Nature and Culture

An increasing number of scientists have illustrated how economic growth is an underlying driver of the climate crisis. This article examines how associated levels of excess work, production, and consumption repress human flourishing and drive global warming. Drawing from the work of Herbert Marcuse and André Gorz, we discuss the irrationality of a system of excess work, production, and consumption in terms of unnecessary human repression and environmental destruction. In the context of the climate crisis, this system becomes even more irrational as it threatens the habitability of Earth for humans. We examine work-time reduction and related sufficiency measures as a rational response to the climate crisis.

This study investigates Indigenous society and the environment from a religious perspective, concentrating on the Earth's deteriorating physical condition. This issue has caused substantial cultural confusion since it directly affects Indigenous society's active modes of being, which are profoundly based on nature as their home. Therefore, this study seeks to explore the following inquiry: What is the meaning of transforming home in indigenous society as a result of new environmental issues? The present analysis suggests that environmental pollution, which is both objective and subjective, disrupts indigenous society's social order by turning nature's inherent role as a life-giving entity into a source of hazardous substances. Consequently, the erosion of the concept of home has led to the emergence of an indigenous risk society.

Humans have always lived with and around algae. At times, algae enable life, and at others, render life difficult. This article examines two sites suffering from atypical—and potentially harmful—algae blooms: Lake Erie in Ohio (USA) and the Riviera Maya (Mexico). Referring to ethnographic fieldwork, as well as to newspaper articles, policy papers, and online fora, we demonstrate how the narratives around algae have changed over time and shed light on how changes in these narratives opened the discussion of wetland repair and coastal integrity. We argue that conceptualizing algae as the “unwanted” unifies people, brings them together, and makes the treatment of lake eutrophication and coastal protection actionable.

The feminization of environmental responsibility holds that women more actively engage in pro-environmental behaviors compared to men. We highlight the gendered patterns of water conservation in a drought-prone region above the High Plains aquifer (HPA). Using qualitative and quantitative data from well owners and non-well owners across Kansas (n = 864), we investigate how gender moderates the relationship between several demographic variables and watering practices. Our multigroup regression results suggest that, among men, being a well owner, politically conservative, and living above the HPA are negatively associated with drought-time water conservation. Qualitatively, women in our study point out the gendered nature of water conservation, while men did not; moreover, we find evidence that male-dominated irrigation reinforces unsustainable groundwater extractions.

Little is known of deep-sea channels and their role as an effective carbon sink. How do scientists approach the deep sea, and which are their strategies to generate knowledge? To answer these questions, my research focuses on knowledge production processes along the Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel (NAMOC) during a research expedition in the Labrador Sea. The research is conceptually guided by approaches of science and technology studies and new materialism. Methodologically, the study employs multi-sited ethnography and uses multi-modal materials including participant observation and semi-structured interviews with representatives of the research vessel's crew and scientists. The findings shed light on the usually unseen practices of science-making. Sensory landscapes as well as experiential knowledge were identified as two modes of following, researching, and knowing the NAMOC.