As Nature goes on: the human dimension of Climate Change - A new paradigm?

 The images of the Chernobyl area about 30 years after the nuclear accident are somehow emblematic of the ability of nature to reclaim and return to occupy even the most inhospitable places. And by the meaning of this last word I would start a discussion which I think is helpful to approach consciously to the upcoming COP21 meeting in Paris.

Inhospitable to whom, then? Certainly not for those plants and animals that have taken space between roads, buildings in ruins and rusty cars. Rather, inhospitable for us humans, shipped away by a disaster caused by ourselves, exiled indefinitely from one place, this like many others, we had learned to consider "our", in which we have invested energy and resources.

We discover, then, that the animal and plant world has the ability to adapt to changing conditions; we realize, however, that humans represent, tragically, an exception: we replaced the organic adaptation to technical and scientific genius; but despite our advanced technology, this one does not allow us to overcome certain obstacles, if not at the cost, often, to create any others.

This "human exception" puts us hopelessly outside the natural system and, at the same time, we are the main causes of changes in the system itself. So the question that you should ask yourself now is: what and who we want to (have to) save?

A document that has provoked much discussion, even outside of the community of specialists, and that will surely be central to the debate at the Conference of Paris, is the encyclical document of Pope Francis entitled "Ludato sii - Caring for Common Home" . And the call to St. Francis in the title deserves a careful consideration that can help to frame the problematic relationship between man and environment.

The figure of the "Poverello di Assisi" was always struck by the sensitivity and the imagination of writers and thinkers of all ages. He was often idealized, even beyond the strictly religious message: the Hermann Hesse's Francis is the symbol of freedom and happiness that is nourished by the intimate relationship with a nature both flourishing and Arcadian; a similar interpretation is also found in Gabriele D'Annunzio who draws the figure of the saint as an emblem of the "Super Man" in which the will and action are combined in pursuing his profession of absolute poverty.

All these interpretations are affected by a decadent and pre-Raphaelite cultural climate  which depicts the relationship between Francis and the Nature as an intimate communion, a utopia of man-in-Nature that it is difficult to imagine in concrete reality.

The European Middle Ages, as Jacques Le Goff has taught us, is dominated by the "silva": the forest. The forest is both a resource and a border, a place that attracts and repels, real space and magical one at the same time. For Dante Alighieri it is the "wild forest" in which the traveler is lost and from which it is difficult to get out, both physically and spiritually. Nature, then, for the man of the Middle Ages is far from being a leisure carefree place; Nature sets limits to man, forced him in the cramped conditions of the the feudal life and rare, and difficult, are moving and traveling over long distances.

Le Goff helps to dispel the idyllic fog that envelops Francis contextualizing the saint "in the heart of the phase of great momentum of the medieval West [...]. The most spectacular result of demographic and economic development is an intense movement of urbanization [...] like great waves of urban explosion of the nineteenth and then the twentieth century." Francis, in fact. belongs to a new world that moves away gradually from the Middle Ages; he belongs to a new class, the merchant class. to which the narrow spaces of "curtis" begin to feel tight. Not otherwise explain the resourcefulness with which he carries out his plan and his stubbornness even in the face of resistance by church hierarchies.

Also new is the attitude towards the environment, the landscape and the nature: the sun and the moon and any other natural phenomenon lose their mystique and allegorical meaning to become "brothers" and "sisters" human beings. Francis explicitly says to his contemporaries not to be afraid of the world around them and to follow him to areas that till then have been warned as barred to humans and dominated by dark and incomprehensible forces. This is the going to the world of the merchant but also a civilizing mission: in the stories contained in the Fioretti, Francis often appears as a new Hercules, a civilizing hero who tames wild beasts, casts out demons and returns the places to human activities.

The relationship between title and content of the encyclical document reveals a striking parallelism, a "laical" and practical approach to the complex relationship between man and nature. The problem, in fact, as noted among others by Mike Hulme, moves from the issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the sustainable survival of man on Earth. He can use his primacy over Nature in two directions: just selfishly pursuing their own purposes, or by using the resources at his disposal to fill the ditches that prevent much of the world to have a dignified existence. 

The message, however, does not fall into an easy invitation to pauperism or an anti-tech "Luddites"; like St. Francis, Pope Francis invites us to look at the world as an environment of opportunities to seize together and, more importantly, to imagine a future and to fight pragmatically that sense of alienation that makes us feel strangers in our own land. Social justice is identified with environmental justice, the equality of access to resources and their proper and sustainable management.

Environmental problems are once again confirmed as human problems not only in the causes but, above all, in their future development. The question is not in the bear floating over a small piece by ice, but in the recurring famines in extreme weather events, in the management of our house, of our world.

Not to realize one day, as the last rider by Stephen King, that "the world has moved on," but we hopelessly and tragically we have fallen behind.

Climate and Society: a comparative approach, spatial and diachronic to the processes and factors of vulnerability

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.Genesis 7:17

At this time there was a deluge of water in the territories of Venefia and Liguria, and in other regions of Italy such as is believed not to have existed since the time of Noah. Ruins were made of estates and country seats, and at the same time a great destruction of men and animals.Paul the Deacon, Hist.Lang. XXIII

The word "deluge" has always evoked apocalyptic scenarios of destruction; it, in many cultures, is synonymous with the unleashing of the forces of nature, and the representation of a superior force that erases and transforms everything. In the evolution of the relationship between man and nature, if these phenomena have lost the original mysterious aura, they are charged in the time of new symbolic meanings: if by Paul the Deacon the Deluge marks the end of the ancient world and the beginning of a new era, the mystics of medieval storms, floods and periods of continued drought are one way that God has to communicate with the men and drive them to new or renewed forms of piety; even in modern times, despite the progress of science, sudden changes in climate have been interpreted as ominous portents, even, in some cases, so as to justify acts and violent behavior, such as, for example, the persecution of "witches" or minorities and other categories of people.

The "mystique of the climate" is not just a feature of more or less remote times. Words such as "global warming" and "climate change" have become popular and often appear as an explanation of catastrophic events, famine or unusual weather phenomena. A clear awareness of human responsibility in the current state of the global climate has the negative consequence that to have turned the "weather factor" in the first, if not the only, culprit of environmental crises in the world. If science is committed to the geo-technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change, the response of much of the world's population has not changed compared to the past: massive migrations are taking place from the areas most affected by the effects of global warming to the countries of the northern hemisphere.

It is evident that the purely technological solution or the migration itself are not sustainable, or they are not by themselves, on a planet traveling toward the 10 billion inhabitants. Also the only reduction of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere will not solve the problems that large areas of the world have now. Overcoming the "mystique of the climate" means first of all open your eyes to a complex of issues surrounding the complicated relationship between Humans and Nature. The climate is only one factor to be considered. Acting on climate is only partially possible; is essential, however, to actively intervene on the factors that make human societies vulnerable to climate change. 

The immediate observation, "in real time" of how a society reacts to a sudden change in environmental conditions provides only a partial snapshot of the culminating moment of a process. When a community is in the borderline situation, or no longer able to respond efficiently and effectively to stimuli of the environment, it means that it is in the final stage,and sometimes irreversible, of the complex process that led to the collapse. This has happened many times in human history and at different scales of magnitude. However, historical research has often stop at the surface, to the awareness that the climate was, in some way, have played a major role in the fall of a civilization. This reduction and simplification lose sight of the whole of the social, economic and political changes that represent the thickness of the problem of the relationship between Humans and the Environment.

The comparative study of historical events, far apart in time and space too, is a complex job and to be conducted with caution in order not to "actualize" specific phenomena of thepast, but even create anachronisms artificial and contrived; the choice of geographical areas must meet certain criteria in order not to attribute characters socio-cultural contexts to which they not belong. The geographical areas to this preliminary disquisition are the Po Valley and the central Adriatic area (Italy) and the Fertile Crescent, limited to the Syrian territory. For the Po Valley periods that will be considered are: 535-589 AD and 1764-1816 d.C .; the Fertile Crescent: 1595-1610 A.D. and 1946-2014 AD. Both geographical areas have been, since ancient times, exploited for agricultural irrigation systems through technical and complex; in both contexts the resource water is essential, as well as its management; consequently, finally, both environments were in their history, and still are, vulnerable to climate change.

The historical periods have been chosen according to the quantity of sources available, for common characteristics and because the dates of each pair are, roughly, the beginning and end of a chronological process.

Po Valley and central Adriatic area (Italy)

1.

535 A.D. : Event abrupt climate, crop failure resulting in migration of the population, the outbreak, in the previous year, of the Greek-Gothic war, tensions in society between the Roman and the Gothic elements.

589 A.D. : The "flood" of Paul Deacon as a result of the total collapse of the irrigation system of the Roman period, profound transformation of the settlement system in central and northern (who "wins" and who "loses", legacy and new features).

2.

1764 A.D. : Abrupt climate event as "flick of the tail" of the Little Ice Age, famine, epidemics and catastrophic events related to fluctuations in climate and land management.

1816 A.D. : Year after the eruption of the volcano Tambora, a serious impact on agricultural production and on the hydrogeological framework of the territory, the Napoleonic wars, migration from the countryside and towards the plain.

Fertile Crescent (Syria)

1.

1595 A.D. : Effects of the Little Ice Age on agricultural production and social tensions that lead to revolts against the tax system of the Ottoman Empire.

1610 A.D. : It is quelled the revolt of Celali, reducing the phenomenon of banditry that was spreading in the countryside.

2.

1946 A.D. : Independence of Syria, measures of land distribution, splitting of property, migration from the countryside, spreading the "squatting" in agricultural properties, developed new areas of culture, problems of water management also due to international tensions.

2014 A.D. : Civil war, easing of state control in the area, intensification of migration, both internal and international, land abandonment, impoverishment of agricultural production as early as 2006.

Beyhond carbon emissiom cuts: Obama's action plan as a Climate New Deal?

"I don't want to fool you, this is going to be hard. No single action, no single country will change the warming of the planet", President Obama realistically declared. But media all over the world pointed their attention on the cut of carbon emissions, especialy, but not only, from carbon power plants. This aspect, definitely, is important, and it's being debated not only in the US; but, in my opinion, the presidential plan represents a radical different approach in coping with climate change issues. Not only it is the first time that in a political document is admitted the reality and urgence of this problem, but also the plan designs a complete strategy in an effort to mitigate the effects of global warming, in the present and in future. 

In this perspective, the most important part of the document is that titled "Preparing for the impacts of climate change". Arguing that it was almost too late, President Obama took in account that the priority is avoiding other natural disasters or mitigating the effects of  possible catastrophes. The to-do list is long, from providing tools for climate resilience to creating sustainable and resilient hospitals, from reducing risks to assesing the impact of climate change; neverthless, at the center of the strategy, are a (not yet specified in detail) plan of investiments at national level, a financial and coordinated effort to adapt US to the effects of global warming.

Will it be a Climate New Deal? It's too early to say, thought presidential elections are approaching too; morever, a such plan would be an important incentive to the US economy, both in creating jobs and in avoiding damages and emergences; and reducing the risk means also a decline in costs of reconstruction in case of natural disasters. And, at last, it would drive to an improvement in research & development.

from Current challenges in the impacts and adaptation to climate change: Introduction to IPCC WG2 and IPCC WG3 (BC3 Summer School _July 2015)

But the question for us living in the opposite side of the Atlantic ocean is: will Europe follow the US in implementing a strategy to cope with climate change? Surely, it is a matter of political decision and, before it, of taking in account that the problem is important and the action must be now.

It's a match is worth to be played, for the present and for the future generations; but it's also a change of perspective in view of a new sustainale development at world scale.             

  

"Ik... et nunc" - Subsistence and Culture - Strangers in (our) land

If "we are the way we get what we eat", what happens when people move from an area to another? How behaviors, beliefs and, in general, all the aspects of "immaterial" cultural heritage are affected and modified in migrants? How the impact on another environment, sometimes completely different than the country of origin, influenced the life of these people?

Digiting on Google "migration food", over 140 million results appear: most of them are concerning famine as one of the causes of migrations; the others are about the eating habits migrants carry on with themselves. Therefore, a recent lecture at University of Birmingham was just about the contribution of migrants to the culinary tradiitions of hosts countries. Since that, the matter can be focused both as an humanitarian issue (on the regions of origin) and a supply problem. This last point, morever, has been fixed by modern trade that can transport fruits, vegetables, meat and fish all over the world. 

Thought, the problem is not a problem. But going around the cues of British supermarkets, in the last weeks, I felt a sensation of passivity: not only what you choose to eat often comes form abroad, but also you don't understand, in this way, the relationship between food and environment around you. This alienation is not only a distintive character of migrants, but it's a common feeling in the modern societies: you buy food, but you don't mind where and how it comes from, it's there, catch it up! 

But what would be the impact of a such trend on the environment? Dividing subsistence and landscape carries to a dual consequence. In fact, if in a cultural perspective this gap prevent people to know the space around them, it is also represent a problem about environmental management. Countryside abandonment is only one of the components; more serious is a merely conservative attitude (forgetting the utilitaristic-transformative value of a landscape) or a disruptive behaviour in the name of  an uncontrolled progress. 

It is being losing the so called Indigenous Knowlodge (I.K.) as ensamble of traditions and techniques which had been stratified in centuries. This process are making us strangers in our land, and it is more and more difficult for us to cope with the environmental issues. We live in a place, but we don't know how this place works! 

Epochal transformation, in the past and in the present times as well, are often characterised by mass migrations and people displacements. A new perspective in the study of these issues can be useful for two main reasons: in first place, it helps to change the common view of migrants often considered, in all epochs, as invaders and land usurprers; in the other, can be the key to understand and sistematically cope with environmental problems, in a time of great and global changes, in a sustainable way.               

             

#ClimCult for #Expo2015

Work in Progress

"Ik... et nunc" - Subsistence and Culture - Preface

PREFACE

Connecting the subsistence crisis that brings to the collapse a society and the cultural aspects that go with it (and sometimes they are based) is not so simple. It can help this awareness: a crisis of subsistence (the meaning of that will be explained subsequently) coincides, in one way or another, with a moment of cultural transition. Traditionally, these two perspectives are considered separately; However, it is the analysis and comparative intergrate that can reveal the intimate connection that exists between "culture" and "subsistence". And to shy away from the various historiographical "determinisms".

"We are what we eat", or "we are the way we get what we eat." From this simple axiom, anthropology, from its beginning, placed the company in types and distinguished settlement and nomadism, with everything that goes with it: settlement patterns, social organization, material culture. However, when we talk about "culture", the "subsistence", understood as a modalities through which individuals and groups of people get the food, usually slips into the background; it becomes a '' cultural expression ", a superstructure. No account is taken of the fact that in times of cultural transition occurs, upstream of it, a change and a shift, sometimes radical, in the modalities of subsistence; and that the changed mode of subsistence drive societies towards evolutionary scenarios that affect the whole of the material and cultural expressions. 

When a community, either voluntarily or by coercion, changes the way to get food, consequently it also changes the way of perceiving the world around; when it changes the way in which a community uses the space at his disposal, or create new ones, also changes the symbolic and spiritual heritage that distinguishes and constitutes its identity. The perception of these phenomena of transition, usually, is minimal, since such phenomena unfold their effect in rather long periods of time. Only retrospectively it can be discerned with some precision a "before" and a "after". But there are cases in which the change is so sudden, or is spread out over a territory as large, or, again, it is so different the "before" and the "after", that it is possible, through a collection and a critical analysis of data, to evaluate how are connected modes of subsistence and cultural aspects of a given population. I propose here two case studies already well known to the scientific community of historians and anthropologists, but that, through a critical reading, and thanks to being joined together, can demonstrate the validity of the proposed premises; at the end of this short essay it will be possible to do considerations also affecting contemporary societies, their present and their future.