T233 Reconstructing Environmental Controls on Societal Change from Prehistory to Present Day III (Posters)

Tuesday, 27 September 2016
9:00 AM - 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall E/F

GROW THE SCORCHED GROUND GREEN: SOCIAL TRANSITION IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Paper number: T233-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

How does anthropogenic climate change effect the organization of human systems? These systems, economic, political, social, and ideological, are intimately dependent on and situated within a Holocene climate, and as Earth systems deviate from this baseline, so too humans must adapt. The research to be presented investigates the social, political, economic, and religious/ethical frameworks of Transition Town Totnes (TTT) in England, the first of now hundreds of Transition Towns focused on “transitioning” human systems into a new climate regime. Results from our qualitative research can be found in the summer 2017 volume of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, “’Grow the Scorched Ground Green:’ Values and Ethics in the Transition Movement.” This presentation will highlight unpublished ethnographical observations of political and economic reform underway in TTT as a direct response to projected trends in climate and resource availability. Within TTT, changing climate and depleting resources are understood as directly connected with market capitalism, nation-state ideology, and alienation of human systems from the “wild.” Alternative forms of economic development, recreation, and resource management have been adopted by TTT, and these will be discussed critically in light of their measurable effects.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-287396

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.