Findings: Coffee & Chocolate
Findings: Coffee & Chocolate
Plus -- Baobabs, tourism, feminist plot twists, longitude, mesoeconomics, and how to design "adaptation villages"
A couple times per month I’d like to share what I’ve been reading — things that don’t make it into regular posts. I’m experimenting with categorizing.
First up will be Anthropocene-related articles. How can people become more familiar with the basics of our new era?
There are always “miscellaneous” articles popping up in my world that spur discussion, whether amongst family or friends, or with myself in my own head (a good Arendtian principle).
Third, I’m generally reading several books at any given time. No, I do not finish them all. I’ll only share one at a time so as not to overwhelm you.
In the future, I’d like to link some denser or scholarly articles, maybe even PDFs. I come across these as I do deeper research. Topics will vary (widely), and interest may be limited, so I’ll work up to that slowly.
Anthropocene
Coffee and cocoa from Anthropocene Magazine, a nice popular source aiming at evidence-based journalism “balancing urgency with efficacy.”
When Did the Anthropocene Actually Begin? | WIRED
Famously, a scientific panel has recently rejected the renaming of our current geological epoch to the “Anthropocene,” but it’s important to know that the rejection was based on very specific timing, i.e. the mid-20th century — often associated with the post WW2 “great acceleration” and all those hockey-stick shaped exponential growth (or decline) curves: exponential growth in population (finally escaping Malthus), energy, economic growth, human life spans; exponential declines in biodiversity and human infant mortality.
As a term, the Anthropocene is still valid and useful. Scientists and lay people propose different time periods or transition eras to mark the start of “the Anthropocene” proper. I don’t think precise labeling matters, and it’s actually useful to know the wide range of changes that have happened to the planet because of human impacts, over decades, centuries, millennia, and 10’s and 100’s of thousands of years.
Here’s an older article from Wired, published before the AWG commission made its negative ruling, still useful for enumerating post-WW2 changes. There’s also a proposal to suggest an alternative start date of 1610.
Maslin and Lewis previously proposed 1610 as the start of the Anthropocene, representing the huge and deadly impact European colonists had on the Americas and consequently the world. But Maslin said agreeing on a definition was more important than precisely where it is placed.
“Up until now, we have talked about things like climate change, the biodiversity crisis, the pollution crisis as separate things,” he said. “The key concept of the Anthropocene is to put that all together and say humans have a huge impact on the earth, we are the new geological superpower. That holistic approach then allows you to say: ‘What do we do about it?’”
Source: Wired
Findings
I subscribe to Daily Chatter, which is great for geography and geopolitics, often covering usual news stories, but just as often covering unique and otherwise un-covered items. The last article of each issue shares a general interest story.
From recently, this:
The Tree of Life - DailyChatter
It’s the iconic image of Africa – a giant, lonely tree on a grassy plain with its almost manicured green crown.
This tree, the baobab, also known as the “Tree of Life” or the “Upside-Down Tree,” because of its root-like crown, has fascinated scientists and artists for millennia.
Which reminded me of this:
Also from Daily Chatter recently, this:
Wish You Weren't Here - DailyChatter
International tourism is arguably the fundamental building block of globalization. Visiting a foreign country, meeting different folks, soaking in the sites, and experiencing a new culture, are for most people the first steps in understanding the world beyond their native countries or home communities, and often make for a fun adventure. Unfortunately, that tourism has taken a toll.
To pair with this:
Travel to add a record US$11.1 trillion to global economy in 2024 (businesstimes.com.sg)
You read that right. Travel, tourism, and hospitality make up an unbelievable proportion of the world’s economy. Whole nations, including many in the developing world, depend utterly upon it — as do many highly developed nations like France or Italy.
There’s a nasty tradeoff, one familiar to all concerned citizens of the Anthropocene: economic growth versus the inevitable negative fallouts.
More —
The end of never-ending progress? - by Mary Harrington (substack.com)
This article (above) provoked a rather ferocious discussion amongst the women of our family. Read to the end; it’s not what you might expect. Plot twist.
The Thrilling Tale of Longitude and Our Neurons of Navigation (forkingpaths.co)
Little known and hugely consequential history.
We now navigate the world with ease, our location pinpointed by satellites floating high above us in the heavens, but it was not always so. How have our brains evolved to explore a complex landscape? And how did an 18th century government harness the dreams of crackpots and obsessive craftsmen to solve one of the most important questions of them all: where am I? The answer lies with an extraordinary story, linking neurons with naval history.
And when you want a fictionalized version — to share with the whole family — of the longitudinal accomplishments of Nathaniel Bowditch, credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation, do enjoy Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, one of our family’s absolute favorite “children’s” novels. (My daughter in med school recently re-read it, after finding a chance copy in a used bookstore. She kept calling me up in delight to share funny anecdotes.)
The Rise of Mesoeconomics by William H. Janeway - Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org)
How might economics be an entirely different field if it weren’t divided into microeconomics (concerned with supply and demand, individuals and firms) and macroeconomics (measuring big aggregate indicators covering whole national economies, like per capita income or GDP)?
Whether mobilizing for war or (re)constructing advanced manufacturing capabilities in peacetime, success turns on the functioning of complex supply chains. But this truth was long forgotten – or at least under-appreciated. Not until recent supply-chain shocks did academics, policymakers, and others start paying more attention to the complicated, barely studied “meso” (middle) domain between microeconomics and macroeconomics.
Books
I order too many books. This one was a bit expensive (even used), but it is unique, at least to me, since I don’t follow urban planning as much as I should.
The concept is to design small, independent communities — “adaptation villages” — for people to live in, and live well, even as earthly circumstances become difficult climate-wise, or with respect to energy, water, food, or security. The perspective is not apocalyptic but extremely practical, offering concrete suggestions for planning nested communities, walkable, of about 5000 people, almost completely self-sufficient. It moves beyond mitigation (trying somehow to prevent climate change, now inevitable) to adaptation, what we can do about it. The concept is also not aimed at wealthy people trying to escape the planet or take themselves off to an isolated enclave. It’s designed to multiple and scale.
One especially welcome chapter is on enabling relocation. Where and when disaster does strike, where can people go? Should they really rebuild, if there’s a high likelihood of continued destruction? It could be that climate migration and helping climate refugees may be the ultimate cause of social and geopolitical breakdown. Rather than be reactive, maybe we should become proactive, at least in terms of physical and material preparation.
I’d love to get some estimates of the costs involved to build one of these adaptation villages, either from scratch or by transforming an existing community, in urban, small town, and rural locations. Assuming it would scale, what economies of scale would there be? The author also discusses “succession” (like ecological succession) and how villages will evolve and age over time. Would materials and cottage industries be circular economies? Would there be sufficient privacy, diversity, and palatable density — or would people feel like they’re living in “people containers” (as a friend of mine likes to call homogenized housing)? So many questions.
Beware: it’s an absorbing book. You may find yourself wondering where you can join up.