Last week I submitted version 2.0 of Habitation in the Anthropocene: An Interdisciplinary Interaction contribution to the Social Media in the Anthropocene project. Please click the screenshot of the homepage to visit. Continue reading
Category Archives: Social Media in the Anthropocene
Posts that are part of the “Habitation in the Anthropocene” submission to the Social Media in the Anthropocene project.
The Dust of Civilization
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In an earlier post, I emphasized the strong link between the origins of agriculture and the positions of loess (loosely “dust”) regions—arguing in essence that, from dust arises life. If loess bestows habitation and habitability, then loess paved the way for Continue reading
Toward a More-Than-Human Anthropocene
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By exploring habitability in the Anthropocene, we imply that a human-dominated world can still be a world that supports thriving human populations. This orientation holds a certain appeal, but it is, I contend, in need of serious interrogation. Continue reading
Habitability as a commons: Fearing a tragedy of human(ized) nature
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Some of the recent posts have made me think of the famous book written by Elinor Ostrom, “Governing the Commons.” Ostrom looks at the problem of Continue reading
Habitability’s non-inevitability
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A theme that has emerged throughout this blog is that there appears to be a fundamental core to habitability: humans transform the world around them, while being structured by the world. Any account, then, necessitates Continue reading
Memes as a dimension of the human niche
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Though human beings can be understood biologically, as one species among others, we have one particularly prominent, even defining, feature: Continue reading
Advancing equity and going beyond basic survival
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In my earlier post I raised the question of how equity issues fit with the concept of habitability in the Anthropocene. This topic perhaps leads us into the muck of the impacts humans cause when Continue reading
Implications of manufacturing habitability
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From my earlier post and that of Ingo, there is agreement that humans have become the most successful environment altering species; modifying our surroundings to meet our needs by manipulating Continue reading
Toward an ethics of niche construction
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Human beings are niche constructors par excellence—posts by Kiza and Ingo have presented this fact of nature. But what are the moral implications of that fact, if any? Continue reading
“A Safe Operating Space for Humanity”
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CITATION:
Rockström, J. et al. 2009. Nature, Vol. 461, pp. 472-475.
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ABSTRACT:
Johan Rockström and colleagues propose a new approach for defining preconditions for human development and predict that crossing certain biophysical thresholds could have disastrous consequences Continue reading
“Concluding Remarks” on Animal Ecology and Demography
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CITATION:
Hutchinson, G.E. 1957. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology 22 (2): 415–427.
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ABSTRACT:
This paper reflects on a symposium that covered a wide range of topics; in it “a rather detailed analysis of one particular problem is given, partly because the question, namely, the nature of the ecological niche and the validity of the principle of niche specificity has raised and continues to raise difficulties, Continue reading
“Loess: The Yellow Earth”
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CITATION:
Smalley, I., and Rogers, C. 1996. Geology Today, Vol. 12, No. 5, pp. 186-193.
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ABSTRACT:
A wind-deposited silt forming large deposits in China and middle America, loess is the basis of much grade-one agricultural land, and has sourced the building materials for civilizations. Produced largely as a result of Continue reading
“Principles of Tsawalk: An Indigenous Approach to Global Crisis”
THIS POST IS PART OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE ANTHROPOCENE PROJECT—SEE THIS DESCRIPTION OF OUR SUBMISSION.
CITATION:
Umeek E. Richard Atleo. 2011. Principles of Tsawalk: An Indigenous Approach to Global Crisis. University of British Columbia Press.
ON-LINE AVAILABILITY:
Publisher’s site: http://www.ubcpress.com/search/title_book.asp?BookID=299173519
ABSTRACT:
In Nuu-chah-nulth, the word tsawalk means “one.” It expresses the view that all living things — humans, plants, and animals — form part of an integrated whole brought into harmony through constant Continue reading
“Building ‘Equitable’ Urban Resilience: The Challenge for Cities.”
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CITATION:
Steele, Wendy, and Nidhi Mittal. 2012. In Resilient Cities 2, edited by Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, 187–95. Local Sustainability 2. Springer Netherlands.
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ABSTRACT:
Cities and their institutions are key players in building urban resilience to the risks posed by climate change. However, neoliberal policies further the transition from the state as the ultimate Continue reading
“Diachronous beginnings of the Anthropocene: The lower bounding surface of anthropogenic deposits”
THIS POST IS PART OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE ANTHROPOCENE PROJECT—SEE THIS DESCRIPTION OF OUR SUBMISSION.
CITATION:
Edgeworth, M., deB Richter, D., Waters, C., Haff, P., Neal, C. & Price, S. J. 2015. The Anthropocene Review, pp. 1-26.
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ABSTRACT:
Across a large proportion of Earth’s ice-free land surfaces, a solid-phase stratigraphic boundary marks the division between humanly modified ground and natural geological deposits. At its clearest, the division takes the form of Continue reading
“Organisms as ecosystem engineers”
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CITATION:
Jones, C. G., J. H. Lawton, and M. Shachak. 1994. Oikos, 69, pp. 373-386.
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ABSTRACT:
Ecosystem engineers can alter the environment to meet their needs by controlling the availability of resources. In doing so, they create habitat for themselves as well as other organisms. Continue reading
“Of property”
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CITATION:
John Locke. 1689. Chapter 5, Second Treatise of Civil Government.
ON-LINE AVAILABILITY:
Web source: On-line Library of Liberty
ABSTRACT:
Locke assumes that, as a matter of God’s grant of Creation to it, humanity as a species has a general right to everything on the Earth—Locke interprets this grant as intended to provide for humanity’s survival. However, Continue reading
