74
8.3 Microcosmic Narratives
Place even 100 people on a small island and the microcosmic dilemmas cascade,
even in the best interests of rendering sustainable a human occupancy, one that subjects its present concerns to an overarching inclusion of future generations, as
defined in 1987 by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway’s Prime Minister, in the document “Our Common Future” (The Brundtland Report). For all the reasons that span
an aggressive cognition, large-sized (50 kilograms+) vertebrate housing, fuzzy ethical bearing, fierce communication skills, unclear liberation as a result of bipedalism, and so on, it is not clear that one generation of such creatures can spare their
next. Their intergenerational inflictions are a continuum, despite the rare anthropological glint of seeming benign habitation at the hamlet level of demography. While
such a portrait nurtures the misanthropic profile without a likelihood of transition,
we think, act, express, debate, and get on with it in spite of our deeply troubled
reservations.
We will not outlive those concerns, nor solve them. But a future human subspecies might. Their small island, or mainland island, communities shall have
endured slurries of nitrogen and phosphate spread across acreage devoted to much
higher numbers (than humans) of sheep and so-called dairy and beef cattle and their
dung heaps; strategies for mitigating and avoiding algal blooms and blight; uncontrolled run-offs; new types and cycles of disease outbreaks; an increasing disparity
between males and females given a heating planet and declining sperm counts
worldwide; energy needs in the hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours annually,
tens of thousands of liters of red diesel used each year in farm operations. Of course,
these categories broaden—medically, in terms of treatment of dead bodies, and
potential spread of pathogens; and culturally, with respect to how the dead are perceived; what myths cling to their bodies and depositions.
What is sustainable? How much biomass per square kilometer should be harvested? When does a farm become a marginal one? What synthetic chemicals
should be permitted, if any, and by what standards of calculation in terms of trophic,
greater ecosystem impacts? Epizootic sea louse transmission of diseases on salmon
and trout can be expected to react in unpredictable varieties of behavior as climate
change reaches core biotic levels (e.g., 4 degrees Celsius increase over preindustrialization levels).
18
De-lousing of fish in industries in Scotland have relied
upon a mixture containing a legally defined and controlled “corrosive substance,”
namely, hydrogen peroxide.
19
18 See “Wild salmonids and sea louse infestations on the west coast of Scotland: sources of infection and implications for the management of marine salmon farms,” JR Butler, Pest Manag Sci.
2002 Jun;58(6):595–608; discussion 622–9. PubMed PMID:, 12138626 DOI: https://doi.
org/10.1002/ps.490, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12138626, Accessed January 27,
2019.
19 See “The Isle of Gigha: An Assessment of a Sustainable Rural Community,” by Brendan Craig,
2005, http://www.globalislands.net/userfiles/scotland_9.pdf, Accessed January 27, 2019.
8 Paradoxical Frontiers
8.3 Microcosmic Narratives
Place even 100 people on a small island and the microcosmic dilemmas cascade,
even in the best interests of rendering sustainable a human occupancy, one that subjects its present concerns to an overarching inclusion of future generations, as
defined in 1987 by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway’s Prime Minister, in the document “Our Common Future” (The Brundtland Report). For all the reasons that span
an aggressive cognition, large-sized (50 kilograms+) vertebrate housing, fuzzy ethical bearing, fierce communication skills, unclear liberation as a result of bipedalism, and so on, it is not clear that one generation of such creatures can spare their
next. Their intergenerational inflictions are a continuum, despite the rare anthropological glint of seeming benign habitation at the hamlet level of demography. While
such a portrait nurtures the misanthropic profile without a likelihood of transition,
we think, act, express, debate, and get on with it in spite of our deeply troubled
reservations.
We will not outlive those concerns, nor solve them. But a future human subspecies might. Their small island, or mainland island, communities shall have
endured slurries of nitrogen and phosphate spread across acreage devoted to much
higher numbers (than humans) of sheep and so-called dairy and beef cattle and their
dung heaps; strategies for mitigating and avoiding algal blooms and blight; uncontrolled run-offs; new types and cycles of disease outbreaks; an increasing disparity
between males and females given a heating planet and declining sperm counts
worldwide; energy needs in the hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours annually,
tens of thousands of liters of red diesel used each year in farm operations. Of course,
these categories broaden—medically, in terms of treatment of dead bodies, and
potential spread of pathogens; and culturally, with respect to how the dead are perceived; what myths cling to their bodies and depositions.
What is sustainable? How much biomass per square kilometer should be harvested? When does a farm become a marginal one? What synthetic chemicals
should be permitted, if any, and by what standards of calculation in terms of trophic,
greater ecosystem impacts? Epizootic sea louse transmission of diseases on salmon
and trout can be expected to react in unpredictable varieties of behavior as climate
change reaches core biotic levels (e.g., 4 degrees Celsius increase over preindustrialization levels).
18
De-lousing of fish in industries in Scotland have relied
upon a mixture containing a legally defined and controlled “corrosive substance,”
namely, hydrogen peroxide.
19
18 See “Wild salmonids and sea louse infestations on the west coast of Scotland: sources of infection and implications for the management of marine salmon farms,” JR Butler, Pest Manag Sci.
2002 Jun;58(6):595–608; discussion 622–9. PubMed PMID:, 12138626 DOI: https://doi.
org/10.1002/ps.490, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12138626, Accessed January 27,
2019.
19 See “The Isle of Gigha: An Assessment of a Sustainable Rural Community,” by Brendan Craig,
2005, http://www.globalislands.net/userfiles/scotland_9.pdf, Accessed January 27, 2019.
8 Paradoxical Frontiers