Nature in flux, not balance - some broader implications of rapid geological change
by
Antony R. Berger
IUGS Geoindicators Initiative, Victoria BC, Canada

It is not only sudden disasters that effect ecosystems and people, but also many slow-onset and more pervasive abiotic changes to the environment. These include rapid (< 100 years) changes in sea and lake levels, river channel switching, slope failures, ground subsidence, frozen ground activity and karstification (see www.lgt.lt/geoin). Such changes have always provided the background and, commonly, the drivers for evolution. Yet, a major theme in contemporary environmentalist discourse seems to be that it is humans that create environmental havoc, and that if only we could manage our impacts on water, air, climate, the oceans and biodiversity, nature would be in fine balance, providing a benevolent ecosphere. In seeking a better relationship with the natural world, some environmental writers and thinkers look for inspiration from the way earlier peoples acknowledged the dark side of nature. Yet the great sagas of Iceland are oddly silent on volcanic eruptions, floods and other natural disasters. And the ancient writings of China, though recording many environmental disasters are remarkably opaque on the subject of floods, landslides, earthquakes and other rapid landscape processes that harmed the early Chinese peoples. How did the ancients regard dark nature, and how should our own ideas, attitudes and policies towards the natural environment recognize a moving, and frequently harmful nature, which however stressed by human actions, is still capable of autonomous change? An inter-disciplinary research program linking the geological record of rapid change with findings from anthropology, geography, environmental history and philosophy could be a useful way to address these issues. One important focus would be on ways to distinguish human-induced stresses, which may be manageable, from non-human change, which may not. The program would have the potential to inform public debate on climate change, water resources, and natural hazards, including the effects of harmful natural geochemical conditions on human health, with the broad goal of innovative contributions to the way we think and act towards the physical environment.

Date received: March 8, 2002