Seeing our planet whole : a cultural and ethical view of Earth observation

This book shows how our new-found ability to observe the Earth from "the necessary distance" has wide and profound cultural and ethical implications. First of all, it is the outcome of speculations and investigations of human beings in relation to their home planet carried out over millennia. In particular, it reveals a split between the ancient idea of the Earth as nurturing mother and the more recent conception of the Earth as a neutral resource able to be infinitely exploited by humankind. The 1968 Earthrise photograph, showing the beauty and fragility of the Earth, helped spark a worldwide environmental movement; now the comprehensive coverage of global change provided by satellites has the potential to convince us beyond reasonable doubt of the huge alterations being wrought upon the Earth and its climate system as a result of human actions, and of the need to act more responsibly.-- Source other than the Library of Congress 1. Introduction Know thyself Observing the Earth as a totality The ecological crisis 2. Cosmology and astronomy from prehistory to the Roman Empire The Timaeus and the Old Testament Greek philosophy, religion, tragedy Hellenistic and Babylonian astronomy Rome 3. Aquinas to Newton Aquinas The great chain of being The new science and philosophy: Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes Galileo Francis Bacon: the new philosophy The mechanisation of nature: Descartes Dissenting voices: More, Hermeticism Newton Kepler's harmony of the world and Newton's alchemical works Globes 4. The Enlightenment, the Romantic rebellion, the Industrial Age, the nature conservation movement, the twentieth century and total war Diderot Swift The Romantic rebellion Wordsworth Goethe The modern Prometheus The Industrial Revolutions and the Industrial Age The Luddites The Industrial Age and the Victorian reform movement: Ruskin, William Morris The nature conservation movement The twentieth century: World War, total devastation, the rise of the environmental movement 5. The post-war period and the rise of ecological consciousness Silent spring and the Earthrise: the "first wave" of environmentalism Philosophical background to green politics: deep ecology, Arne Naess, Aldo Leopold, Heidegger/enframing The late 1970s and 1980s: the concept of sustainability; the rise of neo-liberalism Global warming or climate change The backlash: the rise of denialism Our growing estrangement from the natural world Rewilding 6. Wider attitudes to environment Islam, Persia Sufi poetry Zoroastrianism Taoism Buddhism Wabi-sabi Hinduism and Jainism Egypt Yoruba San Pre-Columbian and Native American cultures' attitudes to environment Australasia Conclusion 7. The slow evolution of environmental ethics Aristotelian ethics New Testament environmental ethics Saint Francis of Assisi Spinoza Kant Self and Other: Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas Hegel Merleau-Pnty Levinas: responsibility for the Other Pope Francis: Laudato Si The globalization of ethics Intra- and inter-generational justice The ethics of discounting Beyond legality and instrumentality Speciesism: Peter Singer Animal rights Conclusion 8. A short history of Earth Observation The earliest times; Balloons; Aerial photography The first satellites The global weather experiment From metsats to Earth Observation EUMETSAT Enter the EU: towards GMES/Copernicus Baveno and Kyoto European responsibility Values and principles International co-operation: GEO and GEOSS Conclusion 9. The resistances The "merchants of doubt" thesis "Big tobacco"'s attempt to undermine the link between tobacco-smoking and cancer Science and uncertainty Acid rain and ozone Global warming The concept of journalistic balance Cultural resistance Julian Simon and Cornucopianism Psychological resistances Denial Science and advocacy Science and rhetoric Reversal of the burden of proof Should Copernicus be neutral? How EO can help 10. The aesthetic potential of Earth Observation Earth Observation and remote sensing An aesthetic history of lunar and Earth Observation Different art-forms and media Earthrise Joseph Cornell's collages observations of satellite and weather satellites The power of images and poetry World War One poets Eco-poetry, land art Pop music Dramatic potential: Phylae and the story of Envisat Emotional connection Psychoanalysis and emotional connection Conclusion: implications for communication 11. EO for whom? Towards an environmental democracy Competing ideas of science and environment EO as market failure; The limits of market thinking The Precautionary Principle Citizen science and citizen involvement Towards an environmental democracy What is environmental democracy? Environmental democracy as green governance 12. Conclusion : Earth Observation and the Anthropocene The Anthropocene and adaptation Geoengineering The Anthropocene, Earth Observation and human responsibility The migration crisis Earth Observation and the UN sustainable Development goals Epilogue. El libro muestra cómo la actual posibilidad de observar la Tierra desde la “distancia necesaria” tiene amplias y profundas implicaciones éticas y culturales. Se trata en primer lugar de los resultados de especulaciones e investigaciones de seres humanos en relación con su planeta, llevadas a cabo durante milenios. En particular, el libro revela la ruptura existente entre la antigua idea de la Tierra como madre naturaleza y el más reciente concepto de la Tierra como recurso neutral susceptible de ser explotado indefinidamente por la humanidad. La fotografía de la Tierra en 1968 mostrando toda su belleza y fragilidad dio lugar a un movimiento medioambiental mundial. Actualmente, la amplia cobertura acerca del cambio global que proporcionan los satélites puede mostrar sin asomo de duda las enormes alteraciones ocasionadas en la Tierra y su sistema climático como resultado de la acción humana, y la necesidad de actuar con más responsabilidad A key part of the evidence base for practitioners and policymakers includes the costs of interventions and the returns yielded from incurring those costs. However, to date crime reduction work economic analyses have been uncommon and even when undertaken have been partial, technically weak and insufficiently informed by economic theory. This book explains what economic analysis is, why it is important, and forms it can take. Costs are important in all forms of economic analysis although their collection tends to be partial and inadequate in capturing key information. A practical guide to the collection is therefore also provided. The book will be of great interest to students in economics and advanced students in policing and crime reduction as well as to analysts and decision makers in policing and crime reduction