477
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_51
Chapter 51
Irrational Biomes
51.1 Apex Irrationality
The Greek word for “irrational” is more expressive than Latin, from which most
Romance languages derive the meaning, as, not endowed with reason. In Greek,
however, paralogos (Παράλογος) entails absurdity, the preposterous, and senseless, in addition to illogical and the irrational, as applied in mathematics and
general psychology. In Maori, Mea taupatupatu adds to it qualities like incompetent, and useless. Countless other languages give yet additional twists.
Biome = bios, life + ome, a noun “denoting objects or parts having a specified
nature”
1
is far more consolidated and singular in meaning. But the two words in
combination invite a haze of our current predicament, the self-destructive habiliments asphyxiating every ecosystem, from salt marshes in Nebraska, forested
mountains in New Guinea, rain forest on several continents, and coral reefs
throughout the seas. Even the clarity of the night sky from earth, as seen through
our eyes, had been tainted.
In 2011 Charles Q. Choi chronicled “10 of the Most Polluted Places on
Earth”,
2
including obvious candidates like Chernobyl, and other cities and
regions inundated with “chemical waste” at Dzerzhinsk (Russia), lead in Kabwe
(Zambia) and La Oroya (Peru), “coal dust” at Linfen (China), and other toxins
from Mailuu-Suu (Kyrgyzstan) to “chromite ore deposits” at Sukinda (India).
Years prior, Time magazine, had done its own list, “How the List Was Chosen”.
3
In the case of Sumqayit (Azerbaijan), the nearly 300,000 people at that time
1 https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=biome%2C+etymoloy#dobs=-ome,
Accessed May 10, 2020.
2 April 20, 2011. LiveScience, https://www.livescience.com/30353-most-polluted-places-earth.
html, Accessed May 11, 2020.
3 By Bryan Walsh, September 12, 2007, http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1661031_1661047_1661015,00.html, Accessed May 11, 2020.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_51
Chapter 51
Irrational Biomes
51.1 Apex Irrationality
The Greek word for “irrational” is more expressive than Latin, from which most
Romance languages derive the meaning, as, not endowed with reason. In Greek,
however, paralogos (Παράλογος) entails absurdity, the preposterous, and senseless, in addition to illogical and the irrational, as applied in mathematics and
general psychology. In Maori, Mea taupatupatu adds to it qualities like incompetent, and useless. Countless other languages give yet additional twists.
Biome = bios, life + ome, a noun “denoting objects or parts having a specified
nature”
1
is far more consolidated and singular in meaning. But the two words in
combination invite a haze of our current predicament, the self-destructive habiliments asphyxiating every ecosystem, from salt marshes in Nebraska, forested
mountains in New Guinea, rain forest on several continents, and coral reefs
throughout the seas. Even the clarity of the night sky from earth, as seen through
our eyes, had been tainted.
In 2011 Charles Q. Choi chronicled “10 of the Most Polluted Places on
Earth”,
2
including obvious candidates like Chernobyl, and other cities and
regions inundated with “chemical waste” at Dzerzhinsk (Russia), lead in Kabwe
(Zambia) and La Oroya (Peru), “coal dust” at Linfen (China), and other toxins
from Mailuu-Suu (Kyrgyzstan) to “chromite ore deposits” at Sukinda (India).
Years prior, Time magazine, had done its own list, “How the List Was Chosen”.
3
In the case of Sumqayit (Azerbaijan), the nearly 300,000 people at that time
1 https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=biome%2C+etymoloy#dobs=-ome,
Accessed May 10, 2020.
2 April 20, 2011. LiveScience, https://www.livescience.com/30353-most-polluted-places-earth.
html, Accessed May 11, 2020.
3 By Bryan Walsh, September 12, 2007, http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1661031_1661047_1661015,00.html, Accessed May 11, 2020.