- Email: [email protected]
Playing God with the world
Update
90
Endeavour
Vol.28 No.3 September 2004
who buy it will also be familiar with most of its contents and arguments. It really needs to be read by people who believe in these simplified fables about great lone geniuses. Perhaps OUP ought to consider reissuing each of the chapters as short pamphlets for a secondary school
audience – that might nip the problem that Fabulous Science sets out to tackle in the bud. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.06.002
Playing God with the world Inventing for the Environment edited by Arthur Molella and Joyce Bedi. MIT Press, 2003. US$29.95 (xix þ 398 pages, hardback) ISBN 0262134276
David M. Knight Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, 50 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HN, UK
Americans, particularly under the present administration, are widely seen as the great wasters of energy and resources who are indifferent to the long-term consequences of these actions and happy to pollute if there is money in it. This book is evidence that such a view is not fair. Not only did Americans invent national parks and make the emissions from motor vehicles much less filthy, but they are still producing a lot of historically informed fresh thinking, some of which makes up the content of this book. These essays are sometimes quirky, but generally focus on definite case studies or individuals, thus avoiding the worthy, but vague, sentiments or senatorial eloquence that can be present when discussing environmental concern. The book is loosely organized in sections that look at nature and technology, innovation in urban landscape, innovation in city planning, innovations in architecture, technical innovation, public health and the environment, innovations in alternative energy sources and industrial ecology. The sections normally end with a profile by Martha Davidson of a pioneer inventor or innovator in their respective fields. These are interesting, and humanize the discussions of what might otherwise be rather abstract issues, although their enthusiasm sometimes verges on hagiographical. The central theme of the book is that the ‘human’ and the ‘natural’ are not two antithetical poles: we (humanity) are a part of nature. Thus, even phrases such as ‘industrial ecology’ are not a contradiction in terms. We need not choose between a green and pleasant land or dark satanic mills, but can work towards agreeable places where (as in nature) waste is perceived and used as raw material – rather than thrown out as pollution – and parkland is available for recreation and wildlife. Following an essay by Richard White emphasizing context and creativity, connections and the dynamic rather than the static nature of things, we find a tour de force by Stephen Pyne on fire: a captured and domesticated ecological process (reminiscent of Faraday’s classic Chemical History of a Candle). Then come papers on Corresponding author: David M. Knight ([email protected]). Available online 17 June 2004 www.sciencedirect.com
urban landscape by Timothy Davis and Michael Robinson that focus on Washington DC and its history, including bold attempts to turn a bit of wilderness into a Garden of Eden and on the evolution of the zoo into a ‘biopark’. Davidson concludes this section with a profile of Jon Coe. The next topic is city planning, with Arthur Molella and Robert Kargon’s daunting tale from two paternalistic and authoritarian regimes (that are otherwise very different!) – the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Nazis – of planned techno-cities that were killed off by pragmatists in one continent and by World War II in the other. Harry Rand describes the practical ‘Hundertwasser’ development in Austria, and contrasts it with the visionary ‘Arcosanti’ in Arizona that was designed by the guru Paoli Soleri, who adds a statement of his doctrines. This section is concluded with a profile of Erik Valle. Kathryn Henderson describes building houses from straw bales (no problem with the wolf huffing and puffing – this is serious stuff) as an observing participant; Marley Porter’s description of a ‘house of healing’ involves things such as the surprise of Feng Shui appearing in a book originating in the Smithsonian Institution. The following profile is of David Hertz, who makes decorative concrete out of waste products. In the next section, Martin Melosi describes how water and sewage engineering undertaken in the (false) belief that ‘miasma’ was unhealthy actually boosted public health before germ theory came to prevail, and Ashok Gadgil describes the application of an inexpensive gadget of his that uses UV light to purify water in countries that cannot afford the infrastructure required by Victorian-style water works. Devra Davis is profiled for her work on environmental cancers. In the following chapter, Rudi Volti describes the history behind the imposition of ever-stricter limits on automobile emissions in California that were duly met by technical fixes. Amory Lovins looks forward to ‘hypercars’ and to a much more energy-efficient world, and Subhendu Guha gets the profile for working on cheap and flexible solar panels using amorphous silicon. Finally, Christine Rosen looks at the business –environment interface and the value of thinking in terms of systems. Braden Allenby concurs, but contrasts the old idea of ‘stewardship’ with Earth Systems Engineering, which means playing God
Update
Endeavour
Vol.28 No.3 September 2004
with all the ethical implications that involves. Robert Socolow’s journey from theoretical physics into environmental study gets him the profile. To conclude, Roderick Nash and Martha Davidson invoke a world in 3000AD where the human population will have fallen from 6 billion to 1.5 billion kindly, gentle people who will live in concentrated, rather than sprawling, cities amid sweetness and light – perhaps a little like the
91
19th century commune that was optimistically named New Harmony (IN, USA). Whether one relishes this picture, or those of techno-cities and Earth Systems, will depend upon one’s faith in the stern utopians who plan such things and relish playing God. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.06.001
A survey of life’s history The Story of Life by Richard Southwood. Oxford University Press 2003. UK£12.99 (264pp) ISBN: 0198607865
Druin Burch Accident and Emergency Department, Horton Hospital, Oxford Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK OX16 9AL
How can a list of facts be made fascinating? Most students seem to believe that the way forward is to fake over-enthusiasm and write glib purple passages about how amazing one finds the information to be. A better alternative is to try and trace the human history behind facts, and to look at the etymologies of the words and the course of controversies, or the biographies of those involved in waging them. The ideal solution is to manage to tie facts together into a memorable explanation by describing the compelling puzzle that they are capable of accounting for. Despite the title of his book Richard Southwood is not a good storyteller and the book is patchier and less exciting than it might be. In Southwood’s hands allometry is a dull and forgettable topic: one need only glance at the essays by Haldane or Gould on the subject to realise how gripping it can become. Only seldom does Southwood manage lively illustrations – such as his observation that mitochondria are closely related to pathogenic rickettsia or that when one looks at the green film around dripping taps one sees the evolutionarily ancient cyanobacterium. When he gives an account of the K/T extinction he leads up to his conclusion with some real effect. The result is the only successful piece of real story telling he manages. His account of life – beginning with the formation of the Earth and running to industrialised mankind’s effects upon it – is extensive, and he can be forgiven for elisions and simplifications. Yet the extent he brings up a subject without explaining it fully (such as whether seaweeds are true multicellular organisms or not, or why sprawling animals cannot develop effective diaphragms) is often frustrating. For example, Southwood talks about evolutionary ‘fuses’ burning for a long time before an explosion but does not suggest why. He points out in a diagram – but ignores in the text – the gap between the development of hominid bipedalism and the relative increase in their Corresponding author: Druin Burch ([email protected]). Available online 8 May 2004 www.sciencedirect.com
brain size. Sometimes these omissions feel like a real detraction, at other times they leave one’s interest fruitfully unsatisfied. Southwood uses Latin and Greek words reflexively, occasionally defining them but very rarely explaining their original meanings. ‘The first fish to appear in the fossil record lacked jaws and are often termed the Agnatha’ is a forgettable non-sequitur unless one has a classical education or the willingness to look in an etymological dictionary. When he points out that ammonites get their name from a supposed resemblance between their coiled shells and ‘the horns of the Egyptian god Ammon’ he is making a rare foray into vivid illustration. An alternative approach to trying to make a body of facts fascinating is to present them in a dry manner and expect the audience to take the trouble necessary to find the interest in them. This is what Southwood does and to a fair extent it works: the subject is a good one, and he has a wide knowledge of it. Thus there is a real sense of a dynamic world that is beset by catastrophe and revolution, and that we understand only in parts. It is stimulating to be reminded how much of our understanding of the natural world is controversial, and how much we are excitingly close to understanding more of. Southwood explains that the book derives from lectures given to students in their first years at Oxford University over a period of almost two decades. As an 18 year old with no biology background I remember attending them, and remember how much they went over my head with their unexplained terminology and their arid presentation. There is strong competition to get into Oxford to study life sciences. Here is one of its lecture courses open to the public for the modest fee of 13 pounds and the effort required to take an interest in it. It will be enjoyed by anyone with the capability of doing so significantly more than my teenage self. Lectures and books are a waste of time if they are not memorable; but making them so, as undergraduate teenagers often fail to realise, is a mutual task. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.04.009
90
Endeavour
Vol.28 No.3 September 2004
who buy it will also be familiar with most of its contents and arguments. It really needs to be read by people who believe in these simplified fables about great lone geniuses. Perhaps OUP ought to consider reissuing each of the chapters as short pamphlets for a secondary school
audience – that might nip the problem that Fabulous Science sets out to tackle in the bud. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.06.002
Playing God with the world Inventing for the Environment edited by Arthur Molella and Joyce Bedi. MIT Press, 2003. US$29.95 (xix þ 398 pages, hardback) ISBN 0262134276
David M. Knight Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, 50 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HN, UK
Americans, particularly under the present administration, are widely seen as the great wasters of energy and resources who are indifferent to the long-term consequences of these actions and happy to pollute if there is money in it. This book is evidence that such a view is not fair. Not only did Americans invent national parks and make the emissions from motor vehicles much less filthy, but they are still producing a lot of historically informed fresh thinking, some of which makes up the content of this book. These essays are sometimes quirky, but generally focus on definite case studies or individuals, thus avoiding the worthy, but vague, sentiments or senatorial eloquence that can be present when discussing environmental concern. The book is loosely organized in sections that look at nature and technology, innovation in urban landscape, innovation in city planning, innovations in architecture, technical innovation, public health and the environment, innovations in alternative energy sources and industrial ecology. The sections normally end with a profile by Martha Davidson of a pioneer inventor or innovator in their respective fields. These are interesting, and humanize the discussions of what might otherwise be rather abstract issues, although their enthusiasm sometimes verges on hagiographical. The central theme of the book is that the ‘human’ and the ‘natural’ are not two antithetical poles: we (humanity) are a part of nature. Thus, even phrases such as ‘industrial ecology’ are not a contradiction in terms. We need not choose between a green and pleasant land or dark satanic mills, but can work towards agreeable places where (as in nature) waste is perceived and used as raw material – rather than thrown out as pollution – and parkland is available for recreation and wildlife. Following an essay by Richard White emphasizing context and creativity, connections and the dynamic rather than the static nature of things, we find a tour de force by Stephen Pyne on fire: a captured and domesticated ecological process (reminiscent of Faraday’s classic Chemical History of a Candle). Then come papers on Corresponding author: David M. Knight ([email protected]). Available online 17 June 2004 www.sciencedirect.com
urban landscape by Timothy Davis and Michael Robinson that focus on Washington DC and its history, including bold attempts to turn a bit of wilderness into a Garden of Eden and on the evolution of the zoo into a ‘biopark’. Davidson concludes this section with a profile of Jon Coe. The next topic is city planning, with Arthur Molella and Robert Kargon’s daunting tale from two paternalistic and authoritarian regimes (that are otherwise very different!) – the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Nazis – of planned techno-cities that were killed off by pragmatists in one continent and by World War II in the other. Harry Rand describes the practical ‘Hundertwasser’ development in Austria, and contrasts it with the visionary ‘Arcosanti’ in Arizona that was designed by the guru Paoli Soleri, who adds a statement of his doctrines. This section is concluded with a profile of Erik Valle. Kathryn Henderson describes building houses from straw bales (no problem with the wolf huffing and puffing – this is serious stuff) as an observing participant; Marley Porter’s description of a ‘house of healing’ involves things such as the surprise of Feng Shui appearing in a book originating in the Smithsonian Institution. The following profile is of David Hertz, who makes decorative concrete out of waste products. In the next section, Martin Melosi describes how water and sewage engineering undertaken in the (false) belief that ‘miasma’ was unhealthy actually boosted public health before germ theory came to prevail, and Ashok Gadgil describes the application of an inexpensive gadget of his that uses UV light to purify water in countries that cannot afford the infrastructure required by Victorian-style water works. Devra Davis is profiled for her work on environmental cancers. In the following chapter, Rudi Volti describes the history behind the imposition of ever-stricter limits on automobile emissions in California that were duly met by technical fixes. Amory Lovins looks forward to ‘hypercars’ and to a much more energy-efficient world, and Subhendu Guha gets the profile for working on cheap and flexible solar panels using amorphous silicon. Finally, Christine Rosen looks at the business –environment interface and the value of thinking in terms of systems. Braden Allenby concurs, but contrasts the old idea of ‘stewardship’ with Earth Systems Engineering, which means playing God
Update
Endeavour
Vol.28 No.3 September 2004
with all the ethical implications that involves. Robert Socolow’s journey from theoretical physics into environmental study gets him the profile. To conclude, Roderick Nash and Martha Davidson invoke a world in 3000AD where the human population will have fallen from 6 billion to 1.5 billion kindly, gentle people who will live in concentrated, rather than sprawling, cities amid sweetness and light – perhaps a little like the
91
19th century commune that was optimistically named New Harmony (IN, USA). Whether one relishes this picture, or those of techno-cities and Earth Systems, will depend upon one’s faith in the stern utopians who plan such things and relish playing God. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.06.001
A survey of life’s history The Story of Life by Richard Southwood. Oxford University Press 2003. UK£12.99 (264pp) ISBN: 0198607865
Druin Burch Accident and Emergency Department, Horton Hospital, Oxford Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK OX16 9AL
How can a list of facts be made fascinating? Most students seem to believe that the way forward is to fake over-enthusiasm and write glib purple passages about how amazing one finds the information to be. A better alternative is to try and trace the human history behind facts, and to look at the etymologies of the words and the course of controversies, or the biographies of those involved in waging them. The ideal solution is to manage to tie facts together into a memorable explanation by describing the compelling puzzle that they are capable of accounting for. Despite the title of his book Richard Southwood is not a good storyteller and the book is patchier and less exciting than it might be. In Southwood’s hands allometry is a dull and forgettable topic: one need only glance at the essays by Haldane or Gould on the subject to realise how gripping it can become. Only seldom does Southwood manage lively illustrations – such as his observation that mitochondria are closely related to pathogenic rickettsia or that when one looks at the green film around dripping taps one sees the evolutionarily ancient cyanobacterium. When he gives an account of the K/T extinction he leads up to his conclusion with some real effect. The result is the only successful piece of real story telling he manages. His account of life – beginning with the formation of the Earth and running to industrialised mankind’s effects upon it – is extensive, and he can be forgiven for elisions and simplifications. Yet the extent he brings up a subject without explaining it fully (such as whether seaweeds are true multicellular organisms or not, or why sprawling animals cannot develop effective diaphragms) is often frustrating. For example, Southwood talks about evolutionary ‘fuses’ burning for a long time before an explosion but does not suggest why. He points out in a diagram – but ignores in the text – the gap between the development of hominid bipedalism and the relative increase in their Corresponding author: Druin Burch ([email protected]). Available online 8 May 2004 www.sciencedirect.com
brain size. Sometimes these omissions feel like a real detraction, at other times they leave one’s interest fruitfully unsatisfied. Southwood uses Latin and Greek words reflexively, occasionally defining them but very rarely explaining their original meanings. ‘The first fish to appear in the fossil record lacked jaws and are often termed the Agnatha’ is a forgettable non-sequitur unless one has a classical education or the willingness to look in an etymological dictionary. When he points out that ammonites get their name from a supposed resemblance between their coiled shells and ‘the horns of the Egyptian god Ammon’ he is making a rare foray into vivid illustration. An alternative approach to trying to make a body of facts fascinating is to present them in a dry manner and expect the audience to take the trouble necessary to find the interest in them. This is what Southwood does and to a fair extent it works: the subject is a good one, and he has a wide knowledge of it. Thus there is a real sense of a dynamic world that is beset by catastrophe and revolution, and that we understand only in parts. It is stimulating to be reminded how much of our understanding of the natural world is controversial, and how much we are excitingly close to understanding more of. Southwood explains that the book derives from lectures given to students in their first years at Oxford University over a period of almost two decades. As an 18 year old with no biology background I remember attending them, and remember how much they went over my head with their unexplained terminology and their arid presentation. There is strong competition to get into Oxford to study life sciences. Here is one of its lecture courses open to the public for the modest fee of 13 pounds and the effort required to take an interest in it. It will be enjoyed by anyone with the capability of doing so significantly more than my teenage self. Lectures and books are a waste of time if they are not memorable; but making them so, as undergraduate teenagers often fail to realise, is a mutual task. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.04.009