Environmental Ethics and Land Management ENVR E-120 http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120 Provisional Absolutes in a Contingent and Evolving World: Steps Toward an “Ecological 10 Commandments” Timothy C. Weiskel Research Director Cambridge Climate Research Associates, (CCRA) Session 15 14 December 2011 Harvard University Extension School Fall Semester 2011
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George Buckley and students Tim Weiskel - 3
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“As most things begin at Harvard…” Jack Spengler Tim Weiskel - 5
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The mandate of the Extension School is to extend Harvard’s learning and tools of inquiry “…beyond the gates.” Tim Weiskel - 12
The mandate of the Extension School is to extend Harvard’s learning and tools of inquiry “…beyond the gates.” Tim Weiskel - 13 Evaluate us accordingly….
People to thank…at the end of term If you feel grateful for this amazing program – it would be kind to drop an e-mail note to each of these people who have created and sustained this program: George Buckley John Spengler and Dean Michael Shinagel
People to thank…at the end of term Also…. those who specifically made this course so great – your T.A.s Tracy Stamos Wendy Machmuller and Zach Zevitas AND our collective Video Producer – Dan Coffey + his full staff of videographers and Distance Learning experts, Rod Lindheim & Dean Len Evenchik.
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"Santa Ana Winds Ravaging Western United States 'It's Insane'," YouTube - TheTurkeyNews, (2 December 2011).
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New evidence of a “tipping point” in arctic ice dynamics. http://www.climate-talks.net/2006-ENVRE130/Audio/20061212-BBC-Arctic-Sea-Ice.htm
What’s Going on “up top?” – Freak event? Or Trend? http://www.climate-talks.net/2008-ENVRE130/Video/20080926-YouTube-NOAA-Arctic-Ice-Index.htm
While much of Africa is going to be a “water-scarce environment, much of the Bay of Bengal is going to be awash in too much water, but not enough to drink.
Global Changes and Public Health • Climate Change and Public Health Paul Epstein, “Is Global Warming Harmful to Health?” – Malaria - Kenya – Dengue fever – West Nile Virus
Animation: A simplified model of global ocean circulation] Abrupt Climate Change from: "Abrupt Climate Change: Should We Be Worried? - Prepared for a panel on abrupt climate change at the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2003," Ocean and Climate Change Institution - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, (27 January 2003)
Animation: "If too much fresh water enters the North Atlantic..." Abrupt Climate Change: Should We Be Worried? - Prepared for a panel on abrupt climate change at the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2003," Ocean and Climate Change Institution - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution., (27 January 2003).
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Beyond our storm drains we will need to manage ourselves in fundamentally new ways…
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Ecological Ten Commandments Overarching Principles of the Environmental Ethics of Sustainability…1 Responsible ecocitizens should always and everywhere seek to tax, spend, legislate, litigate, advocate and agitate so as to…. 1. substitute the consumption of non-renewable resources with renewable ones; 2. reduce the consumption of renewables to at or below their rate of renewal; 3. introduce nothing into the waste/nutrient stream that cannot be "eaten" safely by another non-threatening organism;
Ecological Ten Commandments Overarching Principles of the Environmental Ethics of Sustainability…2 4. introduce nothing into the waste/nutrient stream that will destabilize system-wide balances in nutrient or energy flow; 5. allocate the fruits of production in a more, rather than a less, just and equitable fashion; 6. measure and monitor environmental conditions affecting the safety, health and welfare of all species -- not just human beings; by definition, a sustainable ecosystem cannot be species-centric, so anthropocentrism is not survivable and consequently human welfare alone is not a sufficient metric for an ethic of sustainability.
Ecological Ten Commandments Overarching Principles of the Environmental Ethics of Sustainability…3 7. educate and inform the public at large about the circumstances it must confront and the "footprint" it generates in the global environment; 8. entitle and empower local communities to manage their resources sustainably; 9. cajole, exhort and convince those who do not follow these precepts to mend the error of their ways;
Ecological Ten Commandments Overarching Principles of the Environmental Ethics of Sustainability…4 And 10. expose, denounce, condemn and seek to punish those who consistently and intentionally violate these precepts of responsible ecocitizenry -- including those who otherwise wish to present themselves as perfectly "respectable" public leaders. Why? “…that thy days may be long upon the earth.” [ If not you , who? If not now , when? ]
We are, perhaps, masters of our own destiny, BUT not under conditions of our own choosing. We happen to be alive during a particular “conjuncture” of global trends.
How should we be imagining the future? Thomas Berry has suggested that at this point in the human evolution in the cosmos we live in the “terminal Cenczoic” – the end of the “age of mammals…” Tim Weiskel - 70
How should we be imagining the future? Thomas Berry has suggested that at this point in the human evolution in the cosmos we live in the “terminal Cenczoic” – the end of the “age of mammals…” In the future we will choose either to go towards what he calls the “technozoic” or the “ecozoic.” Tim Weiskel - 71
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We will not survive for long in the technozoic… Tim Weiskel - 73
Principles of Ecosystem Management and Global Sustainability: Where Can We Go From Here?
Simple answer: more study on these matters… …. For the rest of your life. This is what Dean Shinagel means by Harvard’s “continuing education.” The requirements for this course have been light – but the expectations are immense. You are now launched on a life-long learning project…. Tim Weiskel - 75
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Principles of Ecosystem Management and Global Sustainability: Where Can We Go From Here?
Principles of Ecosystem Management and Global Sustainability: Where Can We Go From Here? …that depends upon you, and how you can imagine and enact a new version of the human narrative in the cosmos.
Principles of Ecosystem Management and Global Sustainability: Where Can We Go From Here? …that depends upon you, and how you can imagine and enact a new version of the human narrative in the cosmos. To begin, let the world change you….
“Let the world change you, ….and you can change the world.”
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If we pause to think of how our most earnest and bitter conflicts as humans must appear to our most understanding and faithful of fellow species on Earth, we cannot help but displace our centrality – even if only for a moment. It is only through displacing our species-centrism that we can expect to survive in a complex ecosystem. "Peanut: A Civil War DOGumentary," YouTube - SKINSDOMIN8, (4 November 2011). Tim Weiskel - 84
In all you undertake, you will have a choices to make. Those choices will express the effective ethics that have come to direct your life. You can chose to run your life in one direction….BUT that choice can be reversed and come to mean something entirely different, depending upon the ethical orientation you give to your life. Consider this simple palindrome. “I am part of a lost generation…” [With special thanks to Kathleen Wood …] Tim Weiskel - 85
You might be tempted to dismiss that palindrome as pious and simplistic verbal trick, but it was based on a real-life public affirmation of an important public figure in Argentina. Listen to: Truth (Upside - Down) Lopez Murphy for president Tim Weiskel - 86
It can be viewed as a question of “framing.” How you frame the choices you make will express your ethical understanding. The ethics of sustainability requires that you take a broad, historically deep and systemically large view of your own behavior . Go well…. Stay well…
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