{"id":9470,"date":"2017-10-16T15:46:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T20:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=9470"},"modified":"2017-10-16T15:48:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T20:48:35","slug":"this-is-nature-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/10\/16\/this-is-nature-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"This IS nature, guys…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

There is an irony in The Nature Conservancy’s headline heralding a “new study” that “finds nature is vital to beating climate change.<\/a>” The sub-title adds that “Nature could cost-effectively deliver over a third of greenhouse gas emissions reductions required to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.”<\/p>\n

For one thing, what is the “nature” that would be “cost-effectively” corralled into doing this work? And for whom? (For us, of course.)<\/p>\n

What is<\/em> climate change if not “nature’s” response to the carbon emissions and other things that industrial systems have been spewing into the atmosphere for two centuries. If the problem is the sudden spurt of urban-industrial\u00a0humanity, the solution may be to make life difficult for that life form and everything that goes with it. Wipe the slate clean, provide some new openings for alternative life-alliances to develop: isn’t that the kind of thing “nature” regularly does, whether it’s in California’s\u00a0fire-adapted coastal chaparral ecosystems<\/a>, or on the planet’s surface as a whole?<\/p>\n

No need to ascribe “agency” here, though it wouldn’t be unwise to at least entertain that interpretation. The point is that there are causes and effects and that the larger system might occasionally have cause, if not “reason,” to spit out some of its parts.<\/p>\n

Okay, I’m being a little facetious. I get what The Nature Conservancy does, and I understand the usefulness of a shorthand for all the things they stand for, like intact forests, well managed agro-ecological systems, wise stewardship (as opposed to uncontrolled, short-term profit-maximization), and the like. While I think there’s room for improvement on some of the specifics of their work around the world, I appreciate that work a lot.<\/p>\n

But there has to be a more philosophically coherent way of thinking about those things. The only clarifications about what’s meant by “nature” in the article refer, on the one hand, to “investing in nature” and, on the other, to <\/span>“<\/span>the importance of nature, and especially trees and soils<\/em>, as support for carbon sequestration.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Is nature (“especially trees and soils”) a supporting actor, then, for some other project?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an irony in The Nature Conservancy’s headline heralding a “new study” that “finds nature is vital to beating climate change.” The sub-title adds that “Nature could cost-effectively deliver over a third of greenhouse gas emissions reductions required to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.” For one thing, what is the “nature” that would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[520594,196],"tags":[455108,420916,4420,455109,4470,455104,455107,455105],"class_list":["post-9470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-politics","category-ecoculture","tag-california-wildfires","tag-carbon-sequestration","tag-ecology","tag-fire-ecology","tag-nature","tag-nature-conservancy","tag-natures-agency","tag-social-construction-of-nature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2sK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1160,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/11\/30\/more-on-zizek-natures-discontents\/","url_meta":{"origin":9470,"position":0},"title":"more on \u017di\u017eek & nature’s discontents","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's interesting to watch a topic spin itself out rhizomically across the blogosphere. Picking up on \u017di\u017eek's ecological musings, Levi Bryant seems more or less in agreement with what I had argued here last week, as does Michael Austin, while Ben Woodard criticizes the narrowing of the \"ecology of concepts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1653,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/12\/17\/natures-nation\/","url_meta":{"origin":9470,"position":1},"title":"Nature’s nation","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The new issue of Environmental Communication includes the special section I edited for them on the Ken Burns series The National Parks. It can be accessed here if you have an institutional subscription. If not, Routledge sometimes makes sample issues available. My own piece, which kicks off the five-article set,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1179,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/01\/14\/hell-nature-justice-in-haiti\/","url_meta":{"origin":9470,"position":2},"title":"Hell, nature, & justice in Haiti","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What do we do in the aftermath of such a disaster, except to express profound sadness, shock, and sympathy, and to send donations to aid and relief organizations working in the affected areas? How do we even portray it in a way that respects the victims? Citizen media, according to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cinema_zone\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"32623657.JPG","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2010\/01\/32623657.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6643,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/04\/19\/ecology-film-philosophy\/","url_meta":{"origin":9470,"position":3},"title":"Ecology ~ Film ~ Philosophy","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what I'm slated to teach this summer, for 3 weeks beginning May 20. Ecology - Film - Philosophy How have movies changed our perception of ourselves, the Earth, and the relationship between the two? How are they continuing to do that as we plunge into an era of digital\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eco-Film-Phil-poster-2013-2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2013\/04\/Eco-Film-Phil-poster-2013-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8311,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/06\/18\/the-many-ecologies-of-laudato-si\/","url_meta":{"origin":9470,"position":4},"title":"The many ecologies of Laudato Si","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that Laudato Si, the Papal Encyclical \"On Care for Our Common Home,\" is available for all to read, the punditocracy can debate it to their hearts' content. As the most far-reaching statement by the single largest (relatively united) religious denomination\u00a0on the planet, it is likely to have an immense\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2605,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/02\/11\/examining-life-trash-radical-nature\/","url_meta":{"origin":9470,"position":5},"title":"Examining life, trash, & radical nature","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iGCfiv1xtoU I enjoyed Astra Taylor's film Examined Life when I first saw it a couple of years ago, and, having just watched it again, I'm glad to see that it bears re-viewing. As one might expect, some segments are more lasting than others. Slavoj Zizek wearing an orange safety vest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/iGCfiv1xtoU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9470"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9477,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470\/revisions\/9477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}