517
correlation positing that “evolutionary jump” as a remarkable response to our
awareness of, and the physical fall-out from, the evolving preconditions of the
Anthropocene. The most ponderous conjecture of all falls upon groups, in general:
Is any group, for any purpose, more prone to survival in the long-term, or not? And
if not, what are the alternatives for biological organisms?
But to deny that response in other species rests upon no empirical possibility.
Various marine mammals, a famed stag pursued by dogs in 1875 that jumped off a
cliff rather than be eaten to death, the many cases reported by the second-century
Claudius Aelian’s De natura animalium, captive bears, other depressed primates,
4
and all those hundreds of dogs who have leapt to their death in a rocky gorge beneath
the 50-foot-high Overtoun Bridge in West Dunbartonshire north of Glasgow,
Scotland, have something profoundly in common with their human brothers and
sisters.
Counteracting depression, ecological depredation and death, there exists a broad
current of many-tiered, if modest triumphs engineered in social contracts that save
the odd rangeland, marsh, dune, hillock, and dale. That delimit emissions here,
groundwater pollution there. That bring back a species from near loss. A literature
of local conservation success stories (and heated courtrooms) that together enshrine
the indisputable prospects, however fragmentary, for Homo sapiens, in what might
be described as cells of human consciousness moving from melancholy to activism,
bubbles of optimism, miniature life courses spread geographically from continent to
continent—the cartography of promise.
In one case, Ted Bernard—an Ohio University professor emeritus of geography
and environmental affairs from the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public
Affairs, and Jora Young, a “science and stewardship” professional, wrote in 2008
their book The Ecology of Hope: Communities Collaborate for Sustainability,
5
which examines examples of fine forest stewardship, ecorestoration and biodiversity management, both rural (Mexico-Arizona border area and California logging
cohorts) and urban (Chicago) sustainable master planning among otherwise competitive and antithetical constituencies. Their documentation comports with other
catchments of tenable buoyancies profiled in a number of books from New Society
Publishers (and hundreds of other imprints). With works extolling titles like “Food
Freedom,” “The Better World Shopping Guide,” “Resilient Agriculture,” “The
Edible Ecosystem Solution,” “Indigenomics – Taking A Seat at the Economic
Table,” and so forth.
6
Island Press is another publisher with a similarly informed and
inspirational credo guiding its publications; books including “Beyond Polarization,”
“Precision Community Health,” “Valuing Nature,” and “Designing The
Megaregion – Meeting Urban Challenges at a New Scale”.
7
4 See “Many animals seem to kill themselves, but it is not suicide,” by Melissa Hogenboom, July
6, 2016, earth, BBC.com, http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160705-many-animals-seem-to-killthemselves-but-it-is-not-suicide, Accessed May 23, 2020.
5 New Catalyst Books, an Imprint of New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C.
6 https://newsociety.com/collections/print
7 https://islandpress.org/books
55.1 From Melancholy to Activism
correlation positing that “evolutionary jump” as a remarkable response to our
awareness of, and the physical fall-out from, the evolving preconditions of the
Anthropocene. The most ponderous conjecture of all falls upon groups, in general:
Is any group, for any purpose, more prone to survival in the long-term, or not? And
if not, what are the alternatives for biological organisms?
But to deny that response in other species rests upon no empirical possibility.
Various marine mammals, a famed stag pursued by dogs in 1875 that jumped off a
cliff rather than be eaten to death, the many cases reported by the second-century
Claudius Aelian’s De natura animalium, captive bears, other depressed primates,
4
and all those hundreds of dogs who have leapt to their death in a rocky gorge beneath
the 50-foot-high Overtoun Bridge in West Dunbartonshire north of Glasgow,
Scotland, have something profoundly in common with their human brothers and
sisters.
Counteracting depression, ecological depredation and death, there exists a broad
current of many-tiered, if modest triumphs engineered in social contracts that save
the odd rangeland, marsh, dune, hillock, and dale. That delimit emissions here,
groundwater pollution there. That bring back a species from near loss. A literature
of local conservation success stories (and heated courtrooms) that together enshrine
the indisputable prospects, however fragmentary, for Homo sapiens, in what might
be described as cells of human consciousness moving from melancholy to activism,
bubbles of optimism, miniature life courses spread geographically from continent to
continent—the cartography of promise.
In one case, Ted Bernard—an Ohio University professor emeritus of geography
and environmental affairs from the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public
Affairs, and Jora Young, a “science and stewardship” professional, wrote in 2008
their book The Ecology of Hope: Communities Collaborate for Sustainability,
5
which examines examples of fine forest stewardship, ecorestoration and biodiversity management, both rural (Mexico-Arizona border area and California logging
cohorts) and urban (Chicago) sustainable master planning among otherwise competitive and antithetical constituencies. Their documentation comports with other
catchments of tenable buoyancies profiled in a number of books from New Society
Publishers (and hundreds of other imprints). With works extolling titles like “Food
Freedom,” “The Better World Shopping Guide,” “Resilient Agriculture,” “The
Edible Ecosystem Solution,” “Indigenomics – Taking A Seat at the Economic
Table,” and so forth.
6
Island Press is another publisher with a similarly informed and
inspirational credo guiding its publications; books including “Beyond Polarization,”
“Precision Community Health,” “Valuing Nature,” and “Designing The
Megaregion – Meeting Urban Challenges at a New Scale”.
7
4 See “Many animals seem to kill themselves, but it is not suicide,” by Melissa Hogenboom, July
6, 2016, earth, BBC.com, http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160705-many-animals-seem-to-killthemselves-but-it-is-not-suicide, Accessed May 23, 2020.
5 New Catalyst Books, an Imprint of New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C.
6 https://newsociety.com/collections/print
7 https://islandpress.org/books
55.1 From Melancholy to Activism