Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
(WHAT WE CALL) NATURE
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
What this topic is
not
about
This is a topic with seemingly exorbitant ambitions. Its subject matter is
all of the following (and a
lot
more besides): beluga whales, natterjack
toads, Siberian tigers, hermit crabs, orangutans, meerkats, skip-jack tuna,
coral reefs, oak trees, human DNA, sea horses, El Niño, volcanic eruptions,
photosynthesis, Mount Everest, cystic fibrosis, tectonic plates, the Marianas
Trench, human hearts, quarks, mangrove swamps, ice caps, North Pacific
fur seals, wolves, transgenic organisms, Hadley cells, botanical gardens,
the Sahara Desert, rainforest ecosystems, haemoglobin, pebble beaches,
wild orchids, manatees, intestinal bacteria, meiosis, the Humboldt squid,
blueberries, iguanas, bumblebees, conjoint twins, oil reserves, dinosaur fos-
sils, beavers, elephants, the jet stream, buzzards, igneous rock, gravity, ocean
currents, algae, weeds and hot springs. I could go on, but you get the idea.
My aim in the pages that follow is to make sense of nature - that 'buzzing,
blooming confusion', as the philosopher William James once so beautifully
described it.
It's trite but true to say that nature matters to us - enormously so. With-
out it we could not live, and we would (quite literally) have no past, present
or future. Nature provides us with the materials required to satisfy our basic
needs - the need for shelter, warmth, food and clothing. More than this, it's
a source of fascination, a focus of moral concern, and an object of aesthetic
appreciation. We seek to unlock nature's secrets through research; we pas-
sionately debate the ethics of using, altering, destroying or recreating it; and
we take pleasure in some of its creations, be they pristine or modified by
us. We also, at times, seek to keep out nature, or at least get out of its way:
wildfires, tidal surges and heatwaves are just some of the natural hazards
that can harm or even kill us. Where possible, we try to control nature in
order to derive benefits: think of China's Three Gorges Dam, domestic pets,
artificial life forms or commercial pesticides. Nature is as much a curse as
a blessing, at once bane and boon, essential and unwelcome. Its central yet
contradictory role in our lives has, for well over a century, found expression
in debates between environmentalists (both 'deep' and 'shallow') and those
for whom the 'domination of nature' is a good and necessary thing.
