Nature and the Environment: The Biological Revolution and Modern Environmental MovementsThe Making of the Modern World, Week 7Lecturer: Elise Smith

OUTLINE

Shift from Enlightenment conception of nature, where man controls the environment and shapes it according to his needs

Challenge of accounting for natural diversity: are species fixed or do they change? If so, what processes are involved?

Darwinian revolution: all species (including humans) shaped by the environment

Growth of green movements: responsibility to maintain the environment we depend on, to live in harmony with nature

Challenges and criticisms posed by, and directed towards, environmentalism

Great Chain of Being

• Religious organisation of species

• Dominant from Middle Ages to the Renaissance

• Hierarchical (God, angels, man, animals, plants)

• Species are fixed• No fluidity/movement between

rungs

Linnaeus’ Taxonomy

• Taxonomy = classification system• Comprehensive natural system

incorporating all living organisms… including humans.

• Man included amongst the animals, but still has higher intelligence, and a soul.

Different types of humans:

Monogenism and Polygenism

Monogenism: One creation. All humans have a common ancestor, and are a single species descended from a single pair. All types have degenerated from perfect ancestors, and physical differences are superficial (reversible) and the result of gradual changes in response to climatic conditions. Orthodox.

Polygenism: Multiple creations. Different human types are the product of separate creations on different continents. Physical attributes are permanent and immutable. Different groups are different species and cannot mix. Heretical.

Blumenbach’s Skulls

• Five human races based on cranial type (Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayian, Ethiopian, American)

• The study of species focuses on skeletal differences.

French Biology

• Associated with Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris)—Jardin des Plantes (1793)

• State-sponsored science: ability to gather vast collections of specimens for study: plants, animals and fossils.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829):

-First Professor of Zoology-Philosophie Zoologique (1809)-Lamarckism: -Organs change based on use -These ‘acquired characteristics’ are transmitted to offspring

Comparative Anatomy

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

• Studies fossil record; proves extinction of species• Form is related to function• Four main categories of species based on form (vertebrates, mollusks, articulates, radiates)• System is based on branches, not hierarchical.• Does not believe species can change.

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844)

• Thinks form is more fundamental than function• A follower of Lamarck, but believes that environment, not behaviours, triggers changes in species.

The Age of the Earth

Principles of Geology (1830-1833) by Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

• Biblical estimate is that Earth is ~6000 years old• Lyell argues that the changes in the Earth (the building of

mountains and deepening of valleys, the creation of geological strata, etc.) have resulted from minute changes over enormously long spans of time. ‘Uniformitarianism’

• Opposite of ‘catastrophism’ which argued that changes were sudden and abrupt (allows for Biblical timeframe)

• Longer timeframe suggested by Lyell crucial to Darwinian evolution

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)Educated at Edinburgh

(medicine) and Cambridge

Naturalist on board the Beagle (1831-6)

Retreats to Down House, Kent for the remainder of his life

The Origin of Species (1859)

The Descent of Man (1871) ….amongst many others!

The Origin of Species (1859)

Lays out argument for evolution by process of natural selection.

Darwin’s innovation is to show how traits best adapted to the local environment are most likely to survive.

Competition and struggle between and within species.

Advantageous traits passed down through reproduction.

The environment determines which variants will thrive. Reproduction ensures that these variations survive.

Man’s Place in Nature?

Controversy: All species are subject to the same forces of evolution—meaning humans are the product of mechanistic processes, not divine creation. Challenges religious view of creation.

However, in some senses a holistic view of man’s relationship with nature; we are adapted to our environment. The species question is answered by studying interactions in the natural world, not specimens in museums.

Early Ecology

Evolutionary theory emerges at a time where there’s an interest in returning to nature and living in harmony with it.

Concern about environmental degradation as a result of industrialisation.

Rise of the Conservation movement—preserving the wilderness.

The Earth at Risk

Post 1945 growing sense of environmental crisis.

Fears about pollution, use of pesticides (Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962)

A man-made crisis? Overconsumption, artificial

chemicals, toxic waste. Inevitable outcome of capitalism?The need for regulation and

reform

Environmental Politics

Is it possible to balance economic growth with sustainable practices?

Is it fair to put limits on the developing world when the developed world is responsible for greater pollution and consumption?

Where does environmentalism fall on the political spectrum?

In some countries (esp. USA) opposition to environmental protections often have economic and/or religious justifications. (e.g. oil was created for man to exploit).

However, conservation has traditionally appealed to conservatives—environmentalism has many incarnations, not just a critique of capitalist exploitation of natural resources.