Camille Seaman
I've only begun to explore Camille Seaman's photographs. I am dumbfounded by their beauty and moved by the way she describes her mission: "The thread that ties all my photographic projects together is my desire to create images that articulate that humans are not separate from nature and that everything is interconnected, inter-related." Listening (to her TED talks) and seeing her photographs, I was reminded of a suggestion given me a few days ago by a friend: read Paul Kingsnorth's essay "The Axis and the Sycamore" in the January-February issue of Orion Magazine.
A comment about Kingsnorth's essay by an Australian geoscientist, Glenn Albrecht, led me to Albrecht's blog, in which he explores an imagined eventual transition from the current Anthropocene to what he would call the Symbiocene: "The concept is derived from the term ‘symbiosis’ which itself is derived from the Greek sumbiosis (companionship), sumbion (to live together) sumbios (living together) and, of course, bios (life). The scientific meaning of symbiosis implies living together for mutual benefit. As a core aspect of ecological and evolutionary thinking symbiosis affirms the interconnectedness of life within the variety [of] all living things. I wish to use this profoundly important concept as the basis for what I hope will be the next period of Earth history. I argue that The Symbiocene, as a period in the history of humanity of this Earth, will be characterised by human intelligence that replicates the symbiotic and mutually reinforcing life-reproducing forms and processes found in living systems. This period of human existence will be a positive affirmation of life and the love of life."
Albrecht can become overly playful in imagining new words, but his underlying concepts are persuasive.
"We are now closer to understanding how ecosystem parameters can be guided by key players in the system to maximise benefits for the life-chances of whole species. In essence, there is a form of ‘natural justice’ that prevails. We now know that, for example, health in forest ecosystems is regulated by what are called “mother trees” that control fungal networks that in turn interconnect trees of varying ages. The control system works to regulate nutrient flows to trees that need them most, such as very young ones. It also works to transfer information and energy from dying species to those that might continue to thrive, thus maintaining the forest as a larger system."
"How utopian and blindly optimistic is the idea of The Symbiocene? Is it an atavistic fantasy? There are many writers and thinkers who have championed the idea that humans do have the capacity to live in harmony with each other and the rest of life.... Many modern environmental thinkers and writers have reached the same conclusion with the need to express this cooperative side of human nature in ethical and policy principles."
Albrecht is thinking particularly of E.O. Wilson's concept of biophilia and Aldo Leopold's land ethic explored in his book of essays, Sand Country Almanac.
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Paul Erlich writes in Natural History that "E.O. Wilson defines biophilia as ‘the innate tendency [in human beings] to focus on life and lifelike process. To an extent still undervalued in philosophy and religion, our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hopes rise on its currents.’ Scientifically demonstrating this human propensity would be a task beyond the scope of today’s biology, and Wilson wisely eschews that course. Instead, he relies on his own experiences and feelings as a field biologist, cleverly interweaving them with the facts, history, and philosophy of evolutionary biology and an eclectic set of cultural observations.”
Aldo Leopold's land ethic is the subject of one of his essays in A Sand County Almanac, and is usefully discussed on the website of the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Here is a basic description in Leopold's words: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise... We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
In 1923 Rudolf Steiner wrote intriguingly of the community of bees:
"That which we experience within ourselves only at a time when our hearts develop love is actually the very same thing that is present as a substance in the entire beehive. The whole beehive is permeated with life based on love. In many ways the bees renounce love, and thereby this love develops within the entire beehive. You’ll begin to understand the life of bees once you’re clear about the fact that the bee lives as if it were in an atmosphere pervaded thoroughly by love … the bee sucks its nourishment, which it makes into honey, from the parts of a plant that are steeped in love life. And the bee, if you could express it this way, brings love life from the flowers into the beehive. So you’ll come to the conclusion that you need to study the life of bees from the standpoint of the soul" (1923 Prelude 2-3).