New Heavens, New Earth

Dark Skies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 65-104
Author(s):  
Daniel Deudney
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Human Control ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Orbital Space ◽  
The Many ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Modern Astronomy

Humans have always attributed enormous importance to occurrences in the heavens. Over the past several centuries modern astronomy has revealed a cosmos of staggering size, filled with trillions of worlds. Its vacuum, weightlessness, lethal radiations, and fantastic speeds make space harshly inhospitable to human life. To access orbital space requires velocities some thirty-four times as fast as jet aircraft, climbing out of steep gravity wells. Of the many bodies mapped by science in this solar system, asteroids are most practically important because they sometimes collide with great violence, profoundly shaping Earth’s deep history. As knowledge of the cosmos has grown, anticipations of nearby intelligent life have dramatically shrunk. The Space Age has also witnessed a far-reaching revolution in understanding the Earth System. Marked by complexity, chaos, and emergence, life on Earth is incompletely understood and inventoried and much less subject to human control than previously assumed, reducing the feasibility of expansionist visions.

scholarly journals The question of the human in the Anthropocene debate

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Chernilo
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Tipping Point ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Two Stages

The Anthropocene debate is one of the most ambitious scientific programmes of the past 15 or 20 years. Its main argument is that, from a geological point of view, humans are considered a major force of nature, thus implying that our current geological epoch is dominated by human activity. The Anthropocene has slowly become a contemporary meta-narrative that seeks to make sense of the ‘earth-system’ as a whole, and one whose vision of the future is dystopian rather than progressive: as the exploitation of the planet’s natural resources reaches tipping point, the very prospects of the continuity of human life are being questioned. This article aims to explore the implicit notions of the human – indeed of the anthropos – that are being mobilized in the Anthropocene debate. It will proceed in two stages: first, the article will spell out the main arguments of the Anthropocene debate with a particular focus on trying to unpack its implicit ideas of the human. Second, it will use my approach to philosophical sociology to highlight some of the limitations and contradictions of the ideas of agency, reflexivity and responsibility that underpin the Anthropocene debate.

The Origin of the Moon and its Relationship to the Origin of the Solar System

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold C. Urey
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Origin Of The Moon

During the last 10 years, the writer has presented evidence indicating that the Moon was captured by the Earth and that the large collisions with its surface occurred within a surprisingly short period of time. These observations have been a continuous preoccupation during the past years and some explanation that seemed physically possible and reasonably probable has been sought.

scholarly journals Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (33) ◽  
pp. 8252-8259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Steffen ◽  
Johan Rockström ◽  
Katherine Richardson ◽  
Timothy M. Lenton ◽  
Carl Folke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Earth System ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Potential Threshold

We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could prevent stabilization of the climate at intermediate temperature rises and cause continued warming on a “Hothouse Earth” pathway even as human emissions are reduced. Crossing the threshold would lead to a much higher global average temperature than any interglacial in the past 1.2 million years and to sea levels significantly higher than at any time in the Holocene. We examine the evidence that such a threshold might exist and where it might be. If the threshold is crossed, the resulting trajectory would likely cause serious disruptions to ecosystems, society, and economies. Collective human action is required to steer the Earth System away from a potential threshold and stabilize it in a habitable interglacial-like state. Such action entails stewardship of the entire Earth System—biosphere, climate, and societies—and could include decarbonization of the global economy, enhancement of biosphere carbon sinks, behavioral changes, technological innovations, new governance arrangements, and transformed social values.

The “evolution” of Anomalocaris and its classification in the arthropod class Dinocarida (nov.) and order Radiodonta (nov.)

1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Collins
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Sea Cucumber ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Mistaken Identification

The remarkable “evolution” of the reconstructions of Anomalocaris, the extraordinary predator from the 515 million year old Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, reflects the dramatic changes in our interpretation of early animal life on Earth over the past 100 years. Beginning in 1892 with a claw identified as the abdomen and tail of a phyllocarid crustacean, parts of Anomalocaris have been described variously as a jellyfish, a sea-cucumber, a polychaete worm, a composite of a jellyfish and sponge, or have been attached to other arthropods as appendages. Charles D. Walcott collected complete specimens of Anomalocaris nathorsti between 1911 and 1917, and a Geological Survey of Canada party collected an almost complete specimen of Anomalocaris canadensis in 1966 or 1967, but neither species was adequately described until 1985. At that time they were interpreted by Whittington and Briggs to be representatives of “a hitherto unknown phylum.”Here, using recently collected specimens, the two species are newly reconstructed and described in the genera Anomalocaris and Laggania, and interpreted to be members of an extinct arthropod class, Dinocarida, and order Radiodonta, new to science. The long history of inaccurate reconstruction and mistaken identification of Anomalocaris and Laggania exemplifies our great difficulty in visualizing and classifying, from fossil remains, the many Cambrian animals with no apparent living descendants.

Workflow and tools to analyse the PMIP4-CMIP6 ensemble

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anni Zhao ◽  
Chris Brierley
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Important Case ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Model Intercomparison ◽  
Past Climate ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Intercomparison Project

<p>Experiment outputs are now available from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project’s 6<sup>th</sup> phase (CMIP6) and the past climate experiments defined in the Model Intercomparison Project’s 4<sup>th</sup> phase (PMIP4). All of this output is freely available from the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF). Yet there are overheads in analysing this resource that may prove complicated or prohibitive. Here we document the steps taken by ourselves to produce ensemble analyses covering past and future simulations. We outline the strategy used to curate, adjust the monthly calendar aggregation and process the information downloaded from the ESGF. The results of these steps were used to perform analysis for several of the initial publications arising from PMIP4. We provide post-processed fields for each simulation, such as climatologies and common measures of variability. Example scripts used to visualise and analyse these fields is provided for several important case studies.</p>

The Archaeology of Global Environment Change

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole L. Crumley
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Non Linear System

Recent, widely recognized changes in the Earth system are, in effect, changes in the coupled human–environment system. We have entered the Anthropocene, when human activity—along with solar forcing, volcanic activity, precession, and the like—must be considered a component (a ‘driver’) of global environmental change (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000; Levin 1998). The dynamic non-linear system in which we live is not in equilibrium and does not act in a predictable manner (see Fairhead, chapter 16 this volume for further discussion of non-equilibrium ecology). If humankind is to continue to thrive, it is of utmost importance that we identify the ideas and practices that nurture the planet as well as our species. Our best laboratory for this is the past, where long-, medium-, and short-term variables can be identified and their roles evaluated. Perhaps the past is our only laboratory: experimentation requires time we no longer have. Thus the integration of our understanding of human history with that of the Earth system is a timely and urgent task. Archaeologists bring two particularly useful sets of skills to this enterprise: how to collaborate, and how to learn from the past. Archaeology enjoys a long tradition of collaboration with colleagues in both the biophysical sciences and in the humanities to investigate human activity in all planetary environments. Archaeologists work alongside one another in the field, live together in difficult conditions, welcome collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines—and listen to them carefully—and tell compelling stories to an interested public. All are rare skills and precious opportunities. Until recently few practitioners of biophysical, social science, and humanities disciplines had experience in cross-disciplinary collaboration. Many scholars who should be deeply engaged in collaboration to avert disaster (for example, specialists in tropical medicine with their counterparts in land use change) still speak different professional ‘languages’ and have very different traditions of producing information. C. P. Snow, in The Two Cultures (1993 [1959]), was among the first to warn that the very structure of academia was leading to this serious, if unintended, outcome.

Multiple dichotomies of the Anthropocene

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Whitney J Autin
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
Formal Definition ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
System Benefit

Anthropocene has developed a varied set of connotations among scientific and non-scientific advocates. As a result, multiple dichotomies of the Anthropocene exist within various scholarly disciplines. The Anthropocene allows people to reinforce and perpetuate preferred views about the implications of human interaction with the Earth System as our management of the environment is called into question. Scientific dichotomies arise from opinions about the need for formal or informal definition and the recognition of a modern versus historical onset of the Anthropocene. Philosophical dichotomies center around good versus dystopian outcomes of Anthropocene and whether or not humanity is part of what historically has been called nature. Political dichotomies insert Anthropocene into classic conservative versus liberal arguments. Artistic dichotomies tend to evaluate the effects of technology on modernism by embracing a nostalgia for the past or projecting an apocalyptic future. Multiple dichotomies drive conversation towards confusion as individuals argue preferred versions of an Anthropocene concept. Philosophical and political perspectives are affecting scientific views of proposed geological time markers for the start of the Anthropocene as conceptual ideologies appear to compete with tangible stratigraphic attributes. Formal definition of the Anthropocene has potential to inhibit popular usage and further confuse an already confused media. Informal stratigraphic usage by scientists and an open-ended view among non-scientific proponents may be the best approach to formulate a robust Anthropocene message. Both humanity and the Earth System benefit from a dynamic tag line that enhances environmental awareness and provides opportunity to modify our habits of resource overuse and ecosystem neglect. Concepts and imagery offered in the form of modern literature and art have the greatest prospect of affecting popular culture perspectives of the Anthropocene’s role in environmental debate.

“A Life Worthy of Being Called Human”

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-332
Author(s):  
Catherine Larrère ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Environmental Ethic ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Ecological Transition

“Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life on Earth.” How can we understand Jonas’ “maxim”? Is it too anthropocentric to be of any interest for an environmental ethic? Is is too limited to survival to have a moral signification in a truly human ethic? One can argue first that it is not so much anti-Kantian than that it challenges the current prevailing “presentism” and obliges us to take into consideration not only future generations, but also the context in which one anticipates these future generations to be living. Therefore, we can distinguish two different interpretations of Jonas’ maxim: in a first stage, that of sustainable development, it was understood as taking into consideration not only the needs but also the rights of future generations; in a second stage, that of an Anthropocene and ecological transition, it means that making sense of humanity implies connecting human beings to the Earth and other living beings far from opposing them.

Does topography matter for rocky exoplanets?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Marie Guimond ◽  
Oliver Shorttle ◽  
John F. Rudge
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Silicate Weathering ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Dynamic Topography ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
Scaling Relationships ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Rocky Planets

<p>Topography is a crucial component of the Earth system: having rock exposed to the atmosphere lets surface temperatures self-regulate via silicate weathering, for example. However, there are limits to a lithosphere’s capacity to support mountains or valleys over geologic time. We see in our solar system that the range in a body’s elevations tends to decrease with increasing planet mass. These trends, inherent to planetary building materials, are modelled using well-studied concepts from geodynamics. As a first step, we predict feasible thermal evolutions and dynamic topography scaling relationships for rocky planets, eventually gearing to ask how massive a planet can be and still likely maintain subaerial land.</p>

scholarly journals Jupiter – friend or foe? II: the Centaurs

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Horner ◽  
B.W. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Kuiper Belt ◽  
Giant Planet ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Impact Rate ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Impact Risk ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIt has long been assumed that the planet Jupiter acts as a giant shield, significantly lowering the impact rate of minor bodies upon the Earth, and thus enabling the development and evolution of life in a collisional environment which is not overly hostile. In other words, it is thought that, thanks to Jupiter, mass extinctions have been sufficiently infrequent that the biosphere has been able to diversify and prosper. However, in the past, little work has been carried out to examine the validity of this idea. In the second of a series of papers, we examine the degree to which the impact risk resulting from objects on Centaur-like orbits is affected by the presence of a giant planet, in an attempt to fully understand the impact regime under which life on Earth has developed. The Centaurs are a population of ice-rich bodies which move on dynamically unstable orbits in the outer Solar system. The largest Centaurs known are several hundred kilometres in diameter, and it is certain that a great number of kilometre or sub-kilometre sized Centaurs still await discovery. These objects move on orbits which bring them closer to the Sun than Neptune, although they remain beyond the orbit of Jupiter at all times, and have their origins in the vast reservoir of debris known as the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt that extends beyond Neptune. Over time, the giant planets perturb the Centaurs, sending a significant fraction into the inner Solar System where they become visible as short-period comets. In this work, we obtain results which show that the presence of a giant planet can act to significantly change the impact rate of short-period comets on the Earth, and that such planets often actually increase the impact flux greatly over that which would be expected were a giant planet not present.

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