Recently Rated:
Stats
Location:
Work interests:
Affiliation/website:
Preferred contact method: Reply to post in blog/forum/group
Preferred contact language(s):
Contact:
Favourite publications:
Work interests:
Affiliation/website:
Preferred contact method: Reply to post in blog/forum/group
Preferred contact language(s):
Contact:
Favourite publications:
Founding Member
Location: Ooty, India
Work: Environmental Activism, Ethnography, India, Media, Climate Change, Forest Rights, Industrial Water Pollution, Biochar, Anthropology of Media, Practice as Praxis, Communities of Practice
Work: Environmental Activism, Ethnography, India, Media, Climate Change, Forest Rights, Industrial Water Pollution, Biochar, Anthropology of Media, Practice as Praxis, Communities of Practice
I've been thoroughly diverted by Thus.Can efforts like this help the world avoid being blindsided by the events that constantly jump in front of our eyes?My own pet complaint is that agriculture is tasked with the job of feeding a population that is generally assumed to be growing indefinitely. Many agricultural and plant or animal scientists buy into this by justifying their research on the basis that it will help produce ever-increasing amounts of food. Production and mal-distribution may not be the essential or ultimate problems. One definitely essential problem is that we do not know how to live within limits. 'Having children' is definitely an essential part of being human.But, we lack social imagination, and it comes down to this - we do not know how to let childless singles or couples or families participate in the life of children and communities. How can everyone who wants to 'have children' enjoy the fulfilment of family life, without necessarily conceiving their own children? Uncles and aunts of the world unite!? Make unlimited detention in orphanages illegal!? (but not until we have something better).I am not sure about any of this, but I do not believe that the world population is actually going to grow as expected. The logistics to support this are not going to happen.We might be surprised by some alternatives that are not actually so terrible, if we could have the imagination to think of them.Rising sea levels might change how we negotiate and recognise national boundaries and responsibilities. This could be a good (and surprising) result.Can regionalism become a form of creative commons, in which we happily give up national rights in order to join larger segments of humanity? If we can learn some new and fundamental lessons through the immediate experiences of climate change (over the next few hundred years), perhaps the inevitable deep ice-age that follows (with lowered sea levels) will lead us all into the equatorial regions with vast new land areas, and moderate climates, and a new beginning.'Thus' expresses a pessimism (I detect an -ism!) that is definitely realist; but can it be otherwise? If we can imagine ourselves (i.e. human society) existing over very long time scales, then maybe we can see ways to get through our present problems and avoid being blinded by them.All this is easy to say from where I sit, in Japan, with a comfortable job, near my own garden with freshly planted potatoes, in a society where no-one is going to steal those potatoes, despite the fact that they sit in an unfenced field in the middle of a city.Japan has almost accepted the possibility of not having a growing population, but is not sure what to do do about it. The fact that land is becoming available for city residents to use for their own gardens might be the start of a simple solution to many problems. I was quite happy to add carbon to the soil today with some dried-out grass that had grown tall in one part of our garden.Peter