Ostalo
https://doi.org/10.38003/ccsr.2.1-2.5
Conversations with Planet Ocean: Plastic Pollution and the Common Heritage of Humankind
Rupert J. M. Medd
orcid.org/0009-0005-3831-1191
Sažetak
This story-based journey is an eclectic discussion on marine plastic pollution. It responds
to the Environmental Humanities by bringing material history, personal experiences
as well as ecotheories and natural sciences together. The conversational style, like
shifting tides, speaks to anyone who wishes to develop a broader understanding on
plastic pollution and its ecological consequences. While much of the scientific data has
been drawn from specialist journals such as Marine Pollution Bulletin and UN-Oceans,
it is the mostly shared experiences on the World Ocean that inform this study such as
dialogues and stories spoken by blue activists, general audiences, local groups, fishermen,
researchers, students, scientists, surfers, sailors, divers, day-trippers, ferry crews,
port authorities and marine protection societies. These voices speak from a position
of ecocosmopolitanism on wide-ranging issues such as indifference, world-systems,
modernity, ecological literatures, a common geostory, biosemiotics, the Anthropocene
as well as Planetary Boundaries. By acknowledging that the World Ocean and its qualities
have come to symbolise a fluid globalising world economy, alternative themes
surface such as permeability, flows, agencies, loss, renewed sense of place, cross-species
entanglements, peace and sustainability. The debates edge along fairly freely yet engage
with three original ideas, namely: (1) plastic pollution may impact the climate more
severely than the actual circulating concepts on climate change; (2) critical levels in
the environment have been reached and this should, therefore, be part of a Planetary
Boundary within “Novel entities” as it adversely affects the Earth’s systems; and (3) the
question of language and how new education curricula centred around ecolinguistics
and a shared geostory would better inform our environmental relations and altruistic
natures. As presented here, plastic pollution is at its heart a debate involving a moral
reassessment and appreciation of Planet Ocean, which constitutes our greatest personal
gift – the “common heritage of humankind.”
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
328096
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.1.2020.
Posjeta: 468 *