Academic
In the optimistic scenario of two degrees C of warming by 2100, our deteriorated planet will be plagued by heat waves killing thousands each summer, droughts crippling global food production, dramatic species loss destabilizing the biosphere, and myriad natural disasters that, by World Bank estimates, will result in 140 million climate refugees by 2050. We must endure this while commanding the global political environment, financial resources, and technological development necessary to devise ‘technical fixes’ that would only deepen our intrusion into the natural world. In doing so, resources that could have been dedicated to universal childcare or improved mental health initiatives will be spent on technology to suck carbon from the atmosphere, fertilize acidified oceans, or alter clouds’ chemistry to reflect more sunlight.
This is our inevitable future in the Anthropocene; the unofficial geologic epoch recognizing humans as a driving force on Earth’s natural processes capable of destroying nature’s capacity for wildness and independence from human activity. As an academic concept, it extends beyond climate change to examine how technological solutions to environmental degradation, designed to manipulate Earth’s natural processes for human benefit, will only expand our dominion over the natural world. In doing so, it incorporates climate change’s narrowing solution space to interrogate the interconnected relationships individuals have with their environment, technology, government, and society. As we inherit the positions and systems that determine our species’ survival, it is crucial that our generation defines their relationships with the environment as well as what can be considered natural and sustainable interaction with our decreasingly wild planet.​
As someone who cares deeply about environmental conservation, it's weird that I have little to no emotional response when I think about what the Earth will look like in fifty years. When I scroll through social media feeds that celebrate personal moments in one breath and raise awareness for dying oceans in the next, I experience this microscopic reaction of stress that almost forces me to scroll to the next post and avoid confronting this problem I have no control over. But when I do stop and linger on the reality our generation is facing and the degraded environment we will have to contend with, my mind just feels numb. I recognize that I should feel anxious or sad or angry, but honestly, I just feel frustrated with my overwhelming apathy towards something I know I care about. But then I give up trying to feel anything about something I can have no meaningful impact on, opting instead to manage the stress of endless assignments or job applications.
I think I react this way because I've been desensitized to environmental deterioration and the implications it has for my future. I've been hearing about the Earth dying my entire life and, when think about my childhood experiences with nature, I realize that I've been surrounded by it demise as well. Growing up, I noticed the small, bright green tree frogs in my backyard become harder to find until I just stopped seeing them. I noticed the swarms of fireflies shrink every year at Fourth of July. I noticed the Michigan winters that usually promised steady snowfall become simultaneously tamer and more extreme, oscillating between blizzards and oddly warm temperatures. I noticed the chorus of birds outside my window becoming quieter as I watched the woods surrounding my street be paved over for subdivisions. I watched the natural areas I loved, the places that developed an intrinsic respect for our Earth as a kid, deteriorate. And I don't think I fully comprehend how that has affected me.
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Personal
THE PROJECT
I know I am not the only person in my generation who feels powerless against incomprehensible statistics on species loss and dire projections for future warming. I know that many respond to this feeling with waves of anxiety or activism, but I think we are all familiar with the apathy imposed by stressing out over a problem we have no control over, especially one that actively degrades our hope for the future. Climate change can easily be written off as a problem for future generations. But sadly it is here and it has been affecting us through abstract, barely noticeable changes in our environment and the way we perceive our relationship with the natural world.
I've designed this project as a space to collect the stories, narratives, interactions, and experiences of my generation, Generation Z, relating to the environmental decline we have grown up alongside. I am currently designing a study that utilizes a survey and focus groups to identify environmental decline in participants' interactions with the natural world throughout their youth. Further, the study assesses participants' perceptions of climate change as well as the technological solutions we will employ to mitigate the future repercussions of human activity on Earth. I am conducting the study with American students during the 2020-2021 academic year and intend on replicating it with Moroccan students beginning in late 2021.
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The heart of this project is the story of Generation Z in the Anthropocene: how we have experienced the natural world slip out of balance, how we come to terms with those experiences, and how we seek to restore this balance moving forward. The story I will collect is fundamentally about our personal relationships with the natural world as well as how we respond mentally and emotionally to losing the independent, or "wild," nature that we have barely gotten to glimpse in our lifetimes. While this story is about grief, it will told by a generation I perceive to be unusually hopeful and optimistic about our species' ability to adapt with nature in beautiful and beneficial ways. This story will try to balance our often disheartening experiences with environmental decline against our awareness of the future's positive potential if we concentrate political and economic resources on transitioning into sustainable energy infrastructure, regulating excessive packaging waste, investing in climate research, technology, and development, and other sustainability policy initiatives.
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First defined by scientist Jared Diamond, the term landscape amnesia refers to the gradual loss of wilderness over several decades, leaving each successive generation with a less wild conception of nature. ​The Anthropocene represents more than just the physical transformation of Earth’s biogeochemical processes, it signifies the gradual disappearance of the wild nature that equally terrified, inspired, and sustained our ancestors. As my generation considers its relationship with a human-dominated natural world, it is absolutely crucial we define our understanding of sustainable interaction with our environment as well as how we want to preserve our landscapes for future generations. The question of what can be considered natural when no corner of Earth is untouched by humans is central to the Anthropocene, but can unfortunately be pretty abstract. The storytelling tools I propose, the National Geographic collages and 360° photography and video, will elucidate the abstract act of defining sustainable interaction with the environment by enabling participants to use examples from their own lives and from the archives of National Geographic to represent the world we want to help build.
