Guest Column: Queer Ecology

PMLA ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Morton
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Sixth Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Test Flight ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Hands And Feet ◽  
Queer Ecology

nearer than breathing, closer than hands and feet—George Morrison, “The Reawakening of Mysticism”Ecological criticism and queer theory seem incompatible, but if they met, there would be a fantastic explosion. How shall we accomplish this perverse, Frankensteinian meme splice? I'll propose some hypothetical methods and frameworks for a field that doesn't quite exist—queer ecology. (The pathbreaking work of Catriona Sandilands, Greta Gaard, and the journal Undercurrents must be acknowledged here.) This exercise in hubris is bound to rattle nerves and raise hackles, but please bear with me on this test flight. Start with the basics. Let's not create this field by comparing literary-critical apples and oranges. Let's do it the hard way, up from foundations (or unfoundations). Let's do it in the name of ecology itself, which demands intimacies with other beings that queer theory also demands, in another key. Let's do it because our era requires it—we are losing touch with a fantasy Nature that never really existed (I capitalize Nature to make it look less natural), while we actively and passively destroy life-forms inhabiting and constituting the biosphere, in Earth's sixth mass extinction event. Giving up a fantasy is even harder than giving up a reality.

scholarly journals Is IR going extinct?

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audra Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Existential Risk ◽  
Sixth Mass Extinction ◽  
Global Extinction ◽  
The Face ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Nuclear Winter

A global extinction crisis may threaten the survival of most existing life forms. Influential discourses of ‘existential risk’ suggest that human extinction is a real possibility, while several decades of evidence from conservation biology suggests that the Earth may be entering a ‘sixth mass extinction event’. These conditions threaten the possibilities of survival and security that are central to most branches of International Relations. However, this discipline lacks a framework for addressing (mass) extinction. From notions of ‘nuclear winter’ and ‘omnicide’ to contemporary discourses on catastrophe, International Relations thinking has treated extinction as a superlative of death. This is a profound category mistake: extinction needs to be understood not in the ontic terms of life and death, but rather in the ontological context of be(com)ing and negation. Drawing on the work of theorists of the ‘inhuman’ such as Quentin Meillassoux, Claire Colebrook, Ray Brassier, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Nigel Clark, this article provides a pathway for thinking beyond existing horizons of survival and imagines a profound transformation of International Relations. Specifically, it outlines a mode of cosmopolitics that responds to the element of the inhuman and the forces of extinction. Rather than capitulating to narratives of tragedy, this cosmopolitics would make it possible to think beyond the restrictions of existing norms of ‘humanity’ to embrace an ethics of gratitude and to welcome the possibility of new worlds, even in the face of finitude.

Environmental Violence and Its Consequences

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Horacio de la Cueva Salcedo
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Changing Environments ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Sixth Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Consequences Of Violence

Environmental changes happen all the time. Changing environments bring about selection of organisms, and there is no organism that does not modify its environment to make a living, survive, and reproduce. These changes are the main motors of evolution and, consequently, the main cause of biodiversity. Environmental violence—unsustainable use and extraction of natural resources—is the way capitalist economies exploit nature. The extinction rates associated with the current unsustainable use of resources are sufficient to assume that we are experiencing a sixth mass extinction event. The rate at which humans are transforming the environment leaves no time for evolutionary adaptation. We need to reduce environmental violence for life to maintain its normal processes. Without knowledge of nature and the consequences of violence against nature, we will become another of the planet’s extinct species. Los cambios ambientales ocurren todo el tiempo. Los ambientes cambiantes propician la selección de organismos y no hay organismo que no modifique su ambiente para subsistir y reproducirse. Estos cambios son los principales motores de la evolución y por lo tanto la causa principal de la biodiversidad. La violencia ambiental—el uso y la extracción insostenibles de los recursos naturales—es la manera en que las economías capitalistas explotan la naturaleza. Las tasas de extinción asociadas con el uso insostenible de los recursos son suficientes para considerar que estamos experimentando la sexta extinción masiva de especies. El ritmo al cual los seres humanos están transformando el ambiente no deja tiempo para la adaptación evolutiva. Necesitamos reducir la violencia ambiental para que la vida pueda mantener sus procesos normales. Sin el conocimiento de la naturaleza y de las consecuencias de la violencia contra ella, nos convertiremos en otra de las especies extintas de nuestro planeta.

A biota of Ediacaran aspect from lower Cambrian strata on the Digermul Peninsula, Arctic Norway

1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (6) ◽  
pp. 633-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. CRIMES ◽  
D. McILROY
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Late Neoproterozoic ◽  
Mass Extinction Event

Three elements of the ‘Ediacara fauna’ are described from lower Cambrian strata on the Digermul Peninsula, Norway. Nimbia occlusa Fedonkin, 1980 and Tirasiana sp. occur approximately 80 m above the base of the Lower Breivik Member, which approximately coincides with the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian boundary. A specimen of Cyclomedusa sp. has also been found in the Lower Duolbasgaissa Member about 600 m above the boundary, in rocks of trilobite-bearing age.These discoveries add to a growing body of evidence that some elements of the dominantly Neoproterozoic Ediacara fauna continue into the Phanerozoic, thereby diminishing the scope of a possible late Neoproterozoic mass-extinction event.The taxa described here, particularly Nimbia and Cyclomedusa, also occur at many other localities within Neoproterozoic strata and, in common with other elements of the Ediacara fauna, display remarkable morphological variation. Some of this diversity in form is probably caused by environmental and preservational factors. The possibility that it may, at least in part, reflect an inability of these early life forms to replicate faithfully their genes during reproduction should, however, not be overlooked.

THE RECORD OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN NORTHEASTERN PANTHALASSA DIRECTLY PRECEDING THE END-TRIASSIC MASS EXTINCTION EVENT

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Larina ◽  
◽  
David J. Bottjer ◽  
Frank A. Corsetti ◽  
William M. Berelson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event

SEDIMENTARY MERCURY CONCENTRATIONS AND ISOTOPES ACROSS THE END-CRETACEOUS MASS EXTINCTION EVENT FROM NEW JERSEY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa D. Knight ◽  
◽  
Runsheng Yin ◽  
Clara L. Meier ◽  
James V. Browning ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event

scholarly journals Dinosaurs in decline tens of millions of years before their final extinction

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (18) ◽  
pp. 5036-5040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manabu Sakamoto ◽  
Michael J. Benton ◽  
Chris Venditti
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Marked Reduction ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Extinction Rate ◽  
Catastrophic Event ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
First Time

Whether dinosaurs were in a long-term decline or whether they were reigning strong right up to their final disappearance at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event 66 Mya has been debated for decades with no clear resolution. The dispute has continued unresolved because of a lack of statistical rigor and appropriate evolutionary framework. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we apply a Bayesian phylogenetic approach to model the evolutionary dynamics of speciation and extinction through time in Mesozoic dinosaurs, properly taking account of previously ignored statistical violations. We find overwhelming support for a long-term decline across all dinosaurs and within all three dinosaurian subclades (Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha, and Theropoda), where speciation rate slowed down through time and was ultimately exceeded by extinction rate tens of millions of years before the K-Pg boundary. The only exceptions to this general pattern are the morphologically specialized herbivores, the Hadrosauriformes and Ceratopsidae, which show rapid species proliferations throughout the Late Cretaceous instead. Our results highlight that, despite some heterogeneity in speciation dynamics, dinosaurs showed a marked reduction in their ability to replace extinct species with new ones, making them vulnerable to extinction and unable to respond quickly to and recover from the final catastrophic event.

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