In a recent paper titled The New World of the Anthropocene, which appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, a group of geologists listed more than a half dozen human-driven processes that are likely to leave a lasting mark on the planet — lasting here understood to mean likely to leave traces that will last tens of millions of years. These include: habitat destruction and the introduction of invasive species, which are causing widespread extinctions; ocean acidification, which is changing the chemical makeup of the seas; and urbanization, which is vastly increasing rates of sedimentation and erosion.
Human activity, the group wrote, is altering the planet “on a scale comparable with some of the major events of the ancient past. Some of these changes are now seen as permanent, even on a geological time-scale.”
@ Next Nature
To date, our deliberations about transliteracy have focussed on the human, but what about the literacies needed (those already used and those with future potential) for communication with the non-human world, and between its members themselves? Such a discussion would take us a long way from technology and towards a very different set of faculties. Are we ready to encompass it?
If you take an interest in birds, then you must take an interest in their habitat—the world in which they live—and if you do that then you have assumed a curiosity and concern about the wider environment. To be interested in the environment is to be interested in our own habitat, and once that holds your attention, you have become interested in the future. You have become interested in life itself. Birds, for me, have confirmed that ours is a life worth living.
~ Niall Edworthy
If he could have contented himself with his artistic triumphs — “Conquerers of the Trail” at the Hotel Monticello, the Venetian panels in the Liberty Theatre — then his fading image as the Nature Man might not have mattered as much. But it is apparent from Knowles’s writing that for him the wilderness, and his own part in it, was paramount.
But to succeed as a nature writer, Knowles would probably have had to get a bit more of the poetry of the woods into his work. The naturalists whose work resonated with the public — Thoreau, John Muir, John Burroughs, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson later on — all wrote beautifully, and captured a bit of the transcendent in their work. Knowles was impatient with the majesty of the silent forest; he wanted to skip to the particulars. Rather than contemplate the grand designs in the animal kingdom, he chose to chronicle individual animal behavior. That’s valuable, too, of course, but Knowles would get so caught up in his observations that he’d lose the thread of the story.
~ Jim Motavalli
~ Robert Voit (via wood s lot)
Might I suggest a collaboration? (via 10,000 Birds)
Often, people discuss various animals’ responses to humans in terms of intelligence. Big white-tailed bucks are “smart” because they’re so wary of humans, but buffalo are “dumb” because they’re not. This is a flawed way of thinking about animal behavior, because it operates on the assumption that animals evolved with the sole concern of avoiding human predation — the smart ones figured it out, the dumb ones didn’t. In fact, many animals put a much greater emphasis on avoiding predators. It doesn’t necessarily suit an animal’s needs to burn precious calories by running like hell every time a predator appears, especially if the animal encounters a lot of predators that are unable to make successful attempts at killing it.
~ Steven Rinella, American Buffalo
The Brock Review is seeking scholarly essays and creative pieces for an upcoming issue on the theme of “Communicative Lands, Community Landscapes” (Volume 11, Number 2). This issue will focus on the perception, representation and phenomenology of landscapes as communicative devices and as centres of community. Submissions may focus on any historical era and/or geographical region. This issue will be co-edited by Dr. Katharine T. von Stackelberg (Department of Classics, Brock University). Submission deadline: 14th of May, 2010 (via)