How does an impartial environmental scientist come to focus on societal structure and human rights?
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How does an impartial environmental scientist come to focus on societal structure and human rights? It's really not that complicated, and I would argue it is self-evident and necessary. 🧵 1/n
#ClimateChange
#ecocide
#ClimateEmergency
#MultiCrisis
#science
#objectivity
#impartiality
#HumanRights -
How does an impartial environmental scientist come to focus on societal structure and human rights? It's really not that complicated, and I would argue it is self-evident and necessary. 🧵 1/n
#ClimateChange
#ecocide
#ClimateEmergency
#MultiCrisis
#science
#objectivity
#impartiality
#HumanRightsThe juxtaposition is in that simple morning photo. The beauty of nature is right there despite the interruption of man's seeking of energy from nature. The sunlight through the tree, the tree longing for companions other than the energy-hoarding homes of the neighborhood. Counter that with the man-made junk, symbol of extraction, the obvious problems up-keeping a home against this environment. 2/n
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The juxtaposition is in that simple morning photo. The beauty of nature is right there despite the interruption of man's seeking of energy from nature. The sunlight through the tree, the tree longing for companions other than the energy-hoarding homes of the neighborhood. Counter that with the man-made junk, symbol of extraction, the obvious problems up-keeping a home against this environment. 2/n
The plants are obviously stressed, but still home to birds, insects, reptiles, fungi, microbes. They are still beautiful, despite the stress. Meanwhile we have trouble keeping up with nature. The need for the minisplit air conditioner, the rust stains on the wall, the fence still leaning every which way from hurricanes two years ago. The things that society has extracted from nature long to be back in nature. The gradient is hard for us to fight. 3/n
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The plants are obviously stressed, but still home to birds, insects, reptiles, fungi, microbes. They are still beautiful, despite the stress. Meanwhile we have trouble keeping up with nature. The need for the minisplit air conditioner, the rust stains on the wall, the fence still leaning every which way from hurricanes two years ago. The things that society has extracted from nature long to be back in nature. The gradient is hard for us to fight. 3/n
The human-made objects are symbols of society. The society we have created forms a gradient against nature. It is hard to maintain this gradient, and, in order to do so, we keep harsh gradients in our society. We hold our society up as "great", while only acknowledging in hushed whispers that it cannot benefit all of us. The fruits of our society are only within the grasp of a few. Others have to pay for these few, either directly (handicapping debt and under compensated labor) or indirectly (environmental sicknesses, cancers shortened lifespans). 4/n
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The human-made objects are symbols of society. The society we have created forms a gradient against nature. It is hard to maintain this gradient, and, in order to do so, we keep harsh gradients in our society. We hold our society up as "great", while only acknowledging in hushed whispers that it cannot benefit all of us. The fruits of our society are only within the grasp of a few. Others have to pay for these few, either directly (handicapping debt and under compensated labor) or indirectly (environmental sicknesses, cancers shortened lifespans). 4/n
Look again at this photo. Both the fence and the trees suffered immensely from the hurricanes two years ago. The tree lives on, without any input from us, and still strives to heal itself. The fence does not. We have to maintain the fence. The house. Nature is self-healing and, still we abuse it. Maybe that is why we abuse it.
Society is similar. We could model it on nature, self healing and beautiful. And mist of us want that. But somewhere along the way, it became modeled on extraction, impossible gradients, and destruction. 5/n
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Look again at this photo. Both the fence and the trees suffered immensely from the hurricanes two years ago. The tree lives on, without any input from us, and still strives to heal itself. The fence does not. We have to maintain the fence. The house. Nature is self-healing and, still we abuse it. Maybe that is why we abuse it.
Society is similar. We could model it on nature, self healing and beautiful. And mist of us want that. But somewhere along the way, it became modeled on extraction, impossible gradients, and destruction. 5/n
How do we get society back to something most of us want? Maybe it can self heal like nature if there are so many who want to share rather than hoard, heal rather than harm. Maybe. But we have to stop a lot of things first. Harmonious #degrowth must happen before it is imposed upon us inharmoniously by the few who own the most. It will be much harder to heal from that. We must decide what we want to keep and whether it is worth the environmental cost, and then start to shed the rest, eliminating the unnecessary and environmentally costly. 6/n
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How do we get society back to something most of us want? Maybe it can self heal like nature if there are so many who want to share rather than hoard, heal rather than harm. Maybe. But we have to stop a lot of things first. Harmonious #degrowth must happen before it is imposed upon us inharmoniously by the few who own the most. It will be much harder to heal from that. We must decide what we want to keep and whether it is worth the environmental cost, and then start to shed the rest, eliminating the unnecessary and environmentally costly. 6/n
As an environmental scientist, it is hard to imagine allowing nature to heal without fixing the societal pressures which are causing so much stress. It is impossible. I, and many others, feel it is time to add to our expertise and to get involved with social studies to understand how to implement constructive solutions and how to do so without costing too many people too much. That caring for us and for the planet is what it is obviously missing from our world leaders right now. /fin
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As an environmental scientist, it is hard to imagine allowing nature to heal without fixing the societal pressures which are causing so much stress. It is impossible. I, and many others, feel it is time to add to our expertise and to get involved with social studies to understand how to implement constructive solutions and how to do so without costing too many people too much. That caring for us and for the planet is what it is obviously missing from our world leaders right now. /fin
@Brad_Rosenheim Completely agree, but it’s HARD, for me. I’ve never found the planet’s most invasive primate species easy to understand.
My best effort at influencing is change is to “be the change you want to see in the world.” I do worry it’s a cop-out, but it’s something I can do and not burn out.
I love how you actually *see* those trees as having their own lives and desires. I try to share that view of the living world with others. I’m not sure it’s working, but I’m heartened 1/2
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@Brad_Rosenheim Completely agree, but it’s HARD, for me. I’ve never found the planet’s most invasive primate species easy to understand.
My best effort at influencing is change is to “be the change you want to see in the world.” I do worry it’s a cop-out, but it’s something I can do and not burn out.
I love how you actually *see* those trees as having their own lives and desires. I try to share that view of the living world with others. I’m not sure it’s working, but I’m heartened 1/2
@Brad_Rosenheim … by the view of systems thinkers that a bottom-up approach of systems change — people changing their mindsets and living lives that push in the directions we need to go — is an effective thing. But just one of many things.
2/2 -
Look again at this photo. Both the fence and the trees suffered immensely from the hurricanes two years ago. The tree lives on, without any input from us, and still strives to heal itself. The fence does not. We have to maintain the fence. The house. Nature is self-healing and, still we abuse it. Maybe that is why we abuse it.
Society is similar. We could model it on nature, self healing and beautiful. And mist of us want that. But somewhere along the way, it became modeled on extraction, impossible gradients, and destruction. 5/n
@Brad_Rosenheim plastic grass hurts me physically (to see it, from a distance)
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
