in my <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2017.1286019">policy analysis textbook</a>: when the Department of Homeland Security scaled back its proposal for stringent requirements on <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2014/01/13/2014-00415/aircraft-repair-station-security">aircraft repair stations</a> in 2014. The Obama administration took this step after finding the costs to be too high for minimal security benefits.</p>
<p>These mandatory analyses forced agencies to use basic economic principles to calculate costs and benefits and to make the <a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/jsp/Utilities/EO_Redirect.myjsp">calculations available to the public</a>. </p>
<p>But this approach can also fail, at least partly because it can make decisions seem overly technocratic. That’s often the case when values are at stake, such as deciding whether protecting an <a href="https://law.utexas.edu/faculty/publications/1995-The-Science-Charade-in-Toxic-Risk-Regulation">endangered species</a> is worth increasing the cost of <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060092887">construction and infrastructure projects</a> – or blocking them altogether. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286641/original/file-20190801-169672-1ev0ibt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers who make tunnels and toil in them are at risk for inhaling airborne silica, which can cause lung disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Nevada-United-St-/31e4ff58e3e6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/4/0">AP Photo/Laura Rauch</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, following the requisite steps can also mean the rule-making process takes not just years but decades. OSHA, for example, has taken decades to issue some <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1372818?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">rules that protect workers</a>. Its <a href="https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/03/the-regulation-that-took-four-decades-to-finalize-000078">industrial quartz</a> regulations, for instance, reportedly took 45 years to finish. Technically known as crystalline silica, the substance, when finely ground up for manufacturing or <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/silicupd.html">blasted during construction</a>, can cause workers to contract <a href="https://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/silicosis/silicosis-symptoms-causes-risk.html">silicosis</a>, an incurable lung disease, and lung cancer.</p>
<h2>Shifting gears</h2>
<p>The Trump administration hasn’t declared that it’s doing anything different. It hasn’t, as far as I know, ever declared that “policy analysis is bad” or said, “Let’s ignore the public and ignore expertise.”</p>
<p>But the public record shows that <a href="https://www.epi.org/press/dol-scrubs-economic-analysis-that-showed-its-tip-pooling-rule-would-be-terrible-for-workers/">Trump’s team has either ignored</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/451095-clean-power-plan-repeal-shows-strengths-and-limits-of-policy">manipulated</a> or <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-proposes-cost-benefit-analysis-reform">subverted</a> the requirements for analysis and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3049004">participation</a> on numerous policy actions that range from addressing climate change to the division of waiters'tips.</p>
<p>Whether a federal agency analyzes its decisions or asks for public input on them may seem like the ultimate in inside baseball. But processes make a difference. I believe that its failure to follow the long-established policy analysis process is a key reason why Trump administration is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/trumps-deregulatory-efforts-keep-losing-in-court-and-the-losses-could-make-it-harder-for-future-administrations-to-deregulate/">losing many court battles</a>. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=thanksforreading">Thanks for reading! We can send you The Conversation’s stories every day in an informative email. Sign up today.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120392/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Shapiro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The process known as policy analysis requires careful consideration and deliberation. In most cases, the public also gets to weigh in.
Stuart Shapiro, Professor of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/112404
2019-04-01T04:00:14Z
2019-04-01T04:00:14Z
Leonardo da Vinci revisited: was he an environmentalist ahead of his time?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264106/original/file-20190315-28505-1vohzad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, Landscape drawing for Santa Maria della Neve on 5th August 1473</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Leonardo_da_vinci%2C_Landscape_drawing_for_Santa_Maria_della_Neve_on_5th_August_1473.jpg">Wikimedia commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>On the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci">500th anniversary of his death</a>, this series brings together scholars from different disciplines to re-examine the work, legacy and myth of Leonardo da Vinci.</em></p>
<p>Leonardo’s notebooks are filled with illustrations of nature, both plants and animals, their interactions with humans and in local ecosystems. Did his deep engagement with the natural world make him an environmentalist ahead of his time?</p>
<p>Leonardo was a child of the Tuscan countryside, raised in the tiny village of Anchiano, although he spent most of his adult life at the courts of dukes, kings and princes.</p>
<p>Some of his work for these patrons involved planning interventions into nature, most often managing waterways, but his sketches suggest his attention roamed further than the projects he was commissioned to undertake.</p>
<p>He spent time with friends in a villa outside of Milan observing the country nearby and sketching plans for gardens there, and ended his life on a little country estate that was then on the outskirts of Amboise in France.</p>
<p>One of his first biographers, Giorgio Vasari, tells us that Leonardo </p>
<blockquote>
<p>delighted much in horses and also in all other animals, and often when passing by the places where they sold birds he would take them out of their cages, and paying the price that was asked for them, would let them fly away into the air, restoring to them their lost liberty.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263096/original/file-20190311-86686-oj01pw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, Study sheet with cats, dragon and other animals, c. 1513.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikiart.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leonardo was also reportedly a vegetarian. This supposition comes from the explorer Andrea Corsali’s description of the non-meat-eating Gujarati people (from modern India) as like “our Leonardo da Vinci”.</p>
<p>The many notebooks and loose sheets Leonardo filled with jottings and illustrations across his lifetime reveal his close observation of nature — from cats and crabs to flowers and copses of trees - and the spirit of enquiry from which he drew many lessons. </p>
<p>One jotting simply states: “Ask the wife of Biagio Crivelli how the capon nurtures and hatches the eggs of the hen”.</p>
<p>His understandings of the habits of animals informed a series of fables and proverbs bearing witness to various emotional traits he attributed to them: gratitude, rage, cruelty and generosity among them. He suggested, for instance, that “we see the most striking example of humility” in the lamb.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263095/original/file-20190311-86686-v58n0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Star of Bethlehem, <em>Ornithogalum umbellatum</em></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikiart.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The random cruelty of nature</h2>
<p>But Leonardo was also struck by the violence of natural processes. Nature appears to have been “rather a cruel stepmother”, he wrote. “Why did nature not ordain that one animal should not live by the death of another?” </p>
<p>He reflected on the random cruelty of nature in a series of riddles, created across his notebooks. For instance, in the entry on walnut trees, he writes in emotional terms of the violence wrought upon these trees as humans enjoyed their seeds: “beaten, and their offspring taken and flayed or peeled, and their bones broken or crushed.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263099/original/file-20190311-86699-u6pw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, Studies of crabs, c. late 15th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikiart.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Still, Leonardo does not seem to have been particularly concerned about the role of humans in enacting violence against other species. His own quest for knowledge and artistic creativity demanded it.</p>
<p>Vasari tells a story of the young Leonardo seeking to depict a frightening creature on a shield he had “brought for this purpose to his room, which no one entered but himself, lizards, grasshoppers, serpents, butterflies, locusts, bats, and other strange animals of the kind …” “The smell in the room of these dead animals was very bad, though Leonardo did not feel it from the love he bore to art.” </p>
<p>Vasari talks of how Leonardo “suffered much in doing it” - but not as much as the other species whose lives were sacrificed for his art.</p>
<p>In other tales, Vasari tells us how Leonardo, while he was working for Giuliano de’ Medici in Rome, discovered an unusual lizard and promptly</p>
<blockquote>
<p>made some wings of the scales of other lizards and fastened them on its back with a mixture of quicksilver, so that they trembled when it walked; and having made for it eyes, horns, and a beard, he tamed it and kept it in a box.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Vasari, these stories show Leonardo’s “marvelous and divine” mind, but they could also be interpreted as showing the instrumental way in which Leonardo thought about nature, as a resource to expand human knowledge and control the environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263098/original/file-20190311-86696-1s8yyy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, Birch copse, c. 1500.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/leonardo-da-vinci/birch-copse">Wikiart.org</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Leonardo’s nature</h2>
<p>His contemporaries clearly thought there was something different about Leonardo and his interest in nature. Does this make him a kind of pre-modern environmentalist?</p>
<p>Western environmentalism (and before it, preservationism) is often understood to have become possible when nature had been subdued by technology. With urbanisation and development of a middle class, more people could feel sentimental about nature. </p>
<p>Although he was raised in the countryside, Leonardo spent most of his everyday adult life in major European towns in the company of princes and kings. He was no longer concerned directly with the need to cut down wood for warmth or kill animals for food. We could say, then, that he could afford to be more sentimental about nature. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263097/original/file-20190311-86703-18ybsf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, Natural disaster, c. 1517.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikiart.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Certainly his exquisite drawings suggest a particular depth of feeling, attunement and sensitivity to the natural world. And yet it seems that preservation of nature was not on Leonardo’s mind.</p>
<p>He had not witnessed the speed and scale of devastation of the natural world wrought by humanity with the onset of industrialisation. Instead, he understood destruction as part of the cycle of nature. If, as he wrote, nature “seeks to lose its life, desiring only continual reproduction”, there was nothing to be protected, for annihilation and creation went hand in hand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112404/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Broomhall receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Gaynor receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a member of the Beeliar Group of Professors for Environmental Responsibility. </span></em></p>
His exquisite drawings suggest a particular depth of feeling for the natural world and he was attuned to the emotions of animals. Yet it seems that preservation of nature was not on Leonardo’s mind.
Susan Broomhall, Professor of History, The University of Western Australia
Andrea Gaynor, Associate Professor of History, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109819
2019-03-01T13:37:09Z
2019-03-01T13:37:09Z
Climate change: narrate a history beyond the ‘triumph of humanity’ to find imaginative solutions
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260206/original/file-20190221-195870-tsck6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C165%2C4815%2C2457&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'American Progress' by John Gast.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=373152">Wikipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One reason why people find it difficult to think about climate change and the future may be their understanding of human history. The present day is believed to be the product of centuries of development. These developments have led to a globalised world of complex states, in which daily life for most people is highly urbanised, consumerist and competitive.</p>
<p>By this account, humanity has triumphed over the dangers and uncertainties of the natural world, and this triumph will continue to unfold in the future. Anything else would seem to be going “backwards”, in a world where “backwardness” is pitied or despised.</p>
<p>But it is now clear that we haven’t triumphed. The future has become very uncertain and our way of thinking needs to change. Could new historical narratives help? How might they look?</p>
<h2>Progress towards oblivion</h2>
<p>The current view of the past, present and future as a trajectory of progress is constantly reiterated by politicians and taught to children in schools. It does not offer many alternatives to the ideas and practices driving climate change and ecological breakdown. </p>
<p>There is a reassuring promise in this narrative that things naturally improve with time, requiring no commitment from ordinary people. Progress is delivered through steady work by governments and scientists, with moments of transformation by activists or visionaries. The direction of history itself is towards the general good. </p>
<p>It is very hard, then, for anyone thinking in this framework to imagine a future in which societies adapt to the challenges of climate change. This is especially the case where adaptions might have to take the form of significantly reduced consumption, unfamiliar forms of social organisation, and harder work to produce food or manage local environments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261667/original/file-20190301-110146-vzsskt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261667/original/file-20190301-110146-vzsskt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261667/original/file-20190301-110146-vzsskt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261667/original/file-20190301-110146-vzsskt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261667/original/file-20190301-110146-vzsskt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261667/original/file-20190301-110146-vzsskt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261667/original/file-20190301-110146-vzsskt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ecologically benign societies are difficult to imagine when all previous human history is told as a story of domination and consumption.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-illustration-futuristic-green-city-arched-672057994">3000AD/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These ideas about the future look very different from the technologically advanced and globalised tomorrow that the progress narrative seemed to promise. At present, ideas in popular culture about the impact of climate change are often apocalyptic and dystopian. Ideas about mitigating climate change seem limited to fantasies of last-minute salvation by scientific genius or alien intervention.</p>
<p>In this respect, climate change stands in contrast to other issues that are more rooted in a cultural understanding of history. Arguments around Britain’s departure from the European Union, for example, matter to people across the political spectrum because they’re integrated with ideas about the nation’s past trajectory, as well as the immediate concerns of people and communities. </p>
<p>Responding to climate change, meanwhile, demands a collective rupture from several centuries of development within a timescale of decades. This poses both a challenge and an opportunity to the study of history.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/european-colonisation-of-the-americas-killed-10-of-world-population-and-caused-global-cooling-110549">European colonisation of the Americas killed 10% of world population and caused global cooling</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Fields such as climate, environmental or global history help to think about the past in planetary rather than national terms. Some of that questions the western interpretation of history and the exploitation of people and nature which punctuates it.</p>
<p>Recovering the stories of people marginalised from these narratives helps people think about life in a different light. Many indigenous peoples, for example, have ideas about the past that situate humans within complex ecosystems.</p>
<p>Environmental historians also ask how past societies interacted with their surroundings and consider how and why more ecologically stable ways of living were destroyed through colonisation by powerful, expanding empires.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261672/original/file-20190301-110150-tx5xy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261672/original/file-20190301-110150-tx5xy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261672/original/file-20190301-110150-tx5xy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261672/original/file-20190301-110150-tx5xy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261672/original/file-20190301-110150-tx5xy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261672/original/file-20190301-110150-tx5xy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261672/original/file-20190301-110150-tx5xy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water-tight aboriginal craft for collecting seeds, fruit and liquids, made from tightly woven grass in Northern Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australians#/media/File:Aboriginal_craft_made_from_weaving_grass.jpg">Fir0002/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bruce Pascoe’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21401526-dark-emu">Dark Emu</a> looks at the sustainable land management techniques of Australia’s First Peoples, which were ignored by British settlers. He suggests <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-dark-emu-and-the-blindness-of-australian-agriculture-97444">a way forward</a> for Australian agriculture based on those practices.</p>
<p>Their subject also explores how climatic and environmental change affected <a href="http://ocp.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/glodech/PDFS/McCormickEtAl2013.pdf">earlier civilisations</a>. The <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/how-climate-change-and-disease-helped-the-fall-of-rome">fall of Rome</a>, for example, fits into a global shift in climate conditions around 500 C.E. that also resulted in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=O9TSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA354&lpg=PA354&dq=climate+moche+nasca+teotihuacan&source=bl&ots=DmfHX0nQ3-&sig=ACfU3U22vJgQdN-1KJ2CTjiEU0CNDD8UcQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRwfHZ9N7gAhXC8eAKHdV2Cx4Q6AEwDnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=climate%20moche%20nasca%20teotihuacan&f=false">the “fall” of complex states</a> in China, India, Mesoamerica, Peru, and Mexico. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/47594/1/574888918.pdf">Population health</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZhYmAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62&dq=hoffmann+environmental+rural+settlement&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt-smT997gAhWSHxQKHeppCekQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=hoffmann%20environmental%20rural%20settlement&f=false">biodiversity</a> improved significantly in the following period, popularly known as the “Dark Ages”. So were powerful states always a good thing?</p>
<h2>The tangle of life</h2>
<p>The destruction of indigenous populations by Europeans from 1500 onwards may have caused <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-colonisation-of-the-americas-killed-10-of-world-population-and-caused-global-cooling-110549">huge environmental changes on the American continent</a>. As 56 million lives were extinguished, the regrowth of forests on abandoned farms may have absorbed enough atmospheric carbon to cool the global climate in the Little Ice Age.</p>
<p>Societies across the world suffered during this period. In Europe, it was a time of savage persecution of “witches”, partly due to the belief that they were deliberately causing the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1005554519604">“unnatural” weather conditions</a>. </p>
<p>The Dutch Republic did show resilience in the harsher climate conditions of “<a href="https://www.historicalclimatology.com/blog/a-frigid-golden-age-can-the-society-of-rembrandt-and-vermeer-teach-us-about-global-warming">the frigid golden age</a>”. Its innovations for harnessing the energy of changing weather and wind patterns in shipping fuelled an aggressive trading empire.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261664/original/file-20190301-110110-1nesg1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Frozen Thames’ (1677). Did Europe’s Little Ice Age derive from 56 million deaths in the Americas?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age#/media/File:The_Frozen_Thames_1677.jpg">Abraham Hondius/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While such strategies are not templates for future action, they do underline the fact that humans have and can adapt with radically altered lifestyles, expectations, aspirations and standards of living. They needn’t always aspire to more of the same that they have at present.</p>
<p>This idea begs questions about the nature of history itself. Must history continue to be a story of humans alone? Could it become the study of humans in complex ecosystems, exploring the entangled pasts of people, animals, insects, microbes, plants, trees, forests, soils, oceans, glaciers, stones, volcanic eruptions, solar cycles and orbital variations?</p>
<p>Narrating a richer past would lessen the shock of discovering that we are, after all, earthbound inhabitants of the only planet where life is known to exist. It could show us that our survival is dependent on countless complicated and delicate relationships. Relationships that “progress” narratives have required us to ignore, despise and even fear. </p>
<p>In recognising that the established view of human history can and must change, people can think radically about society, rather than following the present course out of a failure of imagination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Power does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Progress, in historical terms, has so often meant clearing places of their native inhabitants – both human and non-human.
Amanda Power, Associate Professor of Medieval History, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109060
2019-01-03T11:17:42Z
2019-01-03T11:17:42Z
How climate change caused the world’s first ever empire to collapse
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252304/original/file-20190102-32121-1d7jyfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">King Naram-Sin of Akkad, grandson of Sargon, leading his army to victory.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rama / Louvre</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gol-e-Zard Cave lies in the shadow of Mount Damavand, which at more than 5,000 metres dominates the landscape of northern Iran. In this cave, stalagmites and stalactites are growing slowly over millennia and preserve in them clues about past climate events. Changes in stalagmite chemistry from this cave have now linked the collapse of the Akkadian Empire to <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/12/18/1808103115.short?rss=1">climate changes more than 4,000 years ago</a>.</p>
<p>Akkadia was the world’s first empire. It was established in Mesopotamia around 4,300 years ago after its ruler, Sargon of Akkad, united a series of independent city states. Akkadian influence spanned along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from what is now southern Iraq, through to Syria and Turkey. The north-south extent of the empire meant that it covered regions with different climates, ranging from fertile lands in the north which were highly dependent on rainfall (one of Asia’s “bread baskets”), to the irrigation-fed alluvial plains to the south. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252311/original/file-20190102-32121-46c89h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Akkad empire during the reign of Narâm-Sîn (2254-2218 BC). Mount Damavand is labelled in blue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empire_akkad.svg">Zunkir / Semhir / wiki</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It appears that the empire became increasingly dependent on the productivity of the northern lands and used the grains sourced from this region to feed the army and redistribute the food supplies to key supporters. Then, about a century after its formation, the Akkadian Empire suddenly collapsed, followed by mass migration and conflicts. The anguish of the era is perfectly captured in the ancient <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr215.htm">Curse of Akkad</a> text, which describes a period of turmoil with water and food shortages: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the large arable tracts yielded no grain, the inundated fields yielded no fish, the irrigated orchards yielded no syrup or wine, the thick clouds did not rain.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Drought and dust</h2>
<p>The reason for this collapse is still debated by historians, archaeologists and scientists. One of the most prominent views, championed by Yale archaeologist Harvey Weiss (who built on earlier ideas by <a href="https://archive.org/details/palestineitstran00hunt/page/n11">Ellsworth Huntington</a>), is that it was caused by an abrupt onset of drought conditions which severely affected the productive northern regions of the empire. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252312/original/file-20190102-32148-13s7d4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sargon of Akkad – or maybe his son, Naram-Sin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iraqi Directorate General of Antiquities / wiki</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Weiss and his colleagues discovered evidence in northern Syria that this once prosperous region was <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/261/5124/995">suddenly abandoned around 4,200 years ago</a>, as indicated by a lack of pottery and other archaeological remains. Instead, the rich soils of earlier periods were replaced by large amounts of wind-blown dust and sand, suggesting the onset of drought conditions. Subsequently, marine cores from the <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/28/4/379/207263/climate-change-and-the-collapse-of-the-akkadian?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Gulf of Oman</a> and the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2006.05.006">Red Sea</a> which linked the input of dust into the sea to distant sources in Mesopotamia, provided further evidence of a regional drought at the time.</p>
<p>Many other researchers viewed Weiss’s interpretation with scepticism, however. Some argued, for example, that the archaeological and marine evidence was <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/109/10/3632">not accurate enough</a> to demonstrate a robust correlation between drought and societal change in Mesopotamia. </p>
<h2>A new detailed climate record</h2>
<p>Now, stalagmite data from Iran sheds new light on the controversy. In a study published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/12/18/1808103115.short?rss=1">PNAS</a>, led by Oxford palaeoclimatologist Stacy Carolin, colleagues and I provide a very well dated and high resolution record of dust activity between 5,200 and 3,700 years ago. And cave dust from Iran can tell us a surprising amount about climate history elsewhere.</p>
<p>Gol-e-Zard Cave might be several hundred miles to the east of the former Akkadian Empire, but it is directly downwind. As a result, around 90% of the region’s dust originates in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231013002938?via%3Dihub">the deserts of Syria and Iraq</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252315/original/file-20190102-32127-m41jn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mount Damavand is a ‘potentially active’ volcano, and the highest peak in Iran. Gol-e-Zard Cave is nearby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vasile Ersek</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That desert dust has a higher concentration of magnesium than the local limestone which forms most of Gol-e-Zard’s stalagmites (the ones which grow upwards from the cave floor). Therefore, the amount of magnesium in the Gol-e-Zard stalagmites can be used as an indicator of dustiness at the surface, with higher magnesium concentrations indicating dustier periods, and by extension drier conditions. </p>
<p>The stalagmites have the additional advantage that they can be dated very precisely using <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/313/5787/620">uranium-thorium chronology</a>. Combining these methods, our new study provides a detailed history of dustiness in the area, and identifies two major drought periods which started 4,510 and 4,260 years ago, and lasted 110 and 290 years respectively. The latter event occurs precisely at the time of the Akkadian Empire’s collapse and provides a strong argument that climate change was at least in part responsible.</p>
<p>The collapse was followed by mass migration from north to south which was met with resistance by the local populations. A 180km wall – the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/24/science/collapse-of-earliest-known-empire-is-linked-to-long-harsh-drought.html">Repeller of the Amorites</a>” – was even built between the Tigris and Euphrates in an effort to control immigration, not unlike some strategies proposed today. The stories of abrupt climate change in the Middle East therefore echo over millennia to the present day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vasile Ersek receives funding from Leverhulme Trust, Royal Geographical Society, British Cave Research Association. </span></em></p>
Scientists have discovered new evidence of a drought that finished off the Akkadian Empire 4,000 years ago.
Vasile Ersek, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107821
2018-12-19T15:21:00Z
2018-12-19T15:21:00Z
From jaguar teeth to the nail of the great beast: the evolution of animal medicines
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250946/original/file-20181217-185237-1i5ka0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jaguar-relaxes-on-tree-trunk-banks-1021961164?src=KYoSGt_t8OdgDI5v2E-jBA-1-1">Marktucan/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In February 2018, the Bolivian authorities <a href="https://earthjournalism.net/stories/jaguar-body-parts-in-the-black-market">captured two Chinese citizens</a> in a poultry store in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. They were apprehended in possession of 185 jaguar fangs, three feline skins, a 22-caliber pistol, a large sum of money, and body parts of many other animal species, including rattlesnakes, marsh deer, giant armadillos and jaguars. All were to be shipped to Chinese medical markets, where, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02314-5">according to experts</a> in the animal illegal trade, the jaguar – a wild feline native to the Americas – is in more and more demand as a replacement for Chinese medicines derived from their “original” source – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/captive-breeding-has-a-dark-side-as-disturbing-czech-discovery-of-trafficked-tiger-body-parts-highlights-107371">Asian tiger</a>.</p>
<p>This story highlights something not often discussed when it comes to the illegal wildlife trade for traditional medicines – that traditions are a human product, a result of entangled exchanges, often driven by commerce. Thanks to these processes, new species that are strangers to Chinese lands can become staples of the black medical market as substitutes to the (dwindling) traditional ones. </p>
<p>The jaguar is the largest native feline species of the New World, the third largest in the world and the only extant member of the genus <em>Panthera</em> native to the Americas. Jaguars have already been long exploited for the fur industry, both at home and abroad. Alexander von Humboldt <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k10429519/f244.item">recorded</a> that late in the 18th century, 4,000 jaguars were killed in the Spanish colonies annually and 2,000 were exported every year from Buenos Aires for use in the fur industry. But the historical sources do not mention any medical use of jaguar body parts.</p>
<p>Today, the species is considered “<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15953/123791436">near threatened</a>” and the trade in jaguars and their body parts is prohibited. Numbers are, however, declining: due to the emergence of a new black market for jaguar parts located on the other side of the world.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/captive-breeding-has-a-dark-side-as-disturbing-czech-discovery-of-trafficked-tiger-body-parts-highlights-107371">Captive breeding has a dark side – as disturbing Czech discovery of trafficked tiger body parts highlights</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The great beast</h2>
<p>This story of substitution and surrogates in the wildlife trade has a long history, especially when it comes to medicines derived from animal parts. As the Spanish military engineer Félix de Azara put it early in the 19th century: “Humans make remote beasts bind together.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250226/original/file-20181212-110237-1cr2bj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250226/original/file-20181212-110237-1cr2bj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250226/original/file-20181212-110237-1cr2bj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250226/original/file-20181212-110237-1cr2bj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250226/original/file-20181212-110237-1cr2bj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250226/original/file-20181212-110237-1cr2bj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250226/original/file-20181212-110237-1cr2bj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hind leg of the Nordic elk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Museum of Pharmacy (Bressanone-Italy). Photograph by Oswald Peer.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One such story that I’m currently researching revolves around the hooves of a species of large mammals. Early in the 1580s, the Milanese physician Apollonius Menabenus, former doctor of John III Vasa of Sweden, published a treatise discussing the virtues of the elk. This “great beast”, he wrote, was a creature that suffered from epilepsy and cured itself by putting the hoof of the left hind foot into its ear. </p>
<p>This peculiar pairing of affliction and cure had been seen before. A similar habit had long ago been noted in the ass by Roman scholars <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-global-history/article/elk-the-ass-the-tapir-their-hooves-and-the-falling-sickness-a-story-of-substitution-and-animal-medical-substances/8F9909CB2976FD3C17C6139BA788B9AA">Dioscorides and Pliny</a>. So the fact that Swedish naturalist Olaus Magnus, one of the most important early modern authorities on this animal, described the elk as a wild ass or onager in his History of the Northern Peoples (1555) can probably explain this new belief about the elk. </p>
<p>This could have stimulated Menabenus to write about the elk, an animal that in Sweden had been placed under the king`s protection. Aware of the potential commercial interest in Swedish exotic and curious objects, Menabenus promoted the medical use of the so-called “nail of the great beast”.</p>
<h2>In the Americas</h2>
<p>The currency of this strange tale by no means ended in Northern Europe. Late in the 18th century, the Welsh traveller, naturalist and antiquarian, Thomas Pennant, devoted a long description in his Arctic Zoology to the elk and the moose, the largest extant species in the deer family. According to Pennant, North American natives used the elk hoof in the same way it was used in Old World pharmacopeias: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The opinion of this animal’s being subject to the epilepsy seems to have been universal, as well as the cure it finds by scratching its ear with the hind hoof till it draws blood. That hoof has been used on Indian medicine for the falling-sickness; they apply it to the heart of the afflicted, make him hold it in his left hand, and rub his ear with it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the other side of the Americas and almost at the same time, Félix de Azara attributed the same property to the hooves of the Paraguayan tapir, a large herbivorous mammal, with a short, prehensile snout, that inhabits forest regions of South America. The animal was called “gran bestia” by the Spaniards and “anta” by the Portuguese. Since then, every time the tapir was described, in no matter which region of South America, the medical virtues of the its hoof reappeared over and over again as a local, native tradition.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250947/original/file-20181217-181905-1yyguba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250947/original/file-20181217-181905-1yyguba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250947/original/file-20181217-181905-1yyguba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250947/original/file-20181217-181905-1yyguba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250947/original/file-20181217-181905-1yyguba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250947/original/file-20181217-181905-1yyguba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250947/original/file-20181217-181905-1yyguba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tapir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wellcome Collection</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Animal medicines</h2>
<p>Referring either to the moose, elks or tapirs, all the way across the Americas and Europe, the sources exhibit a recurring belief that the hooves of large mammals, often simply called “the great beast”, were valuable in treatment of human epilepsy. Pennant, the Welsh naturalist, considered this association to be a kind of universal belief or a remarkable parallel to the Old World. He saw the pattern as evidence of an underlying ancestral unity of humans that causes them to react similarly to new and evolving situations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pangolin-illegal-medicine-trade-threatens-these-scaly-mammals-with-extinction-33817">Pangolin: illegal medicine trade threatens these scaly mammals with extinction</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the contemporary trade in jaguar’s fangs shows us that these reactions could have more mundane causes. The nail of the “great beast” and the jaguar´s fang have something in common. Both illustrate how the commerce in animal products transfers names and virtues across species, contributing to a human association between species that come from alien worlds. It was commerce, not universal truth, that lead to the search for surrogates that could act as the “great beast” on both sides of the Atlantic, sealing the destiny of the local animal species selected to be the source of the curing hoof. </p>
<p>Jaguar fangs, for now, are not used in Bolivia as medicine; their sale appears <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02314-5">strongly linked</a> to the community of Chinese workers who have arrived in the country in the last decade. But the story of the nail of the great beast makes it plausible that in the near future it will be considered part of the country’s traditions. We’ll have to stay tuned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irina Podgorny receives funding from CONICET and FONCYT in Argentina.</span></em></p>
Stories of substitution and surrogates are all too common in the wildlife trade, especially when it comes to medicines derived from animal parts.
Irina Podgorny, Visiting Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101934
2018-08-23T07:29:04Z
2018-08-23T07:29:04Z
Five environmental disasters that we should make sure children know about
<p>The birth of industrial civilisation in the 18th century meant humans could extract, transport, and process ever more of nature’s bounty, permanently affecting natural cycles. As we navigate the Anthropocene, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthropocene-vs-meghalayan-why-geologists-are-fighting-over-whether-humans-are-a-force-of-nature-101057">much-debated geological epoch</a> that recognises the geological and ecological impact of the industrial age, there are several environmental disasters and crimes that should be taught in schools to educate young people about the human impact on our shared planet.</p>
<p>In choosing a list of five, I have confined my choices to the 1960s and beyond as popular environmental alarmism was born in the decade of cultural revolution that questioned the conventional wisdom of Western civilisation. </p>
<h2>1. Torrey Canyon Oil Disaster, 1967: an early televised warning</h2>
<p>This was the first major oil spill of the post-Second World War era. When the SS Torrey Canyon was shipwrecked on a reef off the coast of Cornwall, England, spilling 875,000 barrels of crude oil into the sea, a national event sparked an international debate about the impact of transporting oil, the size of tankers (which had grown dramatically since 1945), and the use of untested chemicals to break down the spilled oil. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233108/original/file-20180822-149481-1kjwaad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A guillemot is left covered in crude oil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Millions of litres of the detergent <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/torrey-canyon-oil-spill-cornwall-richard-pearce-a7633486.html">BP 1002</a> were sprayed into the sea, but it failed to break down the oil and caused more long term damage to birds and the marine environment. </p>
<p>Torrey Canyon was one of the first televised environmental disasters. Images broadcast around the world helped fuel the fledgling environmental movement and highlighted the vulnerability of marine ecosystems, the role of chemicals, and the dangers of a new global economy based on consumerism and fossil fuels.</p>
<h2>2. Love Canal, 1978: popular protest and environmental protection</h2>
<p>One of the most significant environmental disasters in American history happened in the city of Niagara Falls, upstate New York. Between 1942 and 1953 the Hooker Chemical Company used the city’s “Love Canal” to dump 21,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals, including 12 carcinogens. It then sold the land to the Niagara Falls School Board <a href="https://www.geneseo.edu/history/love_canal_history">for US$1</a>.</p>
<p>By 1978, the chemical pollution had caused residents surrounding Love Canal to suffer from <a href="https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/investigations/love_canal/lctimbmb.htm">birth defects, miscarriages and cancer rates</a> far in excess of national averages. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233104/original/file-20180822-149472-uundox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest, c1978.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Love_Canal_protest.jpg">EPA / wiki</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A popular resident’s protest, driven by local mother-turned-activist Lois Gibbs, forced the American government to act and prompted a national debate about chemical waste disposal sites. President Jimmy Carter declared a state of emergency, 700 families were eventually moved away from the site, and the Environment Protection Agency’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-history">Superfund</a> was established in 1980 to clear up chemical waste sites, oil spills, and natural disasters. </p>
<p>One community’s suffering and protest provided the legal framework to challenge polluters and command the American state to fund the clean up of environmental disasters.</p>
<h2>3. Operation Ranch Hand, 1962-1971: ethics of war, legal rights of nature</h2>
<p>Operation Ranch Hand was part of an American herbicidal warfare programme during the Vietnam War, which sought to remove the strategic cover the forest canopy provided for the Viet Cong. Three US administrations – the governments of Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/29/usa.adrianlevy">sprayed 72m litres of defoliants and herbicides</a>, primarily “Agent Orange” to <a href="https://theconversation.com/agent-orange-exposed-how-u-s-chemical-warfare-in-vietnam-unleashed-a-slow-moving-disaster-84572">kill Vietnam’s forests and poison its rice paddies</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233105/original/file-20180822-149493-jd0t5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exposure to Agent Orange caused birth defects in many Vietnamese people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">katiekk / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The US was condemned internationally and accused of breaking the Geneva Convention which banned the uses of chemical weapons on humans. Though it defended itself by stating that humans were not directly targeted, America’s actions were described as “ecocide” by Swedish prime minister Olof Palme at the UN’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18315205">first environment summit</a> in 1972.</p>
<p>Operation Ranch Hand should be taught in schools as it initiated discussions about the targeting of the natural environment in warfare, ecocide as the <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1101/11012501">fifth “crime against the peace”</a>, and whether nature should be bestowed with its own legal rights.</p>
<h2>4. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, 2011: energy and disaster</h2>
<p>In March 2011, a strong earthquake off the coast of Japan resulted in the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. A tsunami unleashed by the quake overwhelmed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/fukushima-150">Fukushima</a> nuclear plant’s safety systems, disabling the emergency generators and preventing the reactors from being cooled. As a result, reactors one, two, and three suffered meltdowns. </p>
<p>Despite no deaths being directly attributed to the nuclear meltdown, unlike at Chernobyl, it is estimated that the radiation from the many dump sites will last <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24332346">for 300 years</a>. Teaching about the Fukushima disaster in schools encourages children to consider the fuels of the future as we come to legislate for the roles of solar, tidal, wind, and non-renewable energies. With a growing global population and energy demands, how we produce energy and maintain the health of the natural world is a central question for the 21st century.</p>
<h2>5. Palm Oil plantations: an ongoing ecological disaster</h2>
<p>Palm oil is derived from the palm fruit which originates in West Africa but is now largely cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia. It is found in cosmetics, cleaning products, shampoos and all kinds of food from frozen pizzas to peanut butter. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233098/original/file-20180822-149472-136v0ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation in Borneo, Malaysia. Where will the orangutans live?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rich Carey/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet palm oil is also a leading cause of deforestation and biodiversity loss. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that <a href="https://deforestationandpalmoil.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/8/5/18854416/wwf.pdf">300 football pitches</a> are deforested every hour to make way for plantations, while species such as the orangutan are being driven towards extinction as their habitats disappear. </p>
<p>It is important to teach about the impact of palm oil production because it forces us to confront the very foundations of our relationship with nature. It is a case study of an unsustainable economic system that elevates short term economic gain at an ecological cost. A discussion about palm oil is a discussion about the future of life on this planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101934/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Sanders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Oil spills, nuclear meltdowns and chemical poisonings should be taught in schools.
Brett Sanders, Lecturer in History, Coventry University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/70260
2017-01-10T02:00:56Z
2017-01-10T02:00:56Z
Exxon’s Rex Tillerson and the rise of Big Oil in American politics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152019/original/image-20170106-18659-r1i9dn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, part of a behind-the-scenes policy to ensure access to oil for the U.S. and its allies. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_D._Roosevelt_and_King_Ibn_Saud_of_Saudi_Arabia_at_Great_Bitter_Lake_in_Egypt_-_NARA_-_197295.jpg">National Archives and Records Administration</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“How Big Oil Bought the White House and Tried to Steal the Country” is the subtitle of a book that tells the story of a presidential election in which a candidate allowed money from big oil companies to help him win office and then rewarded them with plum appointments in his cabinet. </p>
<p>With President-elect Donald Trump picking former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, one might think the book is an early exposé of the presidential election of 2016. </p>
<p>Instead, it’s from “<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1136065.The_Teapot_Dome_Scandal">The Teapot Dome Scandal</a>,” a book that tells the story of a corruption scandal that rocked the term of President Warren G. Harding’s administration in the 1920s. </p>
<p>In the context of Tillerson’s controversial appointment, history is a useful guide to understand the rising political power of Big Oil over the past century, a subject I’ve studied and <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/Crude-Reality-Petroleum-World-History-Exploring/14041282380/bd">written about</a>. And with Tillerson, the political influence of the energy sector has reached a high point, particularly because it strikes the president-elect and other observers as a sensible, mainstream selection. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152023/original/image-20170106-18662-162o2yf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tillerson is no stranger to Russia’s Vladimir Putin as ExxonMobil has worked with Russian oil giant Rosneft to develop oil and natural gas fields in Russia and North America.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Government Press Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this is only the latest episode of a tight relationship between energy and the U.S. government that stretches over decades. </p>
<h2>Access to energy</h2>
<p>In 1921, when Albert Fall accepted his position as secretary of the interior, he interpreted his responsibility to accelerate energy development on federal lands, including some in an out-of-the-way place known as Teapot Dome, Wyoming. And he believed that this meant involving private entities. </p>
<p>He brokered a deal with Harry Sinclair and Edward Doheny, major players in the booming American oil fields of the early 1900s, blazing a <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/Tempest-Over-Teapot-Dome-Story-Albert/15936977105/bd">new trail for federal policy</a> – a trail that laid clear the crucial relationship between energy development and political power. In Fall’s case, he personally accepted cash to allow this access to oil developers, which made him the first cabinet official to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Teapot-Dome-Scandal">go to jail</a> for crimes committed while serving in office. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152040/original/image-20170108-18659-1fbqo3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Albert B. Fall, the former secretary of the interior, became the first cabinet official to go to jail for accepting money from oil companies to clear the way for drilling on public lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Library of Congress</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since its indiscreet beginning with Teapot Dome, of course, oil has only become more essential to the lives of every American. If we follow the lead of Life magazine creator Henry Luce, who referred to the 20th century as the “<a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/internationalism">American Century</a>,” we are by association also declaring it the era of fossil fuels and particularly of petroleum. Oil and other fossil fuels were the relatively inexpensive energy resources that provided the foundation for the modern consumer society and political policy often focused on ensuring that supplies be assured and kept stable. </p>
<p>Despite energy being central to our society, though, the policy influence of Big Oil most often functioned behind the scenes. For example, President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 struck a deal in a secret meeting with King Ibn Saud to allow the U.S. and its allies to <a href="https://www.buffalolib.org/vufind/Record/426304/Reviews">have access to Saudi oil for decades to come</a>. During the ensuing decades, foreign oil development was carried out by international companies but often required the support, if discreet, of the U.S. government. </p>
<h2>Out from behind the scenes</h2>
<p>In domestic politics after 1950, the executives of oil corporations were often involved informally in elections, particularly as donors or lobbyists to candidates more friendly to the industry than others. Most often, though, Big Oil <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prize:_The_Epic_Quest_for_Oil,_Money,_and_Power">remained in the background</a>.</p>
<p>In the modern era of heightened environmental awareness, Republican administrations typically created policies that benefited the oil companies. It was, for instance, the Reagan administration that sought to <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-the-presidential-race-lessons-from-the-reagan-years-66194">undermine the new environmental regulations of the 1970s</a>, particularly with Anne Gorsuch as head of the Environmental Protection Agency and James Watt as secretary of the interior. It was Watt who allowed extensive energy development on federal lands under his jurisdiction – however, with no payment to himself.</p>
<p>Through the 1980s, energy resources on federal lands were opened to development, and environmental regulations were curbed to be more “friendly” to corporate interests. Most often, Reagan was unabashedly overt in his approach in this regard; however, Big Oil and energy were not cornerstones of his administration, per se. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152024/original/image-20170106-18665-mh5f6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">George W. Bush, pictured here with Saudi King Abdulla, traveled in 2008 to Saudi Arabia to ask the country to pump more oil in order to lower prices. It did not.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tenor and role of oil in government changed more substantially when George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush – both former oil executives – were in office. They prioritized an agenda that, while not confrontational, grew from incredibly close consultation with the energy industry that they knew so well. </p>
<p>Dick Cheney personifies the proximity of these energy interests to power during this era. After serving under Reagan and George H. W. Bush, Cheney was the CEO of one of the world’s largest drilling and rigging suppliers, Halliburton Inc., during the Clinton years before reemerging as George W. Bush’s vice president in 2000. </p>
<p>In the book “<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781594203350?aff=PenguinGroupUS">Private Empire</a>,” journalist Steve Coll describes Cheney’s consultation with industry executives, from which the Bush energy policy took shape. These <a href="http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a041701shellnepdg">close consultations</a> drew <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701987.html">criticism</a> for Cheney’s reluctance to disclose the participants and the apparent influence the industry had on policy.</p>
<p>Thus, a review of presidential administrations shows the growing clout of leaders from the energy industry. What’s perhaps more revealing, however, is the increasing willingness to allow this connection to be seen by the public – to view it as business as usual – as evidenced by Tillerson’s appointment.</p>
<h2>Direction on foreign policy?</h2>
<p>These political changes have come at a time of growing national awareness of the importance of energy, both as a source of wealth from the expansion of domestic drilling in the U.S. and as a contributor to climate change from burning fuels. </p>
<p>While the George W. Bush administration <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/19/us/report-by-epa-leaves-out-data-on-climate-change.html">internally pressured government agencies to subdue scientific findings that supported climate change</a>, the Obama administration used regulations and government science to pursue an agenda of mitigating climate change and adaptively planning for a different future. In this approach, climate change was included within the Department of State as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-military-view-on-climate-change-its-eroding-our-national-security-and-we-should-prepare-for-it-65535">matter of national security</a>. </p>
<p>Tillerson’s appointment, along with other <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-legal-activist-scott-pruitt-undo-clean-air-and-water-protections-as-head-of-epa-70127">cabinet appointees</a>, suggests a major reversal on the nation’s serious treatment of the issue of climate change. </p>
<p>While Obama worked with over 100 nations to craft the 2015 Paris climate accord, ExxonMobil under Tillerson faced <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-targeting-exxon-on-climate-new-york-puts-all-corporations-on-notice-50366">criticism</a> and <a href="http://www.clf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/CLF-v.-ExxonMobil-Complaint.pdf">lawsuits</a> accusing it of concealing the science that substantiated climate change. </p>
<p>Tillerson and the company, which traces its <a href="http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/about-us/history/overview">origins</a> back to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and has operated in about <a href="http://www.exxonmobileurope.com/Files/PA/Europe/CorporateBiography2003_final.pdf">200 countries and territories</a>, is of course no stranger to foreign affairs and politics. Coll quotes Lee Raymond, Tillerson’s predecessor at the energy giant, as saying: “Presidents come and go; Exxon doesn’t come and go.” </p>
<p>As the 20th century closed, Coll described Exxon’s approach to policy in this fashion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The corporation’s lobbyists bent and shaped American foreign policy, as well as economic, climate, chemical and environmental regulation. Exxon maintained all-weather alliances with sympathetic American politicians while calling as little attention to its influence as possible.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>With Tillerson as the country’s top diplomat, the opportunity to redefine the rationale and methods for the entirety of our interactions with other nations is unparalleled. While this has been true to some extent since World War II, this appointment institutionalizes the view that our national diplomacy – much like a business – will be guided by resource acquisition, particularly energy.</p>
<p><em>This article has been corrected on January 31, 2017 to indicate that Halliburton is one of the largest oil services companies in the world, not the largest.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian C. Black does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Big Oil has historically played a behind-the-scenes role on American policy and politics. No longer.
Brian C. Black, Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/62480
2016-07-26T14:19:22Z
2016-07-26T14:19:22Z
Can nature advocates save threatened Boundary Waters wilderness – again?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131847/original/image-20160725-31202-ai2l49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Residents near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota and many others are concerned of the impact of mining in its headwaters. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/atbaker/8973490665/in/photolist-eEXu9i-5f5w1N-oSs4RR-fvmRXu-fv7EK8-fv7A1k-eEXr9x-fvmSWf-eDa9cR-5f5c7W-cV881U-eEXYJt-8D3MEo-eF4uTf-eEXU8P-eF59s1-4yVY9w-eF4K2w-5f5bd3-dduKDv-eEXBnH-eEXrmc-eF4wC9-eEXtae-3ycbfU-8tRtQW-4yW8yo-eEY49R-KipdT-8anLHZ-eF5fKb-8aqZxj-5f52cf-5kcbjx-5eZYLM-gVB3oc-anfV3-5f5dzh-5f4Zbh-fv7FiM-fvmWW3-PhZND-5eZRi4-5eZYAx-fvmSgq-anfVi-fv7Af8-fvmY5Q-anfUE-5f5aSh">atbaker/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The celebrated <a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/superior/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5202169">Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness</a> (BWCAW) in northeastern Minnesota, which constitutes one million acres of the Superior National Forest, is among the most pristine <a href="http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/technical/?cid=nrcs143_014199">river and stream</a> ecosystems in the United States. With any luck, it will remain so.</p>
<p>But that luck will depend on whether the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the unspoiled landscape, rejects the request of <a href="http://www.twin-metals.com/">Twin Metals</a> – a wholly owned subsidiary of Antofogasta, the Chilean mining conglomerate – for a renewal of its federal mineral leases in the Rainy River watershed; the majority of this vast basin of lake, marsh and wetland lies within the BWCAW and adjacent Voyagers National Park. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.html">Bureau of Land Management</a> oversees such leases but because the resources to be mined, including copper and nickel, underlay portions of the Superior National Forest, the Forest Service must consent to any mining operation. As part of its analysis of Twin Metals’ request, the federal agency <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/07/20/ely-bwca-mining">held public hearings</a> and conducted a 30-day public comment period. </p>
<p>Yet so worried is the Forest Service about the potential of <a href="https://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/issues/issues?issue=coppernickel">sulfide mining</a> to severely disrupt the Boundary Waters that it issued an advisory in advance of public comment period to explain why it was considering whether to withhold consent for lease renewal. “The Forest Service is deeply concerned by the location of the leases within the same watershed as the BWCAW, and by the inherent risks associated with potential copper, nickel and other sulfide mining operations within that watershed,” its <a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/superior/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD505378">press release</a> declared. “Those risks exist during all phases of mine development, implementation and long-term closure and remediation.” </p>
<p>For an agency long accused of being too close to such resource extractors as the <a href="http://www.environmentnow.org/forest.html">logging</a> industry, this public hand-wringing is extraordinary. Then again, maybe it’s not. After all, the beauty of the Boundary Waters’ 2,000 glacial lakes and countless streams and the thick boreal forests that frame its crystalline waters draws more than a quarter-million <a href="http://www.friends-bwca.org/visit/bwcaw/">visitors</a> a year to paddle, hunt, hike and camp. These aesthetic virtues and recreational values were why the Boundary Waters area was first set aside in the 1920s; they are what makes the Superior National Forest, superior. </p>
<p>The debate in Minnesota mirrors the many contested decisions over how to prioritize conservation, recreation and resource extraction on public lands in the western U.S. It’s also a gauge of how much public opinion can weigh in preserving special places like the Boundary Waters and other ecological gems. </p>
<h2>One of few great canoe countries in world</h2>
<p>The formation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is firmly rooted in recreation and the value of preserving natural spaces. <a href="http://carhart.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=arthurCarhart">Arthur Carhart</a>, a landscape architect and wilderness advocate, was the Forest Service’s first recreational planner, joining the agency in 1919. </p>
<p>Carhart made an immediate mark. Assigned to develop a plan for roads into and cabins surrounding Trappers Lake in Colorado’s White River National Forest, he advised his supervisors that the best and highest use of the lake and its environs was no use at all. The agency accepted his advice and by implication Carhart’s subsequent conclusion about the need to protect other imperiled landscapes.</p>
<p>“There is a limit to the number of lakes in existence,” he <a href="http://carhart.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=arthurCarhart">wrote</a> to author and conservationist Aldo Leopold, who was also pushing for wilderness designations throughout the National Forest system, “there is a limit to the mountainous areas of the world, [and] there are portions of natural scenic beauty which are God-made.” Such divine terrain, uncluttered and primitive, “of a right should be the property of all people.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131848/original/image-20160725-26566-1cemxts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photo of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from 1956, the same year conservationist Sigrud Olson called for continued preservation to provide ‘moral and spiritual strength and balance in a world of technology and frenzied speed.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2131982">US National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Carhart felt just as strongly in 1921 when assigned to evaluate the recreational potential of of the Superior National Forest. As he toured its wet, green expanse, it became obvious what the forest should support and what it should not. “There is one outstanding feature found in the Superior National Forest which is not present in any other nationally owned property,” he noted. “This is a lake type of recreation. The Superior is unquestionably one of the few great canoe countries of the world.” It would be nonsensical “to make the Superior a foot, horseback, airplane or auto playground for this would mean non-utilization of existing natural advantages.”</p>
<p>Yet despite the Superior’s abundant recreational opportunities, this “National playground of National service” initially went unfunded, Carhart lamented, because “Congress [had] not made any appropriation for recreation in the National Forests.” That lack of allocations would be resolved in the coming years; the multiple-day canoeing trips that Carhart anticipated have become an annual rite for thousands. </p>
<p>Carhart’s report is rightly credited with laying the foundation for all subsequent recreational planning in the forest. In 1926, for example, Agriculture Secretary <a href="http://millercenter.org/president/essays/jardine-1925-secretary-of-agriculture">William Jardine</a> signed off on the Superior Roadless Area (the forerunner of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area). Its singular purpose was to “conserve the value of the Superior National Forest as a game and fish country and as a national playground offering a virile and wholesome form of recreation off the beaten paths.”</p>
<p>Over the years, additional legislation beat back efforts to erect hydroelectric dams and promoted linkages between the Superior and the adjoining million-acre <a href="https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/quetico">Quetico Provincial Park</a> in northwestern Ontario. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area is also the only wilderness with a provision prohibiting airplanes and helicopters flying below 4,000 feet. These restrictions have helped it become what Carhart believed it should be, a “magnificent play area.”</p>
<h2>Value of nature-based recreation</h2>
<p>Three decades later, another conservationist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigurd_F._Olson">Sigurd Olson</a>, also wrote movingly of the Boundary Waters’ wildness. Years of canoeing its limitless reaches led him to pick up his pen to convey to those who had never plied its cold waters what makes the experience so beguiling. “The movement of a canoe is like a reed in the wind. Silence is part of it, and the sounds of lapping water, bird songs, and wind in the trees,” he <a href="http://bwca.cc/historical/sigurdolson.htm">wrote in 1956</a>. </p>
<p>Protecting this silence, and the solitude it promotes, required a fierce defense, which Olson mounted by by arguing successfully that the Forest Service should block the noisy intrusion of aircraft over the glittering lakes, shut off the angry buzz of chainsaws in the deep woods and protect the habitat of lynx and loon. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131850/original/image-20160725-26566-t2stdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U.S. Forest Service has expressed concern over a mine lease upstream from the wilderness area considered among the best in the world for canoeing because of the potential environmental damage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Mike DeSocio</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The key question for Olson 60 years ago – and which remains relevant today – was how Americans wanted to experience nature and under what conditions: “We are waging a battle for man’s spirit. No task is more important, for the wilderness we save today will provide moral and spiritual strength and balance in a world of technology and frenzied speed.” </p>
<p>By rejecting Twin Metals’ request for a renewal of its mineral lease, the U.S. Forest Service will reaffirm Olson’s and Carhart’s convictions. It will also uphold its own managerial legacy reflected in its current concerns that this mining operation would contaminate land and water beyond repair. Should the Obama administration then intervene by placing a 20-year moratorium on mining in the region, as Walter Mondale and Theodore Roosevelt IV have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/opinion/protect-minnesotas-boundary-waters.html?_r=0">urged</a>, it will give the agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, legislators and activists time to purchase, extinguish or prohibit the filing of mining claims there, similar to the Mining in the Parks Act (1976) that has since protected Death Valley National Park.</p>
<p>Whatever the strategy, the end game is clear. From its inception 90 years ago, the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area has been a striking reminder that some places are simply too biologically significant, spiritually transcendent and gloriously wild to mar.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Char Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Almost 100 years ago, the foundations to preserve the Boundary Waters in Minnesota for recreation were put in place. Now residents are debating whether to allow a mine in its headwaters.
Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pomona College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52239
2016-02-01T11:09:01Z
2016-02-01T11:09:01Z
Who politicized the environment and climate change?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109753/original/image-20160201-3888-1p5bi1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protector in chief: Theodore Roosevelt with conservationist John Muir at Yosemite in 1906.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93503130/">U.S. Library of Congress</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An environmental activist friend of mine recently shook her head and marveled at the extraordinary accomplishments of the last several months. “Still lots of work to be done,” she said. “But wow! This has been an epic period for environmentalists!” </p>
<p>From the rejection of the Keystone pipeline to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (COP21), “epic” may be an apt descriptor for someone who is an environmentalist. </p>
<p>However, nothing galvanizes opposing forces to action better than significant wins by their foes. And 2016 appears to promise that environmental issues – particularly climate change – will be more politicized than ever before. </p>
<p>It wasn’t always this way. </p>
<p>By and large, environmental action since the 1960s proceeded in the U.S. in a bipartisan fashion, emphasizing issues of human health and resource conservation. That’s no longer true: almost by default, the Democratic Party stands largely alone, rather than together with the Republican Party, to uphold the ethic that environmental protection is a united, American common interest. </p>
<p>How have we gotten to a point where the environment has become such a partisan issue? </p>
<h2>From Teddy R. to Reagan</h2>
<p>The intellectual roots of American environmentalism are most often traced back to the 19th-century ideas of Romanticism and Transcendentalism from thinkers such as Henry David Thoreau. These philosophical and aesthetic ideas grew into initiatives for preserving the first national parks and monuments, an effort closely associated with Theodore Roosevelt. By the close of the 19th century, a combination of resource exploitation and increasing leisure led to a series of conservation efforts, such as protection of <a href="http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/features0412/hats.html">birds from feather hunters</a>, which were often led by wealthy women. </p>
<p>Today’s environmentalism clearly harks back to these origins with aspects of being a social movement that seeks clear political outcomes, including regulation and government action. But much of what became known as the “modern environmental movement” originally coalesced around groups that formed under the influence of 1960s radicalism.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109717/original/image-20160129-3913-1plidm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The large oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969 provided some of the impetus for landmark environmental laws signed by Nixon, including the Clean Air Act, which he signed December 31, 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/events/centennials/nixon/photo-gallery/nixon-wh-years.html">National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The biggest impact of these organizations, though, came during the later 1960s and 1970s, when their membership skyrocketed with large numbers of the concerned, but not-so-radical, middle class. Through the formation of “nongovernment organizations” (NGOs), ranging widely from the Audubon Society to the Sierra Club, Americans found a mechanism through which they could demand a political response to environmental problems from lawmakers. </p>
<p>During the 1970s and 1980s, NGOs often initiated the call for specific policies and then lobbied members of Congress to create legislation. Such bipartisan action included clean water laws that restored Lake Erie and <a href="http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/File:Cuyahoga_River_Fire_Nov._3,_1952.jpg">Ohio’s Cuyahoga River</a> or responded to dramatic events such as the <a href="http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/%7Ejeff/sb_69oilspill/69oilspill_articles2.html">Santa Barbara Oil Spill in 1969</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109718/original/image-20160129-3888-cctkha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The nuclear power accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 fueled an antinuclear protest, a major concern of many environmentalists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Anti-nuke_rally_in_Harrisburg_USA.jpg">National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Republican and Democratic presidents of this era signed laws that had begun with grassroots demands for environmental action. Environmental issues, whether they were the effects of <a href="http://www3.epa.gov/region1/eco/acidrain/history.html">acid rain</a> or the <a href="http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/history.html">ozone hole</a>, had become a prime concern in the political arena. Indeed, by the 1980s, NGOs had created a new political and legal battlefield as each side of environmental arguments sought to lobby lawmakers. </p>
<p>These gains by environmentalists had a ripple effect politically. In “<a href="http://thepenguinpress.com/book/a-climate-of-crisis-america-in-the-age-of-environmentalism/">A Climate of Crisis,” historian Patrick Allitt</a> describes the opposition to environmentalism that emerged as a result of the bipartisan action on environment in the 1970s. </p>
<p>In particular, he describes the “anti-environmental” response manifested in policies of President Ronald Reagan, who slowed efforts to limit private development on public lands and set out to shrink the responsibilities of the federal government.</p>
<h2>Antiregulation</h2>
<p>Today, portions of this backlash appear to inform the views of candidates in the 2016 Republican presidential primary who reiterate the libertarian belief that it’s best to <a href="http://cdfe.org/">severely limit government regulation of the environment</a>.</p>
<p>And compared to the cooperative vision of past leaders including President Teddy Roosevelt and Congressman John Saylor, who fought in the 1960s for wilderness and scenic river legislation, the Republican environmental mandate of the past appears today to be stymied. </p>
<p>Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz, for example, tapped into this spirit when in December 2015 he held a three-hour “hearing” titled “<a href="http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2548">Data or Dogma</a>? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate over the Magnitude of Human Impact on Climate Change” (which technically was convened by the science panel of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that he chairs). </p>
<p>Prior to his hearing on the topic, climate change had been little discussed at the party’s presidential debates; however, Cruz <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2015/12/bully-pulpit-ted-cruz-offers-his-take-climate-change">proclaimed</a> that the “accepted science” proving climate change was actually a “religion” being <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/04/30/the-paradox-of-consensus/">forced on the American public</a> by “monied interests.”</p>
<p>By contrast, Democrats stress the term “<a href="http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/sources-of-guidance-on-right-and-wrong/common-sense/party-affiliation/democratlean-dem/">common sense</a>” and appear more than content to allow their party to become the primary bastion for environmental concern. Hillary Clinton, as the likely Democratic presidential candidate, has often been publicly ahead of the Obama administration on environmental issues. </p>
<p>For instance, when in early 2015 Obama approved the expansion of Arctic drilling, <a href="https://theconversation.com/hillary-clinton-stakes-out-safe-political-ground-with-energy-and-climate-plan-45343">Clinton openly opposed it</a>. Also, Clinton was openly against the Keystone pipeline project long before Obama definitively rejected it. </p>
<p>In both Keystone and Arctic drilling, Obama allowed the issues a long and very public vetting process that has revealed a powerful, broad-based environmental lobby. NGOs such as 350.org and others have demonstrated a willingness for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-activists-playbook-behind-obamas-keystone-rejection-50357">activist demonstrations</a>, particularly due to a deep base of support for issues such as climate change and sustainable energy.</p>
<p>Republican candidates seem prepared to relent possible compromise on environmental questions in order to appeal to a special interest faction of their party. Overall, though, Gallup polling demonstrates broad-based support for environmental issues, including a solid <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/1615/environment.aspx">46 percent favoring protecting the environment over economic development</a>. </p>
<h2>Climate change worsens the political divide</h2>
<p>Going forward, the most revealing flashpoint on issues related to the environment is likely to be climate change, particularly after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/paris-agreement-on-climate-change-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-52242">historic Paris Agreement of December 2015</a>. </p>
<p>Global warming first made <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/24/us/global-warming-has-begun-expert-tells-senate.html?pagewanted=all">front page news</a> in the 1980s when NASA scientist James Hansen testified to the Senate. Then in 2007, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made history by <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_synthesis_report.htm">specifying the connection</a> between temperature rise and human activity with “very high confidence.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109716/original/image-20160129-3913-jg0foo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An emerging political force: activists for action on climate change and sustainable energy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/8484196605/in/photolist-dVHJ4P-dVPff5-dVHyHt-dVHxtD-dVHEwc-dVHFjV-dVPmGu-dVHJhx-dVHNtP-dVHJyR-dVPsoS-dVPscY-dVPr69-dVPeP3-dVHzW6-dVHNWn-dVHMnV-dVHN5n-dVHuJR-dVHFx6-dVPfLu-dVPm47-dVPeCL-dVPrrb-dVPptQ-dVPhZ1-dVHv8p-dVHBhk-dVPfBE-dVHzmD-dVPnAN-dVHwR6-dVHBsP-dVP8iw-dVHKFz-dVHyVk-dVHwDr-dVPfWb-dVHA9r-dVHxTr-dVHHQ4-dVHKTM-dVHGKX-dVPf21-dVHGbi-dVHxGR-dVPe2Q-dVHvGk-dVHMc2-dVHLzk">Steve Rhodes/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In its relation to environmentalism, climate change represents a clear expansion of thinking. While local issues such as oil spills and toxic waste remain concerns, climate change clarified the possible planet-changing extent of the human impact. As a concept, it has had time to percolate through human culture so that today we are most concerned with issues of “mitigation” and “adaptation” – managing or dealing with implications. </p>
<p>In each case, these responses to climate change involve plans for regulations to, for example, limit carbon emissions. In response to the increasing call for structural changes to our economy and society, contrary voices (such as that of Cruz) have found traction by saying mitigation efforts will undercut economic development and, in general, disrupt our everyday lives.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, concrete mitigation efforts, such as discussions of “cap and trade” legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions and international pacts such as COP21, have also spurred panicked responses among those destined to be impacted by the new thinking. For instance, coal companies and a number of states <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/257856-24-states-coal-company-sue-obama-over-climate-rule">openly fight efforts by the EPA to monitor and regulate CO2 as a pollutant</a>. </p>
<p>So who politicized the environment? Ultimately, voters have. </p>
<p>By tying environmental issues such as climate change to our system of laws and regulations at the end of the 1960s, Americans permanently chained these concerns to political vagaries in the future. Politics is now an integral part of the process of regulating the nation’s environment and health. </p>
<p>Therefore, a better question might be: “Who exploits the issue of environmental protection for political gain?” That answer, it appears, unfolds today for American voters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian C. Black does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Historically, environmental causes enjoyed bipartisan support but gains by NGOs and the emergence of climate change as a social issue have created a sharp political divide.
Brian C. Black, Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52740
2016-01-08T16:03:55Z
2016-01-08T16:03:55Z
The twisted roots of U.S. land policy in the West
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107613/original/image-20160108-13994-1zsnpv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was often referred to as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining in the 19th century.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmoregon/6685359611/in/album-72157628841757125/">U.S. Bureau of Land Management</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The seizure of a Malheur National Wildlife Refuge building in southeastern Oregon by armed and self-styled “constitutionalists” was disturbing. To many it is viewed as a dangerous escalation in a long, admittedly heated and passionate but rarely violent, discussion of federal or public land management in the western United States. </p>
<p>It has also brought to the fore many questions from those not familiar with western land issues, the history of federal land or public land management policies. The event has some asking who the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is and why they manage so much land. </p>
<p>The history of U.S. federal land policy helps explain why so much of the West is public land – that is, land managed by the federal government and its various bureaus. History also shows why conflicts over land rights are flaring up now and why they’re difficult to resolve. </p>
<h2>The utility of land</h2>
<p>U.S. land policy predates the country itself, as both the British and the colonists regulated the cutting of forests to preserve a supply of timber for building naval vessels. After the Revolutionary War, the new country quickly sought both to acquire more land (in what is called the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Federal-Lands-Revisited-Press/dp/0801830982">Acquisition phase</a>) and to ensure private sector ownership (the Disposal phase). </p>
<p>Acquisition was accomplished by war or purchase; disposal was done to raise cash and promote new settlement. The <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/06/us/native-tribe-blasts-oregon-takeover">native inhabitants of these lands were removed</a>, usually by force.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107595/original/image-20160107-14020-wmpfnq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Federal and Indian land.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://nationalmap.gov/small_scale/printable/images/pdf/fedlands/fedlands3.pdf">U.S. Department of Interior</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1860s a new policy focused on federal land in the West developed – Retention – that is best understood through the creation of Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the U.S. and world. <a href="http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/runte1/">Other parks</a> would follow, though in an ad hoc and piecemeal fashion. The National Park Service was created in 1916 to manage and conserve these parks and provide “enjoyment for future generations.” </p>
<p>By the 1880s, there were growing concerns over deforestation. This led Congress to give the President the power to create <a href="http://www.amazon.com/U-S-Forest-Service-Centennial-History/dp/0295984023/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=">forest reserves</a>. Later renamed national forests, they were placed under the administration of the US Forest Service (USFS), which was created in 1905. Congress later took away that power but did create eastern national forests though land purchases <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/weeks-act.html">under the Weeks Act</a>. </p>
<p>The charismatic <a href="http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/People/Pinchot/Pinchot.aspx">Gifford Pinchot</a>, first Chief of USFS, helped make the bureau a professional land management agency. Pinchot and others made it clear that the forests were to be managed for the production of resources to be used by citizens. Thus the Retention policy evolved into an era of federal land management. A <a href="http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/People/Pinchot/Pinchot.aspx">utilitarian philosophy</a> took hold: forests would be managed for the “greatest good for the greatest number” in the long run. </p>
<p>President Theodore Roosevelt used his power to create <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Wilderness-Warrior-Theodore-Roosevelt/dp/0060565314">early national wildlife refuges</a>, including Malheur, which were separate from national forests; other presidents would follow his lead, as would Congress. Early reserves and those established later would be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, created in 1940 after many earlier configurations. These lands were set aside specifically for preservation of land for wildlife and habitat.</p>
<h2>Creation of the BLM</h2>
<p>The Bureau of Land Management was created in 1946 out of the merger of the General Land Office and the Grazing Service, which was created to manage grazing. Its origins were in the 1930s, when the Taylor Grazing Act was passed to bring stability to western grazing and to help reduce overgrazing. One key phrase of that <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/taylor-grazing-act-public-law-73-482-73rd-congress-2nd-session-59-stat-1269/oclc/20714417">act</a> stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>That in order to promote the highest use of the public lands pending its final disposal, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, by order to establish grazing districts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before the Taylor Grazing Act was created, federal officials, including Secretary of Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur and President Hoover, offered to transfer the pre-BLM public lands (the public domain lands) to the states to manage, minus the sub-surface mineral estate. The states declined citing the poor condition of the surface estate. </p>
<p>But the word “disposal” led some to conclude that eventually these lands would be transferred to the states to manage or perhaps sold. </p>
<p>BLM was closely watched through the 1960s and supervised in a sense by western congressmen, leading contemporary scholars such as Phillip O. Foss to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Grass-Administration-Grazing-Public/dp/0837121361">refer</a> to this as a “private government,” or that the agency as “captured” by the interests it was supposed to regulate. To put this differently, the agency basically conformed to the desires of the congressmen and their rancher and mining constituencies.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107614/original/image-20160108-14027-s9gkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the Forest Service in 1905. In the 1890s, he wrote, western forests were considered ‘inexhaustible.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gifford_Pinchot_3c03915u.jpg">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The BLM was often referred to as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mining,” as those were the primary uses and users of these lands. Often BLM employees came, and still come, from smaller western towns and ranch backgrounds and were primarily trained at <a href="http://ext.wsu.edu/documents/landgrant.pdf">western land grant universities</a>, reinforcing the tradition of placing a priority on using federal lands for their natural resources.</p>
<p>BLM lands are only in the West and BLM manages the most federal land, because this was the land not placed into the national forests and not set aside as national parks and monuments. Some in the West still believed that the BLM lands would be “disposed” of in some manner – that is, transferred from federal to state ownership or perhaps sold. </p>
<p>All of this changed with the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1977 (FLPMA). This act superseded the Taylor Grazing Act and made it national policy that the BLM lands would be retained in federal ownership, thus making this an example of Retention policy. </p>
<p>This retention, and new environmental laws and public interest in the BLM lands for recreation, wildlife, wilderness and so on, helped set off the <a href="https://kuecprd.ku.edu/%7Eupress/cgi-bin/978-0-7006-1895-8.html">Sagebrush Rebellion</a> of the<a href="https://kuecprd.ku.edu/%7Eupress/cgi-bin/series/development-of-western-resources/978-0-7006-0613-9.html"> late 1970s</a>. There had been previous protests dating back to <a href="https://theconversation.com/malheur-occupation-in-oregon-whose-land-is-it-really-52741">creation of the forest reserves</a>, but this rebellion is well remembered. The election of Ronald Reagan helped defuse the movement, as his Secretary James Watt pushed for the restoration of natural resource use and the weakening of environmental regulations.</p>
<h2>Conflicting views</h2>
<p>The BLM manages much of its land for the use of resources, as does the USFS. But these bureaus are considered multiple-use in that preservation is part of their activities. The National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service have preservation as their sole mission. </p>
<p>Many residents in small rural western towns believe traditional uses and users of BLM lands have been diminished and over-regulated. They would like to see more of a balance between use of natural resources and protection of these lands. As noted above, Native Americans <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/06/462179325/native-american-tribe-says-oregon-armed-occupiers-are-desecrating-sacred-land">take issue</a> with the notion that ranchers and others were here “first.” </p>
<p>There has been an off-again on-again movement to transfer much of the federal lands apart from the national parks and so-called <a href="http://www.wilderness.net/nwps/legisact">wilderness</a> (a land designation made by Congress) to states to manage. </p>
<p>But the cost of managing lands, including the huge ones caused by wildfire, and uncertainties over how the land could be used, continue to render this <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/home/2575779-155/snake-oil-salesman-rep-ken-ivory">politically unpalatable</a> to many.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Freemuth receives funding from USGS and the Bureau of Land Management. He is affiliated with the Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University</span></em></p>
What explains the anger behind the Malheur occupation in Oregon, and why does the BLM own so much land in the West?
John Freemuth, Professor of Public Policy and Senior Fellow Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy, Boise State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.