{"id":2448,"date":"2012-10-03T15:22:08","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T14:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=2448"},"modified":"2012-10-03T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T14:22:08","slug":"harmony-with-nature-all-vanity-and-hubris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2012\/10\/03\/harmony-with-nature-all-vanity-and-hubris\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmony with nature: all vanity and hubris"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Harmony with Nature<\/em> generates about 22 million Google results.\u00a0 <em>Harmony in Nature<\/em>, on the other hand gets around 125 million. \u00a0Make of that what you can. \u00a0Each phrase is problematic: the\u00a0first is wishful thinking dressed as political theory; the second is myth dressed as ecology.\u00a0 Prince Charles has written a book about the former, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/harmonywithnatureun.org\/\">UN<\/a> has a site devoted to it, attempting to set out some shaky principles,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Under the leadership of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, inter-governmental negotiations began in 2009 to agree on principles of Harmony with Nature. Adopting by consensus the Bolivian-led Resolution, on 22 April 2009 the General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day. \u00a0In so doing, Governments acknowledged that the Earth and its ecosystems are our home, and expressed its conviction that it is necessary to promote harmony with nature in order to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Steve Gough reminded us in his recent I-SEE <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/i-see\/pastseminars.html\">seminar<\/a>, this is a one-sided contract.\u00a0 Humans may want to sign up, but \"nature\" cannot, and would not, even were it possible, as John Race's verse illustrates ...<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I\u2019ve no doctrinal preference for Green.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t love dolphins any more than rats,<\/p>\n<p>Though I\u2019m offended by large block of flats,<\/p>\n<p>And troubled by the stink of kerosene.<\/p>\n<p>And as to whether I should intervene \u2026<\/p>\n<p>I hold no brief for rare, endangered cats;<\/p>\n<p>As far as I\u2019m concerned, let horseshoe bats<\/p>\n<p>Follow the creatures of the Eocene.<\/p>\n<p>Having said that, I\u2019m fond of modern man,<\/p>\n<p>Enthusiastic agent of my plan<\/p>\n<p>For him to self-destruct and leave the Earth<\/p>\n<p>As harmonious, as at his birth.<strong><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nature is supremely indifferent to us, to our hopes and dreams, our vanities and foibles, and our hubris. \u00a0Why is this so hard to learn?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harmony with Nature generates about 22 million Google results.\u00a0 Harmony in Nature, on the other hand gets around 125 million. \u00a0Make of that what you can. \u00a0Each phrase is problematic: the\u00a0first is wishful thinking dressed as political theory; the second...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-talks-and-presentations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}