You are on page 1of 3

Intro

-rise global environmental concerns downplays cultural difference; idealogical difference


considered more contentious
-relativism and the impact on social/cultural position in views on the world;
destabilizing age-old axioms (fact fiction spectrum)?
-environmentalism is being used here as a case-study in the formation of societal
norms. environmentalism is an issue amongst others (like human rights) that seems to
be supranational, transcend human differences. how?
-are the concerns and environmental movements really global? the chapter aims to
address how different perspectives and imagination of the Earth lead to differing
attitudes and strategies on environmental action. Use India and the US as specific
examples
Politics of Global Environmentalism
-messages are not spread on their own, they do not have their own agency. Instead they
are popularized by policy makers and ngos who have social, political, and personal
motives to ensuring that ideas on issues such as environmentalism become
transnational
-discourse as well as actors is important to globalizing environmentalism; common
discourse and agreement upon a narrative is essential to a shared
understanding/interpretation. Discourse is shaped by moral sensibilities which impact
how one accepts further information
-Role of science and technology in influencing collective perceptions amidst growing
skepticism and distancing from the fields; previous thoughts on collective action ignore
knowledge-centered model in favor of actor or discourse centered model
-By putting human agency at the center, acknowledge that even knowledge based
actions require human interaction with it to spread it but then how is the imagination
captured from some info and not other
Making Planet Earth: Destiny Manifested
-visualization of the Earth (in the mid 20th century) put into perspective our planet in
relation to the rest of the universe, a small and fragile ball needs human stewardship
=> places humanistic needs in the background in favor of environmental concerns =>
establishes humans/human activity as a subset of the larger global world
-the map and the space-view of Earth essentially erases differences as it makes these
differences invisible => promotes dissolution of boundaries and an integrated world
system
In the Beginning: the Earth from Space & Spaceship Earth
-shift human gaze toward the Earth

-practical purpose of images of the Earth in modern warfare


-mission, catharsis, and radical transformation in ideas of space exploration as well as
altered perceptions and imagery of distance as motifs
-in spite of its roots in military competition, the though of space was coupled early on
with ideas of human cooperation
-The image firstly establishes the physical reality of Earth, secondly it abolishes
sociopolitical boundaries by making them invisible, thirdly it makes Earth seem so small
as to need stewardship and management, fourthly it is synoptic which encourages
systemic thinking against progressive or nationalistic ideals, lastly it elicits a response
that makes us hyperaware of the evolution and affect of the planet
-Earth serves as a modern icon for environmentalism, spinoffs of the icon, such as
Spaceship Earth can be interpreted differently
-Spaceship Earth (1960s) suggests that humanity occupy an important yet ambiguous
place on Earth by the 90s humans are removed from the role of internal controllers of
environmentalism to detached observers.
Earthly Knowledge: The Sciences of Earth
-Scientists, like early cartographers envision the Earth using other methods than the
actual physical ability to look at it
-Institutions helped disseminate info provided by scientific tools => straddle the worlds
of science and governance hybridizing knowledge and power; environmentalism takes
scientific view
Down to Earth
-Differences between Indian and US (Southern/Developing and Northern/Developed)
perceptions of environmentalism
-Indian scholars argue that by the North placing blame on South for damages such as
greenhouse gas emissions, they ignore the history (colonialism) that occurred and still
occurs as the N. continually reasserts its power to shape former territories and their
circumstances => global environmentalism is one way in which the N. manifests their
power through discourse/images/action
-(environmental) globalization only works in favor of a small minority of people (upper
class); different backgrounds have different stakes in the global narratives
Conclusion
-Environmentalism shifting away from US detached observer model (promoting
globalism) towards a localized model that takes into account the historical,
sociopolitical, ethical and cultural contexts for human-nature relationships
Possibly relevant glossary terms (from the selected key terms not full glossary):

-analogic transformation: transformation of humanity from detached observers


towards contextually aware stewards and managers for example
-anxiety and storytelling: pretty much within the glossary definition; the new master
narrative of environmentalism is meant to assuage anxiety about global ecological
concerns; also states in section 3 that race to space and the resulting image of Earth
presented a mission, catharsis, and radical transformation
-capturing the imagination: kind of woven into my not so brief summary, but perhaps
the importance of the satellite image of the Earth was that it served a tool for
scientists/environmentalists/political groups to capture a global imagination that
reshaped how we think about the world and repositioned our place in it; see also
ecological moral imagination (from class notes)
-continua of understanding (continuity amidst discontinuity?): the US and India
case study on environmental narratives establishes to ends to a spectrum in global
ecological thinking: that of the North (US) and that of the South (India), conclusion
states that Indian scholars hope to bring the master environmental ideology away from
the ahistorical (among other things) Northern end of the spectrum
-deus ex machina: to me, the satellite image may be an example of the deus ex
machina in the transformative narrative of environmentalism and humanity. Jasonoff
states that before the image, non-visual images arising from geophysics and other
scientific fields created one way for thinking about the Earth. But being able to actually
see what the Earth looked like, this Spaceship Earth image advanced the narrative of
the environmental drama which changed ideas about the world we inhabit and
subsequently what actions we would take
-emergent understanding: maybe not so much, but might be interesting to think how
applications like GoogleEarth dont spark, or maybe they still do, the intense feeling of
fragility and transcendence that changed an entire ideological mindset

You might also like