Despite our attempts last week to feel better about everything that's going on, I was still left less than fully satisfied. It seems no matter how hard I look for positive stories, everything in the news these days—or at least anything that's relevant to climate change—is negative and distressing. So this week, I'm trying something new. Rather than talk about a story in the news, we're going to try to find a hopeful lesson we can take away from the coronavirus. We can learn that we are not in control of our world, that our world is in control of us, and that accepting this truth can actually unlock a path forward that will lead us to a greater relationship with the natural world.

Though news about coronavirus is invariably dreadful, there is perhaps one silver lining to a dark cloud. Thanks to social distancing measures, factories around the world have slowed or ceased production, air traffic and auto traffic are down, and human encroachment on the landscape has decreased. As a result, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are down across the globe and wildlife has a little more room to operate with humans temporarily out of their way. This is all great news, but it's also not likely to last. What is needed, then, is a transformation of our economic and industrial policies to continue this good start of reduced pollution and emissions.

Sources:

Severe Weather Europe: "Global CO2 levels have temporarily stopped rising, likely due to the industry slowdown as the world battles the new Coronavirus"

EURACTIV: "Air pollution plummets by up to 50% as virus curbs traffic, new data reveals"

Reuters: "Coronavirus could trigger biggest fall in carbon emissions since World War Two"

Severe Weather Europe: "Significant decline in global air traffic continues – the number of flights at the end of March is more than 60% lower than normal"

The New York Times: "Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down for Coronavirus"

Evening Standard: "Endangered sea turtles hatch on Brazil beach deserted due to coronavirus"

UN News: "First Person: COVID-19 is not a silver lining for the climate, says UN Environment chief"

On Thursday, March 26, the EPA announced they were suspending enforcement of numerous environmental regulations for entities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics of this move worry that corporations have now been given free license to pollute with impunity, and question the necessity of this move. The decision comes just six days after one of America's biggest petroleum lobbyists wrote a letter to President Trump asking his administration to relax environmental regulations, calling into question the ability of Trump's EPA to remain impartial and uninfluenced by coal, oil and gas lobbies. 

Sources:

The New York Times: E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters 

The Hill: EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws amid coronavirus

The Hill: Oil industry group asks Trump administration to lessen regulations amid coronavirus

Reuters: U.S. oil industry asks Trump for regulatory relief during coronavirus outbreak

Western Values Project: Interior to Follow EPA Rollback of Environmental Protections and Regulations for Big Oil and Coal

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: COVID-19 Implications for EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Program

The first installment of a new series on Ecolectics, the Weekly Update! This week's story is "If We're Bailing Out Corporations, They Should Bail Out the Planet" from The New Yorker by environmental activist and author Bill McKibben. If the corporations and industries that drive climate change want economic relief on the taxpayer's dime, they must make commitments to reduce their carbon footprint and work towards a sustainable future for our economy and our civilization.

Also mentioned: Coronavirus Capitalism and How to Beat It from The Intercept by Naomi Klein.

The fourth and final episode of the series on Kate Soper's book, What Is Nature?

After three episodes of deep dives into specific and narrow elements of the philosophy of nature, in the finale we take a step back and try to put it all together. More specifically, we'll consider some questions about our responsibility to our environment. What do we owe to an environment and a biosphere that has given us everything we need to make our lives--air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat? To what extent to we face an imperative to take care of these systems and processes that have taken care of us?

To help answer these questions, we'll take a closer look at the philosophy of Deep Ecology to see if it can offer any guiding wisdom. Also stay tuned through the end of the episode for some piping hot critiques of our present social and economic philosophies that could very well be getting in the way of our attempts to take care of our planet.

If you'd like to read the book for yourself, here’s a link to Amazon. Be forewarned: it is a dense work of academic philosophy!

And finally, here are some links for further reading and research.

For some introductory reading about Deep Ecology, check out the Foundation for Deep Ecology.

For a deeper dive, check out The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology by Alan Drengson (of the Foundation for Deep Ecology).

Here's a great article deconstructing the conflict between the economy and the environment titled, "'Jobs vs. the Environment': How to Counter This Divisive Big Lie"

And finally, here's a wonderful non-profit that helps to reimagine our economic philosophies to develop and implement ecologically sustainable modes of economic production called the New Economy Coalition.

Episode number three in our four part series on philosopher Kate Soper's Book, What Is Nature? In this episode, I look at the relationship between discourses of nature and sexual politics, specifically regarding feminism, gender theory, and queer theory. Ecofeminism features prominently in this episode, as Soper explores the parallels between the structures that oppress and exploit nature and the structures that oppress women and sexual and gender minorities.

If you haven't heard the first two parts of this series yet, I recommend listening to those first, as we're going to be building on some of the earlier discussions. You can find links to those right here:

Episode 1 -- Nature and Culture

Episode 2 -- Human and Inhuman

Here's a link to the statue I mentioned, "Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science"

Once again, I mentioned a few philosophers who I only touched on briefly. If you're interested in learning more about them, you can get started with some of the links below:

Ecofeminism:

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Ecofeminism

Simone de Beauvoir:

• Introduction to The Second Sex

Carolyn Merchant:

• Good Reads: The Death of Nature
• “The Scientific Revolution and The Death of Nature”

Susan Bordo:

• “Feminism, Foucault, and the politics of the body”

Michel Foucault:

• Queer Bible Hermeneutics: Sexuality as a Construct (Foucault)

• The History of Sexuality

The second episode of our four part series on philosopher Kate Soper's book What Is Nature? In this episode, we examine the philosophical conceptions human and inhuman--what makes humans special and distinct from other animals and other life forms? Why do humans get judged differently that other animals when it comes to our impact on the environment? And what are the implications of defining some homo sapiens as less than fully human, subhuman, or inhuman?

Link to the first episode:

In this episode I mention a number of philosophers, about whose philosophy I routinely say, "But I don't want to get too deep into that here." If you would like to dig deeper into those philosophers and their ideas, here are some good places to start with further reading, viewing, and research:

Rene Descartes:

• Descartes and Animal Rights
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Mind-Body Problem and Dualism

Immanuel Kant:

• The Noumenal and the Phenomenal - mind the gap

Hegel, Marx and Dialectics:

• Philosophy Tube: Intro to Hegel
• Hegel and Marx on Dialectic
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Dialectical Materialism

Heidegger:

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Martin Heideger -- Being in Time

Watts:

• Alan Watts -- You Are the Universe
• Alan Watts -- The Real You
• Alan Watts -- Deconstructing the Myths of Our Universe

The very first episode of Ecolectics, a podcast about the philosophy of nature, features part one of our discussion of Kate Soper's book What Is Nature?