Transcript Are Green geographies too doom-laden?

Greenwashing, Gaia and the absence
of holistic geographies.
Dr Charles Rawding, Edge Hill University
The wild boar is standing 30 or 40 yards away, at the bottom of a grassy bank,
staring right at me… it's far bigger than I expected, maybe chest-high to a man.
When it trots away, it moves powerfully, smoothly, on spindly, graceful legs twice
as long as a pig's, and vanishes into the trees.
We meander along the sleepy brown river. Occasionally the wind picks up, flicks a
ripple along the surface. This must be what life was like 1,000 years ago, when the
entire human population of the globe was roughly 250 million. There's space for
everyone, time for everything. On our way down off the bridge, we spot a slender
roe deer 200 yards up the road. A little farther on, we spot an elk between two
bushes. He looks at us, head lifted, then strolls out of sight.
?
Today there are around 5,000 adult wild boars. There are 25 to 30 wolf packs, a
total of maybe 180 adults. Many more lynx live here than before, along with foxes,
hundreds of red deer, and thousands of roe deer and elk…a paradise of wildlife.
The Garden of Eden is regenerating.
Chernobyl
Are Green geographies too negative?
Nuclear power is dangerous and represents a threat
to humanity (but does it represent a threat to the
entire planet ?).
Also climate change is dangerous and represents a
threat to humanity.
The Environment Agency in Britain has recently developed the Thames Estuary 2100
plan to manage the future flood threat to London. The motivation was a fear that due to
accelerated sea level rise as the climate changed it might already be too late to replace
the Thames Barrier (completed in 1982) and other measures that protect London,
because such major engineering schemes take 25 to 30 years to plan and implement.
Are Green geographies too negative?
David Harvey (1996:177) quotes Jonathan Porritt as
stating that the aim of many ecological and
environmental movements seems to be:
‘nothing less than a non-violent revolution to overthrow
our whole polluting, plundering and materialistic
industrial society and, in its place, to create a new
economic and social order which will allow human beings
to live in harmony with the planet.’
Green approach
Problem
Alternative eco-perception
Modern life is
bad
Human
advances have
been amazing
and hugely
beneficial.
BUT … they have had serious environmental impacts.
Urbanisation concentrates humanity within a relatively small area of the
land surface, thereby minimising our impact on the whole planet. Shops
and other services are more concentrated, urban dwellers are more likely
to have a lower carbon footprint than suburban and rural dwellers.
Rural depopulation around the world is leading to forest regrowth in
abandoned areas.
Developing
transport
infrastructure is
bad for the
planet.
The entire
world economy
depends on the
movement of
people and
goods.
Transport developments can also have unexpected environmental
consequences – the development of habitats for salt-tolerant plants along
roadside verges. Wildlife havens within inaccessible areas created within
motorway junctions (M60/M61 jnct).
Birthing female moose used visitors to Yellowstone National Park as human
shields by choosing calving grounds near roads, which traffic-averse
predatory brown bears avoid (Lynas,2012:112).
Do such geographies also suggest that once upon a time humanity lived in
harmony with nature (until big, bad, industrial capitalism came along) ?
Economic growth is unsustainable and undesirable
BUT. The alternative is contraction, unemployment and political
instability.
Alternative eco-perception
Economic growth and increased affluence can result in less resourceintensive consumption, for instance Chinese food production rose by
nearly 200% between 1981 and 2007 at the same time as fertiliser
production rose by only 50%. ( Lynas (2012) p240).
Genetically modified crops are undesirable
Organic agriculture is preferable
Problem
Alternative eco-perception
Without GM crops there would be
insufficient food on the planet
GM crops can be developed which reduce the needs for pesticides and
fertilisers (between 1995 & 2005, 7% less pesticide was used globally).
Creating new strains of rice, wheat and corn that fix their own nitrogen
could achieve large scale food production without the environmental
consequences of using nitrogen-based fertilisers.
Using organic production alone
would result in insufficient food on
the planet. Greater areas of land
would be required reducing the
possibilities for biodiversity and
nature reserves.
Habitat loss is the greatest threat to
UK biodiversity.
Farmers need to take the best of modern science and ecology to deliver
maximum yields with minimum environmental damage.
Growing crops intensively could allow other areas to be kept free from
agriculture thereby fostering greater biodiversity than is possible within
organic farming.
(44% of plants and 35% of animals are confined to 25 hotspots covering
only 1.4% of the land surface of the Earth (Lynas,2012:117).
Are Green geographies too simplistic?
Environmental issues are both complex and multi-faceted (and
therefore intellectually interesting).
For instance, some landscapes are more likely to be affected by climate
change than others (where they are close to important thresholds (such
as melting ice) or where the climate is predicted to change more rapidly
– so called ‘geomorphological hotspots’. Equally rising sea levels may be
being exacerbated by falling land levels due to removal of groundwater
or mineral extraction (eg the Mississippi delta) (Goudie & Viles,2010:8692). At the same time, cultural geomorphology is becoming an
increasingly important element in the work of geomorphologists
(Goudie & Viles,2010:ch8).
Are Green geographies too simplistic?
In the 1950s, malaria was a problem in Borneo, so the WHO sprayed
with DDT, as a result the mosquitoes died and malaria declined. BUT,
people’s houses began to collapse because the DDT had killed the tiny
parasitic wasps that had previously controlled the thatch-eating
caterpillars, so the government issued tin roofs, under which people
couldn’t sleep when it rained! Meanwhile the DDT-poisoned bugs were
being eaten by geckoes, which were eaten by cats. So the DDT built up
in the food chain and began to kill the cats. Without the cats, the rats
multiplied threatening typhus and sylvatic plague. (Hawken et al (2000)
285-6)
Are Green geographies too simplistic?
‘The migration of the wildebeest, and its concomitant implications for
grasslands and lions … does not occur outside the influences of a broader
political economy. Land tenure laws, which set the terms for land conversion
and cash cropping, are made by the Kenyan and Tanzanian states.
Commodity markets, which determine prices for Kenyan products and the
ever-decreasing margins that drive decisions to cut trees or plant crops,
are set on global markets. Money and pressure for wildlife enclosure,
which fund the removal of native populations from the land, continue to
come largely from multilateral institutions and first-world
environmentalists. All of these spheres of activity are further arranged along
linked axes of money, influence, and control.’ Robbins (2012:13 )
Are Green geographies too simplistic?
How do we tackle capitalism?
Hawken et al (2000:4) identify four types of capital:
• Human capital, in the form of labour, intelligence, culture and
organisation
• Financial capital, consisting of cash, investments, and monetary
instruments
• Manufactured capital, including infrastructure, machines, tools and
factories
• Natural capital, made up of resources, living systems, and
ecosystem services
Do we spend enough time on natural capital as an integrated part of capitalism ?
For instance, do we consider ecosystem services in capitalist terms?
Ecosystem services
Ecosystem services are the functions that are provided by ecosystems that are of
major importance to human well-being. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
(www.millenniumassessment.org ) describes four categories of ecosystem
services;
• Supporting: such as nutrient cycling, soil formation and primary production,
• Provisioning: such as the production of food, freshwater, materials or fuel,
• Regulating: including climate and flood regulation, water purification,
pollination and pest control,
• Cultural: (including aesthetic, spiritual, educational and recreational) services.
Are Green geographies too doom-laden?
Too many green ideas seem to be based on austerity measures – colder
houses, fewer journeys, holidaying at home, for instance:
‘Most experts agree that our current mode and rate of development on
earth is not sustainable. The way we are living is over-taxing the planet’s
supply of natural resources –from fresh water supplies to fish stocks,
from fertile land to clean air.’ (QCDA, 2009 cited in Morgan (2011:9).
– if we are to inspire pupils to want to protect the world, surely it is
important to offer a more positive vision
Are Green geographies too doom-laden?
Even if petroleum becomes scarce, the rising price per barrel will
encourage the use of otherwise expensive alternatives like wind
and solar power, or simply cause consumers to drive less, endlessly
stretching the world’s energy supply. While such optimistic prognoses
are themselves fraught with problems, they do point to an
important and increasingly well-accepted truism: resources are
constructed rather than given. (Robbins,2010:17)
Are Green geographies too doom-laden?
Over-simplistic, doom-laden, Green geographies can be very effectively
undermined by ‘good’ news.
Doom and gloom
‘Forests are shrinking, water tables are
falling, soils are eroding, wetlands are
disappearing, fisheries are collapsing,
rangelands are deteriorating, rivers are
running dry, temperatures are rising, coral
reefs are dying and plant and animal
species are disappearing.’ Worldwatch
True 
Institute (1998) cited in Hawken et al (2000:309)
Good news
Increased life expectancy
Decreasing child mortality
Improved nutritional intake
Improving living standards as
populations grow
True 
Are Green geographies too fixed?
‘Situating oneself in the full flood of all the fluxes and flows of social
change makes appeal to any permanent set of values with which to
animate collective or well-directed social action suspect.’
(Harvey:1996:10)
‘Ultimately by putting environmental and social change into a dialectical
and historical-geographical frame of thinking, I hope to derive
constructive ways to confront the dilemmas of what so often appear to
be contradictory and often mutually exclusive social definitions of
environmental problems.’ (ibid:p119)
‘ … few have stopped to ask how geography’s
ethical turn impacts [on] the nature of
geographical education itself and whether it
enhances or hinders the education of young
people.’ (Standish (2009:4)
He goes further in arguing that geography has
‘become subservient to various social and political
causes.’ (2009:39)
So what approaches should Geographers be taking to these issues?
More scientific, less emotive (Earth system science?)
‘Earth system science is the study of the Earth System with an emphasis
on observing, understanding and predicting global environmental
changes involving interactions between land, atmosphere, water, ice,
biosphere, societies, technologies and economies.’ (cited in Goudie &
Viles(2010):32-3)
Anthropocene geographies – understanding the importance of humans
in shaping earth systems
More integrated and holistic, less atomistic
The replacement of the Millennium Development Goals by the Sustainable Development
Goals in 2015 provides an opportunity for such an approach.
Lynas (2012) discusses planetary boundaries – by definition an holistic approach (but do we
need to beware of neo-malthusianism?):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Biodiversity
Climate change
Nitrogen
Land use
Freshwater
Toxics
Aerosols
Ocean acidification
Ozone layer
Where does Gaia fit in?
Crispin Tickell (in Lovelock,2007:xv) defines Gaia in the following terms:
Who is Gaia? What is she? The What is the thin spherical shell of land
and water between the incandescent interior of the Earth and the upper
atmosphere surrounding it. The Who is the interacting tissue of living
organisms which over four billion years have come to inhabit it. The
combination of the What and the Who, and the way in which each
continuously affects the other, has been well named Gaia … a metaphor
for the living Earth.
More global, less personal (?), less local (?)
More balanced ?
Are we missing the central insight of ecology that
everything connects with everything else?
Key question for geography educators to consider
Are responses in the classroom too emotional and simplistic?
Is Geography becoming a victim of the widespread acceptance of green ideas and the
accompanying distrust of Western science?
Has school geography become a vehicle for promoting green lifestyles and suggesting that
Western models of development are unsustainable? (Morgan,2011: Standish,2009).
Who determines environmental narratives?
Is a focus on sustainable development risking the production of an anti-modern / antidevelopment view of the world?
Are we pretending that capitalism doesn’t count? (How we represent capitalism is crucially
important within education).
Is a focus on environmental citizenship detracting from a more analytical geographical
approach to environmental issues?
Are we missing the opportunity to explore more fully the relationship between society and
nature?
References:
Goudie,A & Viles,H (2010) Landscapes and geomorphology: a very short introduction. Oxford, Oxford University
Press.
Harvey,D (1996) Justice, nature and the geography of difference. Oxford, Blackwell.
Hawken,P, Lovins,A.B & Lovins,H (2000) Natural capitalism: the next industrial revolution. London, Earthscan.
Lovelock,J (1995) Gaia: a new look at life on earth. Oxford, Oxford University Press
Lovelock,J (2007) The revenge of Gaia: earth’s climate crisis and the fate of humanity. New York, Basic Books.
Lynas,M (2012) The God species: how humans really can save the planet. London, Fourth Estate.
Morgan,J (2011) Teaching secondary geography as if the planet matters. Abingdon, David Fulton.
Rawding,C, Holden,V & Worsley,A (2010) Contemporary approaches to Geography, Volume 3: Environmental
Geography. London, Chris Kington.
Rawding, C (2013) ‘Challenging Assumptions: The importance of holistic geographies’ Geography, 98,3, pp157-159
Rawding,C (2013) Effective innovation in the Secondary Geography Curriculum: a practical guide. Routledge,
Abingdon, 2013. ch5.
Robbins,P (2012 ) Political ecology: a critical introduction Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell
Royal Meteorological Society (2014) Climate Change Updates: Evidence from the 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
Standish,A (2009) Global perspectives in the geography curriculum: reviewing the moral case for geography.
London, Routledge.
Sustainable development goals: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1565