VIII. Earth Earns: An Open Participatory Earthropocene to Astropocene CoCreative Future

C. An Earthropocene Era: Pedia Sapiens Can Choose a Unified, Peaceful, Creative, Ecosphere Future

Waltner-Toews, David, et al, eds. The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Management for Sustainability. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. This volume edited by Canadian naturalists first introduces nonlinear theories, especially far-from-equilibrium, self-organizing, complex adaptive systems that distinguish environments of flora and fauna, so to provide novel guidance for their practical application. Local case studies by a global array of authors with topics such as Agrosystem Health in the Central Highlands of Kenya, Rehabilitation of the Cooum River in Chennai, India, and Food, Floods, and Farming in the Peruvian Amazon are then documented, which also draw on indigenous lore. For example, New Zealand ecologist Charlotte Helen Sunde shows how a consideration of the Whanganui River as a dynamic, intricate ecosystem, in much accord with Maori traditions, can illume its sustainable flow vs. its exploitation and loss due to invasive power projects. From the insights of Raimundo Panikkar, she shows how a once and future indigenous “witness” or holistic continuity with fluid nature can counter the mechanical reductions of consumptive development.

Wang, Rusong, et al. Understanding Eco-Complexity: Social-Economic-Natural Complex Ecosystem Approach. Ecological Complexity. 8/1, 2011. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, (Wang and Feng Li) and University of California, Riverside, Ecological Complexity and Modeling Laboratory, (Larry Li) provide a unique perspective upon ecological remediation, worth a special notice. Within their Asian milieu, it is advised that valued guidance can be availed from the abiding principles that grace ancient Chinese natural philosophy, as founded on harmonious relations between heaven and universe, earth and resource, human and society. This primordial wisdom teaches, for example, Yin-Yang as complementary balance, a similar Zhong Yong dialectic, Feng Shui ecoscape design, Wuxing theory of the five movements of organic networks, and so on.

But in contrast, such an independent, edifying nature escapes Western analysis. In our reigning mechanical model, no actual creation exists in and of which people have a filial presence and purpose, we seem to even lack the mental capacity to imagine this. As a result, the very idea is excluded and ridiculed in an indifferent material multiverse. As my 1994 article in Environmental Ethics (search Fabel) worried about years ago, we will not be able to achieve a living, sustainable earth in such a dead, pointless universe.

Weiming, Tu. The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism. Daedalus. 130/4, 2001. In a special edition on religion and ecology, this essay by the Harvard University scholar (search) is a good capsule of his thought as a vital way forward via Asian wisdom to heal and sustain an Earth community. As his many writings convey, it is an “anthropocosmic vision” (see also this site section) of a familial trinity of heaven, Earth and humanity. In contrast to a western inability to get an effective act together, in denial of any greater reality, this perennial tradition abides a numinous milieu with its own organic, procreative propensities. By these lights can be availed a dynamic dance of gender complementaries so as to live lightly, sensibility, respectfully in a personal, relational, and global milieu.

The Confucian worldview, rooted in earth, body, family, and community, is not a passive acceptance of the physical, biological, social, and political constraints of the human condition. Rather, it is dictated by an ethic of responsibility informed by a transcendent vision. We do not become "spiritual" by departing from or transcending above our earth, body, family, and community, but by working through them. Indeed, our daily life is not merely secular but a response to a cosmological decree. Since the Mandate of Heaven that enjoins us to take part in the great enterprise of cosmic transformation is implicit in our nature, we are Heaven's partners. (245)

Wessel, Gregory and Jeffrey Greenberg, eds. Geoscience for the Public Good and Global Development: Toward a Sustainable Future. Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America, 2016. A dedicated volume from initial encouragements onto such aspects as Mineral and Energy Resources, Waste Management, Hazard Reduction, Water Resources, and Urban Development. An opening chapter is Geoethics: Ethical, Social, and Cultural Values.

Westbroek, Peter. Taming Gaia: The History of the Dutch Lowlands as an Analogy to Global Change. Schneider, Stephen, et al, eds. Scientists Debate Gaia. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004. The senior ecologist contends that informed human intervention is indeed necessary to achieve a sustainable biosphere, that nature left alone will not do this. A case in point is cited as the stabilization and restored fertility of the land and seascape around the town of Nieuwkoop.

The biggest problem standing in the way of taming Gaia may be in the coordination of the global human community. Humanity will not stand a chance as long as it remains divided by differences of culture, wealth, and resources. (220

Westra, Laura, et al, eds. Reconciling Human Existence with Ecological Integrity: Science, Ethics, Economics and Law. London: Routledge, 2008. The editors are University of Windsor emeritus philosopher Laura Westra, Klaus Bosselmann, University of Auckland environmental lawyer, and Richard Westra, Pukyong National University political economist. This significant volume is a 15 year report upon, and essays in support of, the work of Global Ecological Integrity Group. Founded by Laura Westra in 1992, as its website www.globalecointegrity.net advises, is dedicated to “Sustaining Global Ecological Integrity and Human Health Through Science, Ethics and the Law.” The endeavor includes some 250 scholars with many publications and annual conferences to its credit. Five parts grace the volume: Foundations of Ecological Integrity, Ecological Integrity and Biological Integrity, Ecological Integrity and Environmental Justice, Ecological Integrity, Climate Change and Energy, and Future Policy Path for Ecological Integrity. Typical topics are Global Public Good and Governance, Indigenous Rights, Water Wisdom, and a Sacred Covenant with Nature. To pick a paper, we could cite “Confounding Integrity: Humanity as a Dissipative Structure” by University of British Columbia ecologist William Rees.

Worldwatch, Institute. Vital Signs 2003. New York: Norton, 2003. This volume and the annual State of the World series by these folks are some of the best sources for insightful essays and real information on topics from Agriculture to Waste Disposal.

Xu, Yipeng, et al. Revive, Restore, Revitalize: An Eco-economic Methodology for Maasai Mara. arXiv:2309.07165. We enter this surely global endeavor by University of Nottingham Ningbo China scholars as a good example of how the latest mathematical sciences can effectively be fed back and applied to remediate and improve conditions everywhere. Its Keywords are Agent-based Model, TOPSIS, Entropy Weight Method, Swarm Algorithm, Fitness Proportional Selection, Differential Equation, Monte Carlo Methods. If disparate nations can ever hold to the recent G20 Summit theme of One Earth, Family, Future, an actual Earthropocene sustainability might be achieved.

The Maasai Mara in Kenya, renowned for its biodiversity, is witnessing ecosystem degradation and species endangerment due to intensified human activities. Here we introduce a dynamic system harmonizing ecological and human priorities. Our agent-based model employs the metabolic rate-mass relationship for animal energy dynamics, logistic curves for animal growth, individual interactions for food web simulation, and human impacts. Algorithms like fitness proportional selection and particle swarm mimic organism preferences for resources. We classified the policy impacts into three categories: Environmental Preservation, Economic Prosperity, and Holistic Development. By applying these policy groupings to our ecosystem model, we tracked the effects on the intricate animal-human-resource dynamics. (Excerpt)

Yeang, Ken. Saving the Planet by Design: Renewing Our World Through Ecomimesis. London: Routledge,, 2019. The veteran Malaysian-British, Cambridge University systems architect and author offers his latest advice by way of a similar ecological concept to biomimesis so to inform and guide our respectful reconception of a truly habitable planet.

For a resilient, durable and sustainable future for human society, we need to repurpose, reinvent, redesign, remake and recover our human-made world so that our built environment is benignly and synergistically biointegrated with Nature. Implementing this vital sustainability is of most concern to architects, engineers, landscapers, town planners, policy makers, builders and beyond to all of humanity. Two key principles to by which to carry out these tasks are an “ecocentricity” guided by the science of ecology, and an “ecomimesis” to design and make the natural and built environment based on the an Earthwide “ecosystem” concept.

Yuxin, Jia and Jia Xuelai. The Anthropocosmic Perspective on Intercultural Communication: Learning to be Global Citizens is Learning to be Human. Intercultural Communication Studies. 25/1, 2016. In our late day when continents and cultures intersect over a finite globe, Harbin Institute of Technology scholars (bios below) cites a “Confucian holistic humanism” via the Harvard sage Tu Weiming (search) as a pathway to a common Earth harmony. This higher plane would be a “co-humanity” conceived on a unity of Heaven, Earth, and Myriad things graced by the dialectical interaction between Yin and Yang, the opposite but complementary forces. By this expansive milieu, a person can be true to oneself, family, community, polity, and onto to a worldly abide guided by these natural values. I log in along with Helene Landemore’s Democratic Reason, whence these entries could represent an Eastern and Western wisdom we so desperately need.

The study of intercultural communication in the 21st century faces multiple challenges. It has a particular role to play in extending the concept of national citizenship to transnational civil communities – small or large, temporary or permanent. To this end, the Confucian anthropocosmic perspective on intercultural communication is proposed in this paper as a response to the multiple challenges of increasing globalization. The paper proposes the Confucian self and other togetherness as the global ethics. This is also called social and moral responsibility. The implementation of this ethics can be summarized as “If you want to establish yourself, you must help others to establish themselves. And if you want to make yourself outstanding, you must help others to make themselves outstanding.” In the long run, the practice of this ethics that undergirds dialogic interaction is a long-term human project. It concerns the life of our global community. It concerns whether “we shall live together like brothers and sisters or perish together” in the 21st century. (Abstract excerpts)

In general, in Confucian holistic humanism, the core concept is conceived to be the general and universal moral/ethical system under which all particular/specific virtues and ethics could be subsumed. Stated in different terms, this concept presupposes a common ground for the Chinese and the global ethical theory with unity, consistence, and coherence. The Confucian core concept of entails the anthropocosmic (in opposition to anthropocentric) worldview, that is, humanity forms one body with Heaven, Earth and Myriad things. The significance of the concept of anthropocosmic worldview is twofold: a) It entails a universal ethics underlying human behavior, human interaction, human relationships, the human-nature relationship and the building of a global community; b) It entails a dynamic and on-going qualitative transformation process for human self development in the direction of the attainment of whole personhood. (37)

Jia Yuxin is Professor of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He is an internationally renowned scholar of intercultural communication and one of the original founders of both the International Association of Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS). Jia Xuelai is Professor of English, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. She has a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics, a Doctoral degree in Education from University of Sydney, Australia, and is currently a visiting scholar at University of California San Diego.

Zelenski, John, et al. Nature Connection: Providing a Pathway from Personal to Planetary Health. Challenges. 14/1, 2023. We note this extensive, luminous contribution by a five person team in Canada, the USA and Australia including Susan Prescott as a visionary description of a sustainable, sensitive Earthropocene era going forward. See also The Cooperative Spirit of Nature in the Kalevala Creation Myth by Christina Gant and Project Earthrise: Inspiring Creativity, Kindness and Imagination in Planetary Health by Alan Logan, et al, in this MDPI journal.

The critical condition of human health and all Earth life require urgent, deep changes in the way we live. Many global perils of biodiversity loss, climate change, personal and social welfare cannot be healed without curing selfishness, greed, apathy, and the economics that created them. Calls for spiritual and cultural transformations recognize that “inner” development is as vital for sustainable “outward” transitions. Here we draw from the Nova Network planetary health community for nature-based solutions with a more relational mindset. (Excerpt)

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