Learning to Die in the Anthropocene

Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization by Roy Scranton is a little 117 page horror story about climate change and how we as a civilization must set aside our fears and pride and learn to die gracefully when the Earth is no longer a place where we can live. As we have made it such. I chose this book because the title intrigued me in the sense that this is something I can’t exactly look up on wikiHow. In the first half of the book, Scranton summarizes what we as a species have done to this planet, something we all should know well from reading Eaarth by Bill McKibben. Scranton puts an emphasis on the fact that humans evolved in a perfect sweet spot, what really shocked me was that the climate goes through cycles, and that “the Earth has cooled, and it has been in an “icehouse” state for more than two and a half million years. We have very likely brought that state to a premature end.” (pg35) The thought that one species could change the entire climate of the Earth is horrifying, and true. The thing that Scranton brings up that I really appreciate is that the climate has changed before, but it did so slowly and we were able to adapt and move around to be in a more comfortable climate. But this time it’s happening so fast, and this time we know that we are the cause.

Scranton also speaks about how hard it is for the average citizen to raise any awareness or get anything done relating to climate change because “no matter how many people take to the streets in massive marches or in target direct actions they cannot put their hands on the real flows of power, because they do not help produce it. They only consume.” (pg 60) He raises the point that it is the few powerful corporations who have all the power relating to coal production and CO2 emissions because they are the ones who produce it, and those who consume are always going to be at their hands. This is a very important point and gives me a reason why I feel so helpless to this whole situation we’ve got ourselves into.

Another thing that Scranton said that made me stop and think was that “every time you check your email, you’re heating up the planet” (pg 68) It’s something that i don’t think about, how electronic things, even cell phone, the internet, it all runs on coal. On the same page he goes on to say that “The problem is that the problem is too big. The problem is that different people want different things. the problem is that nobody has real answers. The problem is that the problem is us.” Which I think is a really beautiful way to put it.

This book is very short but it’s got a lot of important things to say, even if it starts a little depressisng by insinuating that “we have to learn to die not as individuals, but as a civilization.” (pg 21). Then again, climate change is nothing but depressing.

Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide gets combined with seawater, which results in carbonic acid. Carbonic acid lowers seawater pH levels. Seawater naturally buffers against pH changes, but that process uses up carbonate ions in the water, which are an "essential ingredient in the creation of calcium carbonate shells and skeletons produced by a large number of marine animals" such as coral, marine plankton coralline algae, and shellfish. As the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increase, so do the levels in the ocean, which raise the temperature, which make it harder to live there. It is a vicious cycle, everything is connected. It’s hard to find something that has gone completely unaffected by the rising levels of CO2 on the planet.

Although every living thing in the ocean is affected by falling pH levels, one of the things most at risk are coral reefs. Coral reefs house the highest levels of marine biodiversity, they’re basically like rainforests under the water. They protect coastlines from ocean erosion and help reduce the size of waves coming in from open waters.

Coral reefs are facing a whole slew of anthropogenic issues, including (but not limited to), increasing size and frequency of storms, rising of sea levels and temperatures, and even depletion of the ozone layer. Those are just the global issues, on a local scale coral reefs face water pollution and destruction from fishers and careless tourists.

To me, the really frightening thing about ocean acidification is how badly we’ve messed it up, and how long some scientists expect it to take to rectify itself. The pH levels of the ocean before the Industrial Revolution were at about 8.0. Since then levels have dropped a whole .1 units. Now that doesn’t sound like a lot, but take into consideration that it’s the entire ocean, the whole ocean. Over 70% of the Earth. It’s noticeable. The Royal Society of the UK predicts that by 2100, pH levels will drop another .5 units. That study was done in 2005, and we haven’t really done anything since then to really cut CO2 emissions. The terrifying thing about that is that they project that it will take the ocean 10,000 years to return to Pre-Industrial Revolution pH levels. I’m assuming that that is if we immediately cut CO2 emissions, and stop polluting our oceans.

Here is a link to my presentation slides.

"Why don't we just...wait here for a little while...see what happens?" - MacReady, The Thing (1982)

Chapter 2 of Eaarth by Bill McKibben focused primarily on the economy of the world, and how it has lead to the disastrous global changes we are seeing today. Larry Summers put the American government’s views of economic growth as truthfully as possible when he said that they  “cannot and will not accept any ‘speed limit’ on American economic growth. It is the task of economic policy to grow the economy as rapidly, sustainably, and inclusively as possible.”(47). It is exactly this type of attitude that got us where we are today. It is no longer viable and feasible to have a continuously growing economy, especially a rapidly growing one. “We don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover.”(50). One thing that really struck me as honestly just stupid, is that the government is constantly trying to say that the cost of cleaning up this planet, for looking for and implementing clean means of energy production, is too expensive. Yes, it is expensive, the cost for curing this world is astronomical. However, the cost for damage and repairs to cities that are being ravaged by storms year after year, storms that are not going to stop happening (they are a permanent fixture of this new Eaarth) cannot possibly be less expensive in the long run. We are already spending billions of dollars trying to protect the southern states from hurricanes. Hurricanes that are just getting worse as the planet warms and sea levels rise.

    It seems like every chapter of Eaarth alerts me to new and terrifying facts about the state of the world. This time it was the new strain of Death Mosquito that has made it’s horrific debut in Bangladesh. The really sad thing is that the people who live in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, have contributed almost nothing to this global state of warming. This new mosquito, Aedes aegypti, carries dengue fever, a disease that is affecting millions and can be fatal to the young, old, and weak. If the rising temperatures and stagnant water are contributing to the spread of disease, who knows what is to come. We might soon have a “The Thing” type case on our hands, where the melting of ice in the arctic releases untold horrors from ages ago. This might be as exciting as a shape shifting alien, or immensely dangerous and unsettling as a long dead disease.

    Getting back to the economy and how humans seem to care more for it than the health of others, the Club of Rome was a group of “European industrialists and scientists”(90) that published a book that detailed what would happen if we continued on our course of polluting the Earth. It is called Limits to Growth and was published in 1972, McKibben put it very poetically with a cute little rhyme that goes, “They foresaw this planet Eaarth, and if we’d heeded them we might have prevented its birth.”(91) In this book the authors came to three conclusions, the second of which really made me stop and think:

“2. It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his or her individual human potential.”(92)

   Now, think of how artistically rich the world is as a whole, and imagine the artistic, musical, poetic, and literary advances that could be made if everyone had the time and means to create. Imagine how scientifically advanced we as a species would be if everyone who wanted, could become scientists and mathematicians, theoretical physicists! The idea sent shivers up my spine. McKibben goes on to say that “you can’t really model the world on a computer”(92) as the Club of Rome had tried to do. But then again there is evidence that the whole universe is a computer simulation. (This article is a very interesting read.) And if it is, why wouldn’t you want to take care of what someone else took the time to program for you?

Eaarth - Chapter 1 Thoughts

The book "Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet" by Bill McKibben is proving to be a very relevant and important read. In the first chapter McKibben hits us hard with the very real and honestly terrifying state of the world. He also reminds the reader time and again that WE and we alone are the cause for the problem. I couldn’t help but get chills. I’m not going to lie, I think this book is going to scare me. I’m talking I’m-going-to-have-trouble-sleeping-at-night terrified.  McKibbon says “The planet has nearly 390 parts per million carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”(15-16) while the previously thought of “safe level” was 350 ppm. He goes on to speculate that “even if you erred on the side of insane optimism - the world in 2100 would have about 600 parts per million carbon dioxide.” (20) The scary thing is that with all the climate change deniers out there, this 600 ppm future could come sooner than 2100. I have little faith in humanity as a whole to wise up and fix the problem it alone created.

I recently discovered a sculpture artist by the name of Jason DeCaires Taylor, whose sculptural works are most often installed at the bottom of the ocean, really begging the question “Where IS our place in nature?”. His sculptures seemed especially relevant to me after reading this chapter. He even has one piece titled “Anthropocene”.

The picture that McKibben painted of our future earth, one that is far hotter than ours, one with acidified oceans and not as much biodiversity. It reminded me too much of Nausicaa’s world from the Studio Ghibli film Nausicaa Of the Valley of the Wind. In which the soil and water are both so toxic that the plants that grow on that soil are poisonous. The lakes are so acidic that if you step into them the water immediately begins to corrode your flesh. In the story, the protagonist, Nausicaa, discovers through growing poisonous plant spores in pure filtered water that it’s not the plants that are toxic, it’s the outside soil and water. She laments about how humans have poisoned the earth. I watched this movie when I was very young, so the notion that humans aren’t good for the environment has always been in my mind. Then again several of Studio Ghibli’s films deal with humans and their tendency to disrupt the natural order of things. Even still, just the first 50 or so pages of Eaarth really drove it home with hard facts and numbers.  

                                                                      

Welcome!

Hello!
     My name is Clara, I am a second year art student. This is my first semester in the BFA Painting program, I am mostly excited about it, but as with almost everything in my life I am feeling a little bit of doubt about both my abilities (technically and conceptually) and whether or not painting is actually the Right Program For Me. I suppose all I can do is wait and see where it takes me.

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     I took this class partly because I needed some Honors College credits, but also because the name, "Our Place in Nature", sounded so interesting to me. I have always loved being outside and in nature. As a kid my friends and I would spend the whole day outside, climbing trees and making "soup" out of water, flowers, and various other plant/earth materials. My mother would take my younger sibling and I out to the Kalamazoo Nature Center every week when we were little, I know those trails like the back of my hand. My favorite areas were always the river and the rock quarry, where we would grind up these soft rocks we called "paint rocks" and draw on ourselves. Both my parents are very artistically inclined, my mother being a painter, and my father doodling sometimes but mostly making music. He has recently gotten really into 3D printing. We sometimes teach a workshop together where we walk people through the steps to building their own Ultimaker Original + 3D printer. In addition to instilling a deep love of art in me, my parents raised me to respect nature and our planet.
     My favorite season is winter. I'll be walking in the snow and realize where I am and I'll just laugh out loud because I love snow so much. I love when it's pitch black out and you can only see the snow in the streetlights, it makes me feel like I'm underwater. If the light is slightly off color, be it pink or yellow, the falling snow looks like gold. I find the most aesthetic beauty in winter.
     Some other fun facts about me are that the farthest I've ever been from home is Vancouver, Washington, moths are my favorite bug, I love to knit and I don't like mashed potatoes (although every other form of potato I do enjoy).
   
Thank you for reading this post, I hope that you enjoy this blog!
           
                            - Clara Peeters