Earth Stewardship Research Articles

Transformative Earth stewardship: Principles for shaping a sustainable future for nature and society

AbstractEarth stewardship is the proactive shaping of pathways of social‐ecological change to enable people and nature to thrive. Its strategy is to identify and shape sustainable pathways of human–nature interaction. I describe three Earth stewardship approaches to addressing global changes. Two of these (resisting unfavorable change; accepting and adapting to change) are well‐accepted approaches to conservation and sustainability. The third (transformative Earth stewardship to escape unsustainable traps) is more challenging but can sometimes overcome seemingly insurmountable barriers. It can be triggered by a change in vision for society, changes in feedbacks such as social norms and incentives, or engagement of influential actors or institutions. The innovation necessary to trigger profound transformation often requires transdisciplinary perspectives that draw on multiple knowledge systems, modes of communication, and sectors of society.

Embroidering care and reciprocity: contributions to food sovereignty by feminist peasant women from the mountains of Veracruz, Mexico

Different authors from academia and social movements point to agroecology as a path to food sovereignty and as a way out of multiple social-ecological crises. Peasant feminism (feminismo campesino) informs the daily practice of women, and has contributed to broaden the meanings of food sovereignty as a political framework. Vinculación y Desarrollo Agroecológico en Café (VIDA) is a Mexican coffee growers’ organization that is centrally guided by principles of agroecology, food sovereignty, and peasant feminism. A transdisciplinary study held with VIDA members shows how food sovereignty is based on more dimensions than the official ones. In this paper, we use the Mexican art of embroidery as an integrating metaphor to analyze how female coffee growers’ practices around integral health, food gathering, and bartering contribute to food sovereignty. Our intention is also to analyze how these activities expand from the family unit to the territory, as well as from human to more than human beings. Based on their agroecological knowledge and practice, VIDA’s feminist peasant women invite us to consider agroecology and food sovereignty as key dimensions of Earth stewardship.

Ecofeminist Perspectives and Familial Dynamics: Exploring Women’s Roles in Environmental Sustainability and the Filipino Concept of “Ate”

This essay explores women’s role in environmental sustainability drawing from the Filipino concept of “Ate.” Through a contrapuntal analysis, it unveils the convergence and divergence between women’s roles in formal environmental advocacy and as caregivers within the family, emphasizing the interconnectedness of these roles. Examining birth order in Filipino culture reveals the early-age responsibilities, particularly for first-born females, highlighting their leadership, teaching, and caregiving roles. The study underscores women’s significant role as environmental stewards, both locally and globally, aligning with the biblical concept of overseeing and caring for the Earth. The exploration of women as promoters of welfare, within Filipino culture and through environmental protection efforts, demonstrates diverse contributions to community and planetary well-being. The study intertwines biblical perspectives with cultural insights, emphasizing shared responsibility for Earth stewardship. In conclusion, it calls for a comprehensive understanding of women’s contributions in environmental and familial spheres, recognizing their pivotal and interconnected roles. As the world faces urgent environmental challenges, leveraging the diverse perspectives and actions of women emerges as crucial for sustainable and equitable solutions. The study contributes valuable insights to discussions on gender roles, environmentalism, and cultural contexts, advocating for the recognition and promotion of women’s roles in shaping a sustainable future. Keywords: ecofeminism, environmental sustainability, gender roles, caregiving, “ate” concept, formal advocacy

Gene drives, mosquitoes, and ecosystems: an interdisciplinary approach to emerging ethical concerns

Gene drives are genetic elements that in sexually reproducing organisms spread faster than those transmitted through a Mendelian fashion. Since gene drives can be engineered to modify different aspects of physiology and reproduction, they have been proposed as a new and revolutionary tool to control vector-borne diseases, particularly those transmitted by the genera Anopheles and Aedes (Culicidae), such as malaria, Dengue and Zika virus. This approach may impact on human health by lowering the transmission of such devastating diseases. However, the release of genetically modified mosquitos (or other species) into the environment raises a series of questions related to the still incipient technology and our present understanding of the complex structure and dynamics of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Moreover, there are ethical concerns about human interventions in natural ecosystems that may eventually impact our way of living or the ecosystems themselves. This work is an interdisciplinary approach that analyzes from a biological, philosophical, and theological perspective the potential ecological impacts on natural environments of the release of genetically modified species, focusing on gene drive-modified mosquitos. It includes theological approach from a Catholic point of view (although it could be easily shared by other Christians) because we hold that world religions give valuable insights even though not everyone may share their groundings. We conclude that the focal problem is the relationship between humans and nature, and the release of genetically modified species may change this relationship unpredictably. However, given the complex interactions in ecosystems, new approaches such as Earth Stewardship principles could provide new and more widely accepted answers involving biological, philosophical, and theological concepts that will help engaging all relevant actors to make a better world.

Protestant Christianity and the Bible as Wisdom for Earth Environmental Stewardship

Since the 1967, after Lynn White Jr.´s seminal article in science, entitled “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” Christianity has received academic and popular criticism, for having, supposedly, served as a major driver for our current ecological crisis. Contrary to White´s negative historical account of the role of Christianity in environmental affairs, in this article, I offer a rebuttal by stressing that, actually, Christianity is a major source of wisdom towards building a more sustainable Earth stewardship. White´s biggest mistake was not telling apart what Christianity teaches from what self-ascribed Christians think and do about the environment. Christianity itself explains this paradox: People’s right and wrong doings are solely the result of their own choices and flaws due to sin, and not because Judeo-Christian traditions or the Bible lack values and principles that are benevolent to the environment. In conclusion, White´s views on the interplay between Christianity and Ecology are fundamentally mistaken, mainly for his lack (or dismissal) of a deeper knowledge of biblical principles for environmental stewardship.

Jens Koehrsen, Julia Blanc, and Fabian Huber (eds.), Religious Environmental Activism: Emerging Conflicts and Tensions in Earth Stewardship

Jens Koehrsen, Julia Blanc, and Fabian Huber (eds.), Religious Environmental Activism: Emerging Conflicts and Tensions in Earth Stewardship (New York: Routledge, 2023), 340 pp., $128 (hbk), ISBN: 9780367862534.

Earth, gender and food security: Maria Zaloumis’ journey of feminising Agric-business in Zambia

This article explores the interconnectedness of the earth, gender and food security in the Zambian context using the narrative of Maria Zaloumis (a female Zambian farmer) in the public sphere. It draws on a narrative research design by the restorying of Maria’s trajectory in Agric-business as informed by the African ecofeminist theory. The study shows that Maria was described as an emerging young farmer and an emblem of female entrepreneurship. Her trajectory mirrored the intersection of the earth, gender and food security through her portrayal as a woman who endured life tragedies of losing a child, and being a victim of gender-based violence in her marriage. She drew inspiration from her mother (venturing into farming was linked to her mother), the earth (farming was an outlet for healing from her marital challenges) and religion (attributed her success to God as a member of the Baptist church). Maria’s account which resonates with the injustice suffered by the earth and shared by women through the environmental crises affirms that in the midst of suffering, women could still contribute to food security by turning a crisis into an opportunity and fostering a life-affirming theology.Contribution: The article contributes to scholarship on the earth, gender and food security by bringing to the fore the ways in which women have contributed to changing the Agric-business landscape through the intersection of the earth, gender and religion from the Zambian context. It also adds a new perspective to women’s empowerment and the preservation and stewardship of mother earth.

Earth stewardship, water resilience, and ethics in the Anthropocene

Non-technical summary This article uses water to examine how the relationships of ethics to science are modified through the pursuit of Earth stewardship. Earth stewardship is often defined as the use of science to actively shape social–ecological relations by enhancing resilience. The changing relations of science to values are explored by considering how ideas of resilience operate to translate different ways of knowing water into the framework of Earth stewardship. This is not a neutral process, and Earth stewardship requires careful appraisal to ensure other ways of knowing water are not oppressed. Technical summary Scientific disclosures of anthropogenic impacts on the Earth system – the Anthropocene – increasingly come with ethical diagnoses for value transformation and, often, Earth stewardship. This article examines the changing relationship of science to values in calls for Earth stewardship with special attention to water resilience. The article begins by situating recent efforts to reconceptualize human–water relations in view of anthropogenic impacts on the global water system. It then traces some of the ways that Earth stewardship has been articulated, especially as a framework supporting the use of science to actively shape social–ecological relations by enhancing resilience. The shift in relations of ethics and science entailed by Earth stewardship is placed in historical context before the issues of water resilience are examined. Resilience, and critiques of it, are then discussed for how they operate to translate different ways of knowing water into the framework of Earth stewardship. The ethical stakes of such translations are a core concern of the conclusion. Rather than reducing different ways of knowing water to those amendable to the framework of Earth stewardship, the article advances a pluralized approach as needed to respect multiple practices for knowing and relating to water – and resilience. Social media summary Water resilience is key to Earth stewardship; Jeremy Schmidt examines how it changes relations of science and ethics.

From Stamps to Parabolas.

I am a child of Sputnik, the satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. That event created opportunities for me to escape the horrors of apartheid by emigrating from South Africa to the United States. There, fortuitously, I was given excellent opportunities to explore how an interplay between the waves and currents influences climate variability, from interannual El Niño events to millennial ice ages. During my career, I also witnessed intriguing facets of the interactions between the profoundly different worlds of science and of human affairs. Up to 1957, El Niño was welcomed as a blessing, but by 1982 it had become a curse-not because it changed, but because our human activities are making us vulnerable to natural climate variability. We have learned to cope admirably with the occasional failures of the Indian monsoons; the resultant famines are not as calamitous as they once were. What guidance does that limited success provide for a response to global warming, a climate change we humans are inducing? This article briefly summarizes how my career as a geoscientist brought me to the conclusion that a strategy to promote responsible stewardship of planet Earth should be based on love rather than fear. We can only love what we know, so warnings of imminent gloom and doom should be complemented with efforts to make everyone aware of the wonders of our amazing planet-the only one in the universe known to be habitable.

Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

Transformation toward a sustainable future requires an earth stewardship approach to shift society from its current goal of increasing material wealth to a vision of sustaining built, natural, human, and social capital—equitably distributed across society, within and among nations. Widespread concern about earth’s current trajectory and support for actions that would foster more sustainable pathways suggests potential social tipping points in public demand for an earth stewardship vision. Here, we draw on empirical studies and theory to show that movement toward a stewardship vision can be facilitated by changes in either policy incentives or social norms. Our novel contribution is to point out that both norms and incentives must change and can do so interactively. This can be facilitated through leverage points and complementarities across policy areas, based on values, system design, and agency. Potential catalysts include novel democratic institutions and engagement of non-governmental actors, such as businesses, civic leaders, and social movements as agents for redistribution of power. Because no single intervention will transform the world, a key challenge is to align actions to be synergistic, persistent, and scalable.

“If we had a spaceship could we go there?”: The Road’s Critique of Techno- Futurism and Anthropocentrism

ABSTRACT Cormac McCarthy’s The Road depicts the journey of an unnamed man and his young son across a devastated American wasteland in a post-apocalyptic world. The spaceship, Mars, other planets and aliens are referred to in this novel. Moreover, it also explicitly refers to the residues of modernisation the father and son come upon on their journey to the south. However, the significance and implications of these references have not been given due attention by extant criticism. Accordingly, this paper argues that the references have many significant implications for us to understand this novel’s denial of the plausibility of fantasies of extraterrestrial colonisation, critique of techno-futurism and anthropocentrism, and call for responsible earth stewardship.

Conceptualising sustainability through environmental stewardship and virtuous cycles\u2014a new empirically-grounded model

Humans depend on earth’s ecosystems and in the Anthropocene, ecosystems are increasingly impacted by human activities. Sustainability—the long-term integrity of social–ecological systems—depends on effective environmental stewardship, yet current conceptual frameworks often lack empirical validation and are limited in their ability to show progress towards sustainability goals. In this study we examine institutional and local stewardship actions and their ecological and social outcomes along 7000 km of Australia’s coastline. We use empirical mixed methods and grounded theory to show that the combination of local and institutional stewardship leads to improved ecological outcomes, which in turn enhance social values and motivate further stewardship to form a virtuous cycle. Virtuous cycles may proceed over multiple iterations, which we represent in a new spiral model enabling visualisation of progress towards sustainability goals over time. Our study has important implications for collaborative earth stewardship and the role of policy in enabling virtuous cycles to ultimately realise sustainable futures.

Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Says about the Environment and Why It Matters

Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Says about the Environment and Why It Matters

Promoting Action Ecology Research Through Integration of Environmental Justice in Undergraduate Ecology Education

Promoting Action Ecology Research Through Integration of Environmental Justice in Undergraduate Ecology Education

Urban gardening as a means for fostering embodied urban human\u2013food connection? A case study on urban vegetable gardens in Germany

Urbanization is increasingly compromising residents’ connection to natural habitats and landscapes. With established relationships between human–nature connection (HNC) and pro-environmental behaviour and human well being, there are calls for effective interventions to strengthen HNC in urban settings. However, much of this research has operationalised HNC in narrow psychological terms. Based on an embodied framework of urban human–food connection (HFC) as a specific dimension of HNC, this article explores the role of active urban gardening in promoting different types of internal and external HFC and their link with pro-environmental food behaviour (PEFB). Based on a quantitative survey in Germany addressing vegetable gardeners in Munich (N = 254), a principal component analysis extracted four components of HFC comprising external body-related HFC (i.e. immediate urban garden-body activities: food harvesting and experiential food interaction) and internal mind-related HFC (i.e. immediate urban garden-mind activities including food discovery as well as food consciousness). These were found to be statistically related to one another. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed that food consciousness through concerns on food consumption and environmental impacts as well as food as part of life attitude as an internal HFC is the sole predictor of PEFB. The study suggests an embodied HFC model emphasizing the need for local body- and mind-based nature connections for fostering earth stewardship. Future research should explore the relationship between inner dimensions of nature connectedness and external behavioural change to enable transformations towards sustainability.

Halal Products: Not Restricted to Food and its Marketing Opportunity in the Muslim World

Halal refers to methods of producing goods & services in the manner allowed by Shariah or Islamic law, which invest besides food preparation and food products but also encompasses the production of pharmaceutical, Cosmetics, Garments & fashion, Tourism Practices and also services like tourism, finance & banking and many more. Halal not only a religious observance and obligation for Muslims but also has emerged as a powerful market force alike both for Muslims and non-Muslims, so gained an increasing acceptance among Muslims along with non-Muslim consumers. Halal is becoming a global symbol of a lifestyle choice and quality assurance choice has promoted values as economic and social justice, earth stewardship, social responsibility, and animal welfare have gained interest which is beyond religious compliance. The global halal market is 1.7 billion consumers and worth almost US$ 2.3 trillion. This paper has focused on items Muslims are using other than food.

Knowledge sharing and adoption behaviour: An imperative to promote sustainable soil use and management

Knowledge sharing and adoption behaviour: An imperative to promote sustainable soil use and management

Joining the Transformation of Nature—The Post-Natural and Confucian Perspective on Earth Stewardship in the Anthropocene

Joining the Transformation of Nature—The Post-Natural and Confucian Perspective on Earth Stewardship in the Anthropocene

Earth Stewardship Science—Transdisciplinary Contributions to Quantifying Natural and Cultural Heritage of Southernmost Africa

Evaluating anthropogenic changes to natural systems demand greater quantification through innovative transdisciplinary research focused on adaptation and mitigation across a wide range of thematic sciences. Southernmost Africa is a unique field laboratory to conduct such research linked to earth stewardship, with ‘earth’ as in our Commons. One main focus of the AEON’s Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute (ESSRI) is to quantify the region’s natural and cultural heritage at various scales across land and its flanking oceans, as well as its time-scales ranging from the early Phanerozoic (some 540 million years) to the evolution of the Anthropocene (changes) following the emergence of the first human-culture on the planet some 200 thousand years ago. Here we illustrate the value of this linked research through a number of examples, including: (i) geological field mapping with the aid of drone, satellite and geophysical methods, and geochemical fingerprinting; (ii) regional ground and surface water interaction studies; (iii) monitoring soil erosion, mine tailing dam stability and farming practices linked to food security and development; (iv) ecosystem services through specific biodiversity changes based on spatial logging of marine (oysters and whales) and terrestrial (termites, frogs and monkeys) animals. We find that the history of this margin is highly episodic and complex by, for example, the successful application of ambient noise and groundwater monitoring to assess human-impacted ecosystems. This is also being explored with local Khoisan representatives and rural communities through Citizen Science. Our goal is to publicly share and disseminate the scientific and cultural data, through initiatives like the Africa Alive Corridor 10: ‘Homo Sapiens’ that embraces storytelling along the entire southern coast. It is envisioned that this approach will begin to develop the requisite integrated technological and societal practices that can contribute toward the needs of an ever-evolving and changing global ‘village’.

Earth stewardship, economic justice, and world mission: The teachings of Laudato Si’

The article provides a synopsis of the encyclical Laudato Si’, written for everyone living in this degraded planet by Pope Francis. Our common home, Planet Earth, calls us to intimacy and communion with everything that is. Rediscovering this call and mission is the key to the flourishing of the community of diverse life-forms in the biosphere. We are all called to heal, protect and care of the planet to save the ecological systems on which life depends and assure future generations of a sustainable future. The article also details the concrete programs being done, in the light of ecological conversion called for in Laudato Si’, through a covenant of a sustainable development community of people and organizations which connect, converge, share, learn and collaborate in projects to the planting of a billion bamboo by 2030 to combat the dire effects of the climate crisis and build up the bamboo industry to provide jobs for the poor; networking a million organic farmers through an e-commerce platform to make production and marketing of organic products more efficient and sustainable;, and, provide online education to a million school dropouts to enable them to obtain a high school diploma so that they can proceed to college, obtain jobs, or put up their own businesses - all these by 2030. Inspired by Laudato Si’, the members of the covenant also share resources, strategies and innovative approaches to meet the challenges of sustainable development in the Philippines and in the entire planet by the year 2030.