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Includes typescript draft of The age of (the realisation of) limits? by Richard Sylvan, with handwritten emendations, undated.","Verso of scrap paper not digitised. Cutting redacted from access file (PDF) due to copyright restrictions. Title in collection finding aid: Writings of RS & VP on environment.","Richard Sylvan^^Val Plumwood","The University of Queensland's Richard Sylvan Papers UQFL291, Box 61, Item 1781","Antipodean Antinuclearism: (Re)constructing Richard Routley/Sylvan's Nuclear Philosophy",,"This item was identified for digitisation at the request of The University of Queensland's 2020 Fryer Library Fellow, Dr. N.A.J. Taylor.","For all enquiries about this work, please contact the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland Library.",,"[22] leaves. 14.14 MB. ",,Manuscript,"https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:bf93e5a","Australian National Univeristy - Second Bookcase - Bottom Shelf","/•'^Ltf 3. L. 4/(7 a' A~///frj y7W 1 • 7 S‘' "" /^\ » \ / J iA I'V’-Vu / Ae^ 6jCx i5^^r^rX37LZL< NuK^S -r------ —----- —----__ *— Wvj , q) 6 7 7 % J r The following has been redacted from access file (PDF) due to copyright restrictions. Cutting (photocopy), two pages (title page and page 125) from Weisskopf WA (1971) Alienation and economics, Dutton. (2 leaves) 7 v~7/ -- --- ------ tZ ' /)e/C^ ~7 /^?) ^~y- / / ■'rf.. // /2'6 relies on false dichotomy between ’religious influence and secular economic power’ which are said to be * complementary, when one grows, the other declines. Also the suggestion that the£e are social limits^the ’soft paradigm’ is not explained p.415? to W2- -M / Disappearing species and vanishing rainforests: philosophical roots of the problem. * wrong directions, and the Both rainforests and species are disappearing at an unprecedented and accelerating rate. becoming a vastly poorer place ecologically. of great value is being lost or destroyed. The world is fast Which is really bad: for much Thus far there is substantial agreement among a wide range of groups and organisations seriously concerned about vanishing rainforests, disappearing species, and the ecological impover­ ishment of the earth. But penetrate a little further - ask for the causes of this situation, for what should be done about it, why value is being diminished in this way, and why there is any cause for concern - and the agreement begins to evaporate. Probe a little more widely, bringing in assessment of economists, foresters, and politicians, and spokesmen for the elites of ’’developing nations , and agreement ceases, and substantial disagreement sets in. The phenomena of disappearing life, animal and plant, creature and species and ecosystem, are well-enough documented (if not well-enough knowin, in several senses) for a sketch of the background to serve. §2. Background: the rates of loss of species and disappearance of rainforest. First, plants:the extinction of each species of plant is, on the average, accompanied by a ten-|to thirty-fold loss amongst other organisms. Therefore, the diversity of plants i£ the underlying factor controlling the diversity of other organisms and thus the stability of the world ecosystem ... nearly two-thirds of the world’s plant species (at least 150,000species of flowering plants) appear to be tropical in distribution. ... Considering that there will be no undisturbed tropical lowland forest any­ where in the world within twenty-five years, except for relatively small reserves, ... it is certain that many of them will become extinct during our lifetime. To illustrate this point we need only mention that the FAO estimates that about ten million The paper was first sketched for Earthday 1980. The topic is of considerable relevance to Earthday X, for it concerns the ecological impoverishment of the earth (which - despite Earthday - continues to accelerate) and reasons for it especially the underlying philosophical and ideological grounds. (In the latter connection the US has, despite its prominence in ecological concern and in implementing things environmental, much to answer for.) 2. hectares [1979 estimates are 16 million hectares] of tropical forest are being felled annually. ... One supposes ... that at least a third of [tropical plant species] will be threatened or extinct by the end of the century, with the first major wave of extinction in South-east Asia and New Guine^ ... (Raven 1976). Second, animals:It has been estimated that if current Saends in massive forest clearing continue, about one-third of the species now found in humid tropical forests - perhaps 15 to 20Z of all species on earth - will be extinct only 20 years from now, and many more in the ensuing decades. This would be one of the greatest impoverishments ever suffered. |x----- —Third, rainforests:Every minute 30 hectares (about 75 acres) of the world s rain— ^forests are being destroyed. The issue can be sharply p^roc^ssed by considering the world’s tropical rainforests, where major Looweo are occurring. The tropical moist forests are believed to contain between 2 and 5 million species from 2/5ths to ^planet’s total . Thus i£ 1 million species are lost by the end of the twentieth century, the I result would be the extinction of more than - perhaps much more than - l/5th of the world’s . (Myers, p.4 & p.113). Other estimates differ somewhat, but all serve to make the main point; staggering ecological and biological losses and impoverishment. §2. Reasons and causes^ actdon and fataldsm (ineu^'i/Lity). be disentangled. There is much to There are reasons for and against destroying rain-forests and their dependent species, reasons which divide into shallower reasons and deeper reasons. The familiar shallow reasons against are those that answer back in one way or another to human interests, and concern the pros and cons of rain­ forests as sources of genetic diversity and gene pools, as natural biological sources for medicines, as uftkt catchment protection areas, and to prevent and stop flooding, as buffer and quarantine zones, as refuges for plants and animals. The inadequacy of these sorts of reasons is not difficult to discern; and the strategies they lead to would only sewe- bits and pieces here and there. , -i -i _ a_i_ _ Furthermore the onus is^wrong way round too, as well as the jacamng j not reaching to any social depth. What needs to say here is: Why is all 3. this happening? What justifies it? The onus is on those who try to proceed, who are doing the doing, interfering destruction and demise. The shallower reasons for tend to rely on the character of humans, their attitudes and aspirations and now rather inevitable dominance. causes fail. Ini^t^l shallow explanatory theses to be critically assessed and rejected include these: 1. The overpopulation argument: ’unless the population explosion can be damped down, wildlife will not survive’ 2. Economistic arguments: (Webb, 1979). forest destruction will alleviate poverty and provides jobs and foreign revenue. Rather, as forester Westoby recently explained, ’the unpalatable fact, for foresters, is that forest industries have done very little to raise the welfare of the urban and rural masses in developing countries; instead resources and wealth have been transferred to the rich industrialised countries’ (or at least certain parts of their populations). Westoby, who perhaps optimistically sees elements of change in the world, went on to explain, colourfully, somewhat deeper issues: of policies of self-reliance, ’The growth the struggles on every continent by the dispossessed and hungry millions to win a fair and decent life, to break out of the power of landlords, of moneylenders, of the agents of foreign capital will be decisive in the future ... foresters ... have historically supported power, landed property, and the status quo, and acted as the gendarme of the landed proprietor’ (emphasis added). [Even where the people originally held the land, it has been removed from them by military power in such places as Indonesia.] Although this begins to bring out how it is that major forest destruct­ ion, for example, is not being undertaken by local people themselves,but by large foreign companies (with the co-operation of a ruling ’’western"" elite in countries involved, elites characteristically propped up in turn by ""western"" capital and armsj), it does not explain why ""western""—style com­ panies (Japanese as well as American and British) are, with considerable government support, engaged in these activities. Again, there are shallow economic reasons, e.g. growth of GNP, consumer demand, etc. But in fact the bulk of tropical forest goes into pulp and paper most of which is used for packaging, which most people do not, in any good sense, choose to purchase, but find it ""thrust upon them"" and difficult to avoid. §4. Getting to the roots, historical and ideological. And so on. The deeper reasons are the underlying attitudes to the natural world that are held by western exploit­ ing powers, attitudes such as human chauvinism, which have a very long history, and which were shaped and enforced first by the Renaissance, then the Enlight­ enment, and more recently by both positivism and Marxism. The main object of the paper is to show how these attitudes figure in such practical matters as forest destruction and its justification, to outline [again] criticism of them, and to indicate a long minority criticism of them, running from the Germanic Sturm und Drang movement through classical anarchism to the counter culture §5. the modern deeper environmental movement. Wrong strategic directions: the potiticaZ thrust. WORLD (ECOLOGICAL) IMPOVERISHMENT: IDEOLOGICAL BASES AND EXCUSES. World ecological impoverishment is world impoverishment, because much of great value is being lost without due value recompense. at rapidly accelerating rate: It is occurring there is little cause for celebration of ^arthday X. 1. The mounting ecological losses. The phenomenon is well enough documented within the limits of our rather abysmal knowledge awd of the systems^ species and individuals being lost. 78). (For a carefully referenced survey see Eckholm REFERENCES E. Eckholm, Disappearing Species: The Social Challenge_>Worldwatch Paper 22 July 1978. • A. and A. Erhlich, Extinction; $fJLc pc^e of TWO paradigms* perspn-PJ. unetary 1. 2» 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. —-5 16 ■> 17. r 18. ' 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. Z 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 394. « Machine metaphor "" ---Reductionist linear --------------- Nature as instrumental ------ “* *"" Observer spirt from nature Causal ®odels-®achanisticZ------- / Consciousness as epiphenomena1 Dead matter Growth Z Quantitative Non-Dialectical z Discrete things Knowledge as power ™— No Spiritual dimensions Z-——— Technology as power —— Having —— Machine paradigms y-—------ ~ Mastery of nature fro© outside -Z External relations ---- *-----Subject-object separation -Z-— Centralization Design &» technique ---------- ~~ Specialism Z .— Training - skills alone ‘Z —-—~ Anthropocentric —-----Corporation »~£ y ■^/Y U~&-Y tot zz> (A SVYK X /.. _Ja_ Z&s z/ z^< f , ""u « /eZTK-i AfO ^^)r/77/ 7~?f7~M/$ o/c~f7/^ 6^1^ 35? ^7 (cJi^/rvL i^^JL - /l/3 7~ef ' ; 'fd’J C_J»------ /-< f^lr< -2 <% - /x^a fiH/t t^<^o /CaJAj/rt Zie ciJ^^/ q'l'd. O^'J'^f/^s- ti^^-r' ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Australian National University Office,Australian National University Office > Second Bookcase > Bottom Shelf,Box 61: Ethics and Theoretical Ethics",https://antipodean-antinuclearism.org/files/original/ede0486e608e80171df909e34126861a.pdf,Text,"Notes, Correspondences and Marginalia",1,0