VIII. Earth Earns: An Open CoCreative Earthropocene to Astropocene PediaVerse

C. An Earthropocene Era: Pedia Sapience Achieves a Unified, Peaceful, BioHome with an Ecosmic Project

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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