Ecological Crisis Research Articles

The Generative Logic, Main Content and Contemporary Value of the Ecological Thought of Marx and Engels

The ecological thought of Marx and Engels is an important part of Marxist theory, and is the theoretical guidance and guide to action for the harmonious development of human and nature in contemporary human society. The ecological thought of Marx and Engels is formed on the basis of in-depth criticism and reasonable absorption of the natural thought of Hegel and Feuerbach in the context of the age of the advancing industrial revolution. Marx and Engels have important theoretical and practical value in contemporary thinking and solving ecological problems, as they demonstrate the priority of nature, the dialectical relationship between humans and nature, the capitalist system as the root of ecological crisis, and communism as the main content of achieving an ideal society of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

What are Scholars For?

Since the inception of the field, scholars of religion and nature have struggled to balance critical analysis and advocacy within their work. For some, the role of scholarship was to help promote the greening of religion and resolve the ecological crisis; while for others, such optimistic efforts bypassed critical analysis of the complex relationships between religions and environmental behaviors. Community-engaged approaches to scholarship and teaching offer useful avenues for negotiating this tension between advocacy and analysis. In this paper, I outline developments from the religion and nature field along with scholarship on community engaged research and teaching to suggest how educators and researchers can harness the privileged place of the contemporary university to better facilitate collaboration between stakeholders to both advance learning and address the specific needs of communities.

Natural Agency and Community in Paul Harding’s Tinkers

ABSTRACT This article examines Paul Harding’s representation of natural agency in Tinkers as a response to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalist perspective on nature, as articulated in his landmark essay “Nature.” It argues that Harding reimagines this essay from both human and natural perspectives to convey the theme of community. Harding presents Emersonian subjective experiences with nature from a nonhuman perspective, envisioning nature’s communication with humans in a natural language comprehensible to humans, and illustrating human-nature interconnectedness as part of a universal connection among all natural entities. Additionally, Harding describes the characters’ active pursuit of understanding natural mysteries and experiencing its beauty through their senses to form a bond with nature. This description illustrates human interconnectedness through a shared identity with nature, which is fostered in humanity’s collective relationship with the natural world, and in Emersonian practice of solitary communion with it. Natural agency is highlighted in the community-building amidst human-nature interactions as portrayed in the protagonists’ narrative, and through a nature narrative depicting a collective of both the human and the nonhuman. Through these narratives, Harding’s work challenges anthropocentric notions of collectivity, demonstrating fiction’s potential to engage with the nonhuman in the context of growing ecological crises.

STORIES OF THE PARASITE AND SYMBIOSIS AT A TIME OF CRISIS

Serres thought that humans had become the world’s parasites and that we must seek a more reciprocal partnership with our host. He put forward a legal justification for writing a new social contract that encompassed the more-than-human. Serres associated the foundation of the “natural contract” with the story of evolution, the biological relation between symbiosis and the parasite. Closely aligned to his proposal, Serres also envisioned the gathering together of a universal history revealed by the knowledge of the diverse sciences of matter and life and stories from the humanities and religion. He thought the “Grand Narrative” would bring people to an intimate understanding of our relation to the living world and the need for a contract of symbiosis. Serres referred to Molière’s Tartuffe, the fables of La Fontaine, the adventures of Tintin and Livy’s history of Rome to describe an underlying parasitical logic. Crossing social, medical, communicative and historical practices, the parasite is portrayed by Serres as an acquisitive guest, a contagious microbe, a confusing noise and part of ritualistic feasts. Crossing these specific examples, Serres depicts how the general operation of the parasite works in close partnership with the symbiotic. For instance, germs can both invade the body and strengthen immunity. As evolutionary biologists recognise, there is no simple division between parasitic and symbiotic processes. In this paper, I explore the biological–parasitic–symbiotic framework that Serres applies in the context of the ecological crisis and his proposal for a contract of symbiosis. I focus on pioneering research into the history of bacteria carried out by microbiologist Lynn Margulis and associated studies on the evolution of fungi and moss. I describe how this research contributes to Serres’s formulation of a universal story and at the same time helps both to supplement and critically engage with Serres’s thought on the natural contract. Specifically, I describe how Margulis’s contentions about the abilities of micro-organisms differ from Serres’s conception of the technology of “nature.” I also examine how his notion of the “Biosum,” a body that integrates all the perceptions and senses of the living world, informs his understanding of the divergent evolution of humankind. I conclude that Serres’s natural contract seeks to reinvent rather than imitate the rest of nature and briefly consider how his vision of inclusive global stories offers a glimpse of a new politics.

Perspectives on climate action and the changing burden of infectious diseases among young Italian doctors and students: a national survey.

The eco-climatic crisis has been defined by the World Health Organization as the "single biggest health threat facing humanity," influencing both the emergence of zoonoses and the spread of vector-borne and water-borne diseases. The aim of this survey was to explore knowledge, eco-anxiety and attitudes toward the ecological and climate crisis among young Italian doctors and medical students. A cross-sectional, multicenter survey was conducted from November 2022 to June 2023, by administering an anonymous questionnaire to Italian doctors and students of medicine. Endpoint of the study was a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) score on ecological and climate crisis (0-20 points). Association between variables and KAP score was assessed by Kruskal-Wallis' or Spearman's test, as appropriate, and significant variables were included into ordinal regression model and reported as adjusted odds ratio (aOR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI). Both KAP and eco-anxiety scores showed acceptable levels of consistency with Cronbach's alpha. A total of 605 medical doctors and students living in 19 Italian regions were included in the study. Median age [Q1-Q3] was 27.6 [24.1-31.3] and females were 352 (58.2%). Despite showing good attitudes toward climate action, knowledge gap were found, with 42.5% (n = 257) of the respondents not knowing the temperature limits set by the Paris Agreements and 45.5% (n = 275) believing that climate change is caused by sunspots. Fears suggestive for eco-anxiety were common. At multivariable ordinal regression, high levels of eco-anxiety (aOR 1.29, p = 0.001) and low trust in government action (aOR 1.96, p = 0.003) were associated with a higher KAP score. Only one Italian medical school offered an educational module on climate change. Young Italian doctors and medical students are concerned about the climate crisis but show poor knowledge of these topics. The Italian academic system should urgently respond to this need.

What takes your breath away? Notes towards somatic training in times of ecological crises

Evoking our environments as collaborators and interlocutors in performance training through the attentive modes that somatic approaches foster moves towards an open, responsive readiness as a foundational skill for performance training in times of climate crisis. Paying attention to the continuous collective cycles of sensory-motor looping, breathing, learning, and unlearning re-centres the focus of training towards a speculative practice that looks for ways and spaces for all bodies to access creative modes of being and to hone these skills together over time. The theories and practices entwined in this article emerge from the bodying forth of training in a university setting, including teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate settings and also from practice-based research projects. Developing this work forms a somatic-poesis approach, that is, a making with and through the body moving, the body in its doing, undoing, and redoing; its being, becoming and unbecoming. It is a training practice based in movement embedded with all other sensory registers; its score always starts in the middle. This is not neat, linear, or always explicit; there are interruptions and distractions that offer their own ways of knowing through image and text.

What is the role of universities at a time of climate and ecological crisis?

What is the role of universities at a time of climate and ecological crisis?

The Development and Characteristics of Planetary Health in Medical Education: A Scoping Review.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and other ecological crises threaten human health globally. The interrelation between human health and ecosystems is addressed in the emerging field of planetary health. Ecological crises have created an urgency to integrate planetary health, including sustainable health care, into medical education. To facilitate integration and guide future research, this review aims to provide an overview of the existing literature about planetary health in medical education. The authors conducted a scoping review using the conventional methodological framework for scoping studies. They performed a comprehensive search in 7 databases without language restrictions in March 2022. Two researchers independently extracted data. The team analyzed the data using data-driven thematic analysis, content analysis, and qualitative summarizing. Data were structured according to the Curriculum Development for Medical Education: A Six-Step Approach. The authors identified 3,703 unique publications, of which 127 were included. Articles predominantly (71%, n = 90) covered the call to integrate planetary health in medical education (step 1: general needs assessment). Many publications (24%, n = 31) proposed learning objectives (step 3); these mainly concerned raising awareness while few concerned action perspectives. Publications limitedly reported on the final steps of curriculum development. Only 2 covered a full cycle of curriculum development. Most were published recently, with first authors mainly from Europe and North America. Planetary health in medical education is an urgent and hot topic. Literature focused predominantly on why planetary health should be integrated in medical education and what should be covered. The authors recommend future research and education development to shift to how to do so, especially in evaluation and feedback. Research and education development needs to be conducted and reported on systematically and underpinned by educational principles. Lastly, it would benefit from perspectives beyond 'Western-based' ones.

Research on Countermeasures to Build a Green University Management System under the Concept of Ecological Education

Higher learning institutions have played a significant role in enhancing ecological education and ideological development among students. This is in response to the many problems occurring in the modern world concerning ideological and environmental aspects. Despite the efforts made by the state through increasing investments to deal with these aspects effectively, the resulting impact is not satisfactory. As a result, higher learning institutions have served as a significant area in offering solutions to these problems by nurturing high-level social talents. Education in higher learning institutions has dramatically expanded and integrated new research areas to counteract the limitations of traditional learning methods. Colleges and universities have upgraded their teaching activities and education sites in the modern era. However, these institutions have experienced many challenges and problems which have severely affected the ideological education ecosystem and the moral quality of students. The ecological education crisis in most learning institutions has become an unavoidable drift of the current education development. As a result, ideological education in colleges and universities is regarded as an ecosystem since it is analyzed from an ecological perspective. The ecology of ideological education refers to the environmental balance, law, and processes involved in the ideological education system. Furthermore, it incorporates value alignment and procedural thinking on the interaction between the environment and various aspects. Ecological and environmental development significantly impacts higher education students' values, emotions, and thoughts in the new environment. Therefore ecological changes have clear impacts on the living environment, which is in compliance with sustainable development concept.

Health Economics in a World of Uneconomic Growth.

Multiple, accelerating and interacting ecological crises are increasingly understood as constituting a major threat to human health and well-being. Unconstrained economic growth is strongly implicated in these growing crises, and it has been argued that this growth has now become "uneconomic growth", which is a situation where the size of the economy is still expanding, but this expansion is causing more harm than benefit. This article summarises the multiple pathways by which uneconomic growth can be expected to harm human health. It describes how health care systems-especially through overuse, low value and poor quality care-can themselves drive uneconomic growth. Health economists need to understand not only the consequences of environmental impacts on health care, but also the significance of uneconomic growth, and pay closer attention to the growing body of work by heterodox economists, especially in the fields of ecological and feminist economics. This will involve paying closer heed to the existence and consequences of diminishing marginal returns to health care consumption at high levels; the central importance of inequalities and injustice in health; and the need to remedy health economists' currently limited ability to deal effectively with low value care, overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

Actions speak louder than words: the case for responsible scientific activism in an era of planetary emergency.

The world's understanding of the climate and ecological crises rests on science. However, scientists' conventional methods of engagement, such as producing ever more data and findings, writing papers and giving advice to governments, have not been sufficiently effective at persuading politicians to act on the climate and ecological emergency. To date, governments' decisions (such as continuing with vast subsidies for fossil fuels) clearly show that powerful vested interests have been much more influential than the amassed scientific knowledge and advice. We argue that in the face of this inaction, scientists can have the maximum amount of influence by lending their support to social movements pressing for action, joining as active participants and considering civil disobedience. Scientists seeking to halt continued environmental destruction also need to work through our institutions. Too many scientific organizations, from national academies of science to learned societies and universities, have not taken practical action on climate; for example, many still partner with fossil fuel and other compromised interests. We therefore also outline a vision for how scientists can reform our scientific institutions to become powerful agents for change.

Grušovnik, Tomaž, Reingard Spannring, and Karen Lykke Syse, eds. Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial: Averting Our Gaze. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021

Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial: Averting Our Gaze edited by Tomaž Grušovnik, Reingard Spannring, and Karen Lykke Syse, stands as a groundbreaking work that delves into the intricate phenomenon of denialism, a critical barrier in addressing ecological crises and advancing animal rights. Through its compelling interdisciplinary lens, the book dissects the psychological, sociocultural, and political underpinnings of denial, challenging entrenched anthropocentric views. This review provides a critical analysis of the book and highlights its pivotal role in bridging theoretical ethics with real-world environmental and animal welfare challenges. The editors’ adept selection of contributions guides readers through a thought-provoking journey in denialism, encompassing personal introspection, societal critique, and a scrutinizing look at economic, political, and legal frameworks. Despite its primarily Western-centric perspective, the book is essential in advocating for a broader, more inclusive global dialogue in future research. The book emerges not just as an academic text but as an urgent call to action, resonating with scholars, policymakers, and activists. In essence, this work emphasizes the necessity for a transformative shift in how we perceive and interact with the natural world and its non-human inhabitants.

Peran Guru Pendidikan Agama Kristen Dalam Mengembangkan Kepedulian Ekologi Pada Generasi Muda Kristen

the increasingly alarming ecological crisis demands efforts to build awareness and concern for the environment, especially among the younger generation of Christians. This study aims to determine the role of Christian Religious Education teachers in shaping a generation of Christians who care about the ecological crisis. Using a qualitative approach with descriptive methods, data collection was conducted through interviews, observations, and filling out questionnaires. The results showed that Christian Religious Education teachers have an important role in shaping a Christian generation that cares about the ecological crisis, which is realized through (a) Integration of ecological material in Christian Religious Education learning, such as the concept of creation, stewardship, and human responsibility towards nature (b) Exemplary teachers in behaving environmentally friendly and educating students to care about the environment (c) Development of environmental awareness-based activities and cleaning activities in the school environment and its surroundings. This study suggests that Christian Religious Education teachers should consistently integrate ecological issues in learning and provide examples of environmentally friendly behavior, as well as develop extracurricular programs that can foster environmental awareness in the Christian generation. The findings of this study confirm the significant contribution of Christian Religious Education teachers in developing ecological awareness in the younger generation of Christians. Keywords: Christian Religious Education Teacher; Christian Generation; Ecology

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understand the Resilience of Agrosystems in the Sahel and West Africa

Sub-Saharan African farmers have long been portrayed with very negative representations, at least since the beginning of coordinated European colonialism in the late 19th century. In the Sahel-Sudan area, agrosystems have been described as overgrazed, forests as endangered, and soils as overexploited, with local and traditional “archaic” practices. Against this background, the objective of this article is to focus on these agrosystems’ resilience, for which several criteria have been monitored. The approach used in this research was to synthesize observations from a large amount of material gathered over multiple years by the authors, drawing on our long-term commitment to, and inter-disciplinary study of, the evolution of surface hydrology, ecosystems, and agrosystems of West Africa. The positive trends in rainfall and streamflows, reinforced by farmer’s practices, confirm the overall regreening and reforestation of the Sahel-Sudan strip, especially in areas with high population densities, including the mangrove areas. The intensification of agricultural systems and the recovery of the water-holding capacity of soils and catchments explain the recorded general increase in terms of food self-sufficiency in the Sahel, as well as in crops yields and food production. Finally, we compare the neo-Malthusian discourse to the actual resilience of these agrosystems. The article concludes with a recommendation calling for the empowerment of smallholder farmers to take greater advantage of the current wet period. Overall, the speed of change in knowledge and know-how transfer and implementation, and the farmers’ ability to adapt to ecological and economic crises, must be highlighted. Far from being resistant to change, West African agriculturalists innovate, experiment, borrow, transform, and choose according to their situation, projects, and social issues.

From Gaia Hypothesis to COVID-19: Comments on “After Lockdown:A Metamorphosis”

The COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread around the world. The climate crisis, environmental problems and ecological problems are gradually internationalized and globalized. The global governance of climate problems is facing great challenges and needs to be reformed. Against this background, the book after the blockade reflects on people's living conditions during the epidemic period, showing the transformation process of social individuals after the blockade. It discusses the political, ethical and even cosmological conflicts in the human world in the form. of philosophical fables and metaphors, analyzes the essence of the relationship between man and nature from the perspective of Gaia's political ecological view, and explores the rationality of the relationship between man and nature. The author emphasizes that the life entity on the earth is increasingly controlled and threatened by human beings, and it is necessary to rebuild the internal relationship between human and nature, science and politics, facts and values, and to explore good solutions to the ecological crisis. Latour, taking the actor network theory as the main line, proposed to transcend other symmetry principles in the “strong program”, advocated the opening of the actor Parliament and the ecological Utopia, and initiated the institutional reform. of reconstructing Gaia. However, he did not fully demonstrate and provide more details on the setting of actors in the institutional construction. This book provides an enlightening political ecological view for better building the life community between human and nature on the basis of understanding the activity states and combination modes of different actors.

Engels' Ecological Thought and its Contemporary Value Research

The ecological problem is a contemporary global problem, and it is also a practical problem faced by my country's modernization drive. Although in the 19th century when Engels lived, environmental problems had not yet emerged, and the ecological crisis had not yet fully erupted, but Engels was forward-looking and aware of the seriousness of the problem with his keen vision. Although Engels did not directly mention the word "ecology" in his writings, it does not mean that he did not elaborate on ecological thought. This article starts from the theoretical origin of Engels' view of nature, explores the formation of Engels' ecological thought, discusses its main content, namely the new development view of harmonious coexistence between man and nature and the social reconstruction of removing alienation, and finally puts forward the impact of Engels' ecological thought on the reference value of solving ecological problems.

Environmental Crisis and Images of Desire in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl and Pump Six and Other Stories

In the wake of mounting warnings from ecologists and other scientists, contemporary fiction writers have been alerting their readers to the environmental crisis as manifested in droughts, floods, wildfires, polar ice cap melting, rising sea levels, air, water, and soil pollution, species extinction, and a host of other ills. Within the realm of contemporary science fiction, Paolo Bacigalupi, a highly acclaimed American author, describes a world in the throes of catastrophic ecological change. Through his meticulously crafted narratives, Bacigalupi delivers a prophetic message, delineating environmental crises within the context of a posthuman world.Employing pertinent concepts derived from object-oriented ecological theory, this paper employs Jane Bennett’s notion of “vibrant matter”, Timothy Morton’s concept of “hyperobjects”, Stacy Alaimo’s theory of “trans-corporeality”, and Rob Nixon’s idea of “slow violence” to see how Bacigalupi engages in current discourses on the environmental crisis and images of desire in The Windup Girl and Pump Six and Other Stories. Bacigalupi presents grotesqueries against a background of multiple, post-apocalyptic disasters. While societal elites indulge in hedonistic experimentation, mega-corporations engage in genetic manipulation on humans, plants, and animals in pursuit of progress, aesthetic trends, profit, or survival. Humanity’s ongoing destruction of the planet in service to a consumer culture, along with the disastrous results of attempting scientific “fixes” without understanding the interconnecting causes or the scale of the phenomenon they are trying to “fix”, beg the question of whether science and technology will be able to prevent or ameliorate future ecological crises, or inadvertently precipitate even graver predicaments. Bacigalupi’s critique, illustrated through grim narratives replete with macabre examples, serves as a poignant exhortation, urging humans to meditate on and then prevent or mitigate the impending disasters of our own making.

Institutionalized Interdisciplinary Approaches in Architectural and Design Education

This paper investigates the multifaceted realm of interdisciplinarity in architectural education, examining historical and contemporary perspectives from institutions such as the Bauhaus, the Ulm School of Design, TU Delft, and the University of Zagreb Faculty of Architecture. Acknowledging the challenges posed by complex urban issues, the study underscores the imperative for interdisciplinary approaches in addressing economic, social, and ecological crises. By tracing the evolution of the concept, the paper distinguishes between disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, exploring key definitions of the concept. The paper concludes by highlighting ongoing efforts in educational institutions, reflected in various courses, workshops, and summer schools. Despite the limitations inherent in examining a handful of examples, the findings offer valuable guidance for educational institutions aspiring to embrace or enhance interdisciplinary approaches in architectural education. The insights draw attention to the importance of holistic, collaborative models in preparing future architects to navigate the complexities of our urban environments.

Perspectives on Eco-Translation in Diane Ackerman ("The Zookeeper’s Wife") and Kapka Kassabova ("Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe")

The present article takes into account a current trend in the translation studies that reconsiders anthropocentric thinking about translation – as Michael Cronin, one of the leading theoreticians of this movement believes, communication systems have to be made effective against the threatening prospects of an imminent ecological crisis. Central to this expanded vision of translation is the idea that communication is not the exclusive “property” of humanity, but a natural means of interaction that characterizes the lives and being of all planetary forms of existence (including landscapes and geological sites). In other words, the Earth itself is held together by impulses of verbal and non-verbal communication, and human beings are just members of this infinitely extended, but effectively operating communicative space that Cronin refers to as “tradosphere”. While this is just the beginning of a challenging, exciting and meaningful re-routing of the conventional modes of thinking about translation, I aim to explore how this planetary consciousness can be employed as a critical instrument in reading narratives of suffering and survival. It is in such survival stories that human integrity is tested both psychologically and physically as physical menace strips human characters of their cultural identities and relocates them in the immense network of cross-species communication.

The beautiful risk of participatory education: An empirical example of teaching strong sustainability

The grand challenges of our times are seriously interlinked: ecological crises cannot be tackled separately from social problems. In the strong sustainability approach, a good life for all must be achieved within ecological boundaries. To respect the planetary boundaries, it is required to provide critiques for the current economic, social and political order and suggest concrete actions that may lead to strong sustainability transformation. Business schools must address these challenges and provide solutions through educational content and innovative teaching methods. In this article, we argue that participatory education is the appropriate tool to teach strong sustainability in business schools. Building on Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy and Gert Biesta’s participatory education theories, we developed a theoretical framework to understand how these theories can strengthen strong sustainability education. Using the analytical framework, we explore the risks of participatory education in our Degrowth course and bring empirical examples of its impacts on students by analysing the reflection articles of 37 students. According to our findings, this particular type of education creates both positive emotions, like enjoyment and enthusiasm, and negative ones, like anxiety and helplessness.