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CULTURE

Why awareness matters

What does it take to dodge Anthropocene bullets, asks Ben Collyer

subservience to human will. We need these moments of and mystery of the world their
Being Ecological by Timothy Morton,
It is an error of thought and meditation, he suggests, because knowledge reveals, and that this
Pelican Books rule-making that first arose such sensory and conceptual awareness is exactly why they
Our Oldest Task: Making sense of our
when agriculture sundered the awareness might incline us to see campaign. He complains that
place in nature by Eric T. Freyfogle, domestic sphere from the wild. a plastic bag blowing down the science approaches its activism
University of Chicago Press
And this soon evolved into the street in its future existence, with “data dumps” that fail to
WHAT on earth would two fixed “eternal” social orders and too – possibly choking a seabird. engage the population at large.
humanities scholars know about rigid monotheisms of ancient To permit such connection is This is fair. But rather than
ecological destruction and how states and the medieval world. also to yield to beauty and disgust, engaging more with the raw
to tackle it? While this is a puzzle While the Enlightenment’s to an acceptance of enchantment science, Morton seems to
one might be tempted to pass by, struggle for individual freedoms and mystery as essential aspects turn away.
that could be a mistake. began to loosen some of the of rationality. Ecological politics, Being Ecological is the
Campaigning scientists are shackles of political oppression, for Morton, is“about expanding, culmination of a series of books
understandably frustrated and the objectification of nature by Morton on a common theme –
baffled that governments and lingered on, enshrined in law “The greatest impediment and the most accessible. But he
influential players don’t grasp the and in the way we think. to addressing our remains content to use the same
urgent necessity to reverse global In Being Ecological, Morton ecological crisis is the small set of biological and social
warming and pollution. They tackles the problem from inside anthropocentric illusion” reference points. And rather
should welcome two professors: the whirl of everyday thought. than expand that set, which
Timothy Morton, of the English But he tries to look forward and modifying and developing new would be helpful, he returns to
department at Rice University, imagine modes of thinking forms of pleasure, not restraining the humanities. For example, it
Texas, and Eric Freyfogle, a law more attuned to the reality the meagre pleasures we already would be fascinating to hear his
emeritus from the University of of our interconnection with experience because we are only thoughts on quorum sensing,
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. the biosphere. Stop for just a thinking in ways that our current where organisms simultaneously
Both shed useful light on the moment, Morton urges, and sense modes of doing things allows. change their behaviour when the
mindset of non-scientists, and the squiggling bacteria in your What would pleasure look like density of the group reaches a
point to a more holistic approach gut. Now visualise all the plastic beyond the oil economy?” certain level.
for both sides of the science- fragments in all the oceans of the This is interesting territory, Shouldn’t Morton be
humanities divide. world. Can you see them, feel made more so by a curious encouraging his humanities
Both insist that it won’t help them? They are not“out there”, omission. Morton never considers readers to follow him into the lab
to panic; instead, we need to they are interconnected with us in that ecologists might already and science lecture theatres to
understand the phase through time and space. experience the enchantment learn the detail required to help
which our social institutions and science improve its enchantment
modes of thought are passing. skills? After all, using his
If we don’t take these cultural philosophical work to illuminate a
factors on board, we will be unable richer set of ecological discoveries
to act effectively on the science. can only be a good thing for
According to these authors, ecological awareness.
the greatest impediment to Or is this to utterly miss his
addressing our ecological crisis point, and be guilty of just more
is the pervasive anthropocentric “scientism” and data dumping?
illusion underpinning current Morton isn’t really clear.
human relationships. These There is no such inconsistency
interactions continue as if in Freyfogle’s Our Oldest Task,
humans are separate from informed by years of practical
the biosphere, and as if nature interaction with land managers
ALEX WEBB/MAGNUM the more enticing parts of his
can be forced into mute and ecologists. As Morton does in
Ecological campaigns need to analysis, Freyfogle promotes the
run on hope, not consumer guilt idea that ecological campaigns

42 | NewScientist | 20 January 2018