“We can only cope with the environmental crisis if we accept uncertainty and value it as the basis of our design work.” Ferdinand Ludwig Ferdinand Ludwig is a German architect who is a pioneer and innovator in the field of baubotany, the architectural realm of living plant structures. In 2012, he graduated from the University of Stuttgart with a dissertation on “Botanical Foundations of Baubotany and Their Use in Design.” Today, he is…
Tag: Translations
Rediscovering our earthly emotions – an interview with environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht
Glenn Albrecht is an Australian philosopher and ecologist who was for many years Professor of Sustainability at Murdoch University in Western Australia and is now an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. In his book Earth Emotions (2019), he argues that we have lost awareness of our deep and long-standing connection to nature and that we no longer have the words to…
Glenn Albrecht: Sumbiocracy
Glenn Albrecht (born 1953) is an Australian environmental philosopher, best known for coining the neologisms solastalgia and symbiocene. He is a theoretical and practical researcher on the relationship between ecosystems and human health. He is a pioneer in the field of research into "psychoterratic" or Earth-related mental health conditions - the concept of "solastalgia". He characterizes solastalgia as a form of emotional or existential anxiety caused by environmental changes;…
Jeremy Lent: "The Elephant in the Room" or Solving the Climate Crisis Requires the End of Capitalism
Jeremy Lent is an American philosopher, writer, and lecturer who explores the root causes of our civilization’s existential crisis and seeks ways to create a life-sustaining future. He explores this in depth in his recently published book The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and traditional Wisdom to find our Place in the Universe.
Cormac Cullinan: If Nature Had Rights
In this provocative essay, published in the January/February 2008 issue of Orion magazine (online here), South African environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan imagines what nature could gain and what humans could “lose” if nature were given legal protection. Essay translation: Jiří Zemánek. Cormac Cullinan is the author of Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice (Green Books, Cambridge…
David R. Boyd: A river becomes a legal entity
This excerpt from Canadian lawyer and activist David R. Boyd's book The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution that Could Save the World (ECW Press, Toronto 2017, pp. 131-143 / translated and edited by Jiří Zemánek) – in which the author describes the emergence of the contemporary nature rights movement – depicts the deep relationship of the Maori people to the Whanganui River and their dispute with the British…
David R. Boyd: Te Urewera, the ecosystem formerly known as a national park
David R. Boyd is a Canadian lawyer, activist, and diplomat who is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment. In his influential book The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution that Could Save the World (ECW Press, Toronto 2017), a “real-life legal thriller” (D.…
Stephan Harding: Land Rights
Stephan Harding is the coordinator of the MSc in Holistic Sciences at Schumacher College in Devon, UK. He is the author of Animate Earth: Animated Gaia: Science, Intuition and Gaia (2006). This article by the author was published in The Guardian (3 April 2007). Translation: Jiří Zemánek. The only way to prevent the destruction of our planet is to give it legal rights. Stephan Harding Today…
Iroquois Thanksgiving: "Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen"/"Words Before All Else"
This prayer is a gift from the Haudenosaunee people (Iroquois Nation), words of thanksgiving with ancient roots dating back to the time when the Great Law of Peace was brought to the Iroquois Nation by the Peacemaker, an Iroquois prophet, statesman, and lawgiver, who advised them to end intertribal warfare. Variations of these words are still recited at all times of the year at the opening and closing of ceremonial and governmental sessions…
Freya Mathews: Life with Animals
This article by Freya Mathews was originally published under the title 'Living with Animals' in Animal Issues (vol I, no I, 1997. pp 4-16); translated by Jiří Zemánek. Freya Mathews is also the author of Without Animals Life Is Not Worth Living / Bez zvítár život nemá cenu žit (Ginninderra Press 2016), in which, in a gripping story about a pig named Pookie and a philosopher…