What has changed? Society-nature relations in the Anthropocene - Seminar Recap
On February 29th, 2024 the OHPA hosted a lecture by Dr. Anke Schaffartzik, assistant professor of CEU’s department of Environmental Sciences and Policy. Dr. Schaffartzik’s enlightening talk featured conceptualizing how we as homo-sapiens have developed and changed our interaction with the natural world throughout our evolutionary development. Dr. Schaffartzik employed the idea of a “Social metabolism,” that our societies themselves contain metabolisms which consume raw materials and energy, transform and partially integrates said energy, and must also discharge waste from the process akin to a living being.
Dr. Schaffartzik’s elucidated that societies are built upon two spheres; that of the social and the material, the latter of which refers to the “metabolism” of such a society which demands energy to consume. This energy has historically been extracted in some way or another from the natural world, thus placing our species into a colonial relationship with nature itself. Dr. Schaffartzik contended that by measuring the “metabolism” of societies, we may be able to discern accelerations of energy consumption and derive further implications for the contemporary energy transition process. These are discernible via historical eras in which average consumption of energy (abbreviated here Gj/pp for Gigajoule/per person) increases per technological development: predeveloped societies required 16 Gj/pp daily, which increases to 76 Gj/pp during industrialization and arrives at 160 Gj/pp post industrialization (on average). As our technology develops to become more useful, the more energy and raw material is consumed, at least for the majority of human history thus-far.
Dr. Schaffartzik explained how the perspective borne of this concept allows a nuanced and enlightened understanding of our interaction with the natural world as well as the climate crisis. She built her case further by connecting specific conceptual examples to the overarching socialmetabolism model. For example the legacy effect of using natural resources like “stocks,” which requires not only resources for initial consumption (construction) but also maintenance, and the natural implications of trampling regenerative processes. Dr. Schaffartzik additionally linked the climate crisis to other societal issues such as income inequality, citing how wealthier populations use a disproportionate amount of resources. She cited social movements against dam construction, deforestation and pollutive practices as a further ramification of such exploitative policies. Dr. Schaffartzik’s lecture revealed a fresh and nuanced lens through which to perceive human consumption of natural resources and our role as custodians of the natural world rather than its colonizers. To close her lecture, Dr. Schaffartzik used an anecdote discovered by her colleague when researching in Northern India. The subject of the research was a small, remote village which had never had access to electricity. The researcher noted that once electricity had been installed, within a year the overall happiness of the population plummeted, in spite of an influx and adoption of modern technologies. Thus building upon this example. Dr. Schaffartzik challenged attendees to rethink their consumption habits as well as the assertion that our current, contemporary way of life is the best and most efficient way to structure a society.
The full talk as well as the subsequent discussion is available to view on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw6tozoH-iA
