Trees Are Shape Shifters: How Cultivation, Climate Change, and Disaster Create Landscapes (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)

An exploration of the anthropogenic landscapes of Lucca, Italy, and how its people understand social and environmental change through cultivation In Italy and around the Mediterranean, almost every stone, every tree, and every hillside show traces of human activities. Situating climate change within the context of the Anthropocene, Andrew Mathews investigates how people in Lucca, Italy, make sense of social and environmental change by caring for the morphologies of trees and landscapes. He analyzes how people encounter climate change, not by thinking and talking about climate, but by caring for the environments around them. Maintaining landscape stability by caring for the forms of trees, rivers, and hillsides is a way that people link their experiences to the past and to larger scale political questions. The human-transformed landscapes of Italy are a harbinger of the experiences that all of us are likely to face, and addressing these disasters will call upon all of us to think about the human and natural histories of the landscapes we live in. In Italy and around the Mediterranean, almost every stone, every tree, and every hillside show traces of human activities. Situating climate change within the context of the Anthropocene, Andrew Mathews investigates how people in Lucca, Italy, make sense of social and environmental change by caring for the morphologies of trees and landscapes. He analyzes how people encounter climate change, not by thinking and talking about climate, but by caring for the environments around them. Maintaining landscape stability by caring for the forms of trees, rivers, and hillsides is a way that people link their experiences to the past and to larger scale political questions. The human-transformed landscapes of Italy are a harbinger of the experiences that all of us are likely to face, and addressing these disasters will call upon all of us to think about the human and natural histories of the landscapes we live in. -- publisher's website Contents 7 Preface and Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 17 One. Sensing the Invisible: Plant Form and Landscape Transformation 29 Interlude I. Plant Morphology Leads to Geomorphology 49 Two. From Plant Morphologies to Landscape Structures 58 Three. Fast and Slow Disasters: Plant Disease, Forest Fires, and Climate Change 89 Interlude II. Pine Cultivation and Pine as an Agent of Landscape Transformation 117 Four. Plant Morphology, Geomorphology, and Weather 125 Five. Biogeomorphological Politics 142 Six. From Landscape Histories to Climate Models 166 Seven. From Climate Change to Biomass Energy 194 Interlude III. Airscapes 215 Eight. Landscapes and Energy Politics 219 Epilogue. Trees Are Shape Shifters 239 Appendix 1. Ecology and Climate of the Monte Pisano 247 Appendix 2. Equations as Stories 249 Appendix 3. List of Organizations 251 Glossary 253 Notes 257 References 285 Index 309