The sudden illness, then death of Polly Higgins (1968 – 2019) is a sad and monumental loss to all humanity. As a champion of the concept of ‘ecocide’, she was taking on the whole world. I believe she would have won. The affinity between her work and mine was captured in Earth Emotions in this
Category: psychoterratic
From little things big things grow (song co-written by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody). Yet, adoration of the individual hero and the ‘big’ person view of history prevails. In ‘Earth Emotions’ (May 2019) I see this trait as, in part, a failure to understand the symbiotic turn in life science. I argue: “Some humans have
A standard view is; “The more emotionally invested you are in anything in your life, the less critical and the less objectively observant you become.” (David JP Phillips, We Don’t Have Time board of directors, “The Magical Science of Storytelling”). I think the opposite is true. Here is my reasoning. Emotions are an integral part
A book on the positive and negative emotions humans have with respect to the Earth.
The act of confronting those people, institutions and corporations that have become too large and powerful to be in the public, community or global interest. The confrontation results in the transfer of titanic power and its re-incorporation into intensely democratic and sumbiocratic decision-making structures at local and sumbioregional levels. In the Symbiocene the Titans will have
Perhaps one of the initial important tasks of the discipline of sumbiology is to complete the critique of Anthropocene category mistakes. In particular, the concept of the “environment” must be removed from our thinking. However, another concept that must be critiqued is the concept of “ecology” and the related idea of an “ecosystem”. A sumbiology-based
Solastalgia I define solastalgia as the pain or distress caused by the ongoing loss of solace and the sense of desolation connected to the present state of one’s home and territory. It is the existential and ‘lived experience’ of negative environmental change, manifest as an attack on one’s sense of place. It is characteristically a
Alongside the Extinction Rebellion movement we need an ‘Extantion Celebration’ movement. ‘Extantion’ is an action that values the existence of life. That which is still in existence (extant) should be celebrated for its continued presence on this Earth. Yes, we should be rebelling against extinction, yet if people do not know what diversity of life
Sick of the words ‘climate change denier’? Here is a new one to describe the various merchants of denial, outright lies, feigned ignorance, deception and pedlars of falsehoods. Klimaliar: A collective noun for all sorts of liars and deceivers about the state of the Earth and especially its climate. From the Greek klima, surface of the earth, region and liar, one
It troubles me that we do not have a concept for the opposite of ecocide. I tentatively propose “Terraliben” (Terra = earth), and liben (Old High German, lebēn, to live, from Germanic libēn)) meaning ‘let the Earth live’. Terranascient thinking might be enough, yet I feel that a strong, simple counter to ecocide and tierracide is urgently
