 |
| Image by Penny Noah |
November 2, 2022
What Haunts the End of the Anthropocene
Poems:
Gaia
In Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess.
The mythological name was revived in 1979 by James Lovelock, in “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth.” The hypothesis proposes that living organisms and inorganic material are part of a dynamical system that shapes the Earth's biosphere, and maintains the Earth as a fit environment for life. In some Gaia theory approaches, the Earth itself is viewed as an organism with self-regulatory functions.
This note is excerpted from the Wikipedia article on Gaia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(mythology)
Mary Midgley on Gaia Theory:
“The idea of Gaia - of life on earth as a self-sustaining natural system - is not a gratuitous, semi-mystical fantasy. It … attacks deeper tangles which block our thinking. We are bewildered by the thought that we might have a duty to something so clearly non-human. But we are also puzzled about how we should view ourselves. Current ways of thought still tend to trap us in the narrow, atomistic, seventeenth-century image of social life which grounds today's crude and arid individualism. A more realistic view of the earth can, i think, give us a more realistic view of ourselves as its inhabitants. …
“The issue is not just psychological; it affects the whole way of life. Our ideas about our place in the world pervade all our thought, along with the imagery that expresses them, constantly determining what questions we ask and what answers can seem possible.”
* From the Institute of Art and Ideas, https://iai.tv/articles/15-ideas-that-inspired-the-worlds-leading-thinkers-auid-1272
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.
Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution 12,000–15,000 years ago, to as recently as the 1960s. The ratification process is still ongoing, and thus a date remains to be decided definitively, but the peak in radionuclides fallout consequential to atomic bomb testing during the 1950s has been more favored than others, locating a possible beginning of the Anthropocene to the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945, or the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963.
This note is excerpted from the Wikipedia article on the Anthropocene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene
When we are invaded by a microorganism we run a fever, our body's attempt to attack the invader. Our earth is now running a fever. Who are the attackers? You and I.
ReplyDeleteCan we adapt in time and forge a mutualistic relationship? Our grandchildren will answer for us.
ReplyDelete