Peak Water studio 1: Terms of debate

Up here at the University of British Columbia, the new semester begins, and so does the Peak Water studio.

On Friday, we will be discussing the following two quotes. The DNP owes a debt of gratitude to Hashim Sarkis for putting their authors on the radar screen.

The first is from Ecological Enlightenment, by sociologist Ulrich Beck, who coined the term “risk society”:

“People have begun to question modernity. It is not that they no longer appreciate its advantages or that they no longer know how to live in and from it. But its premises have begun to wobble. Many people are deeply upset over the house-of-cards character of superindustrialization.”

The second is from The New Ecological Order, by philosopher Luc Ferry, who has what the DNP believes is a thoughtful, empathetic, and critical position vis-a-vis the environmental movement:

“In 1972, in the very serious Southern California Law Review, appeared a long article by Professor Christopher D. Stone entitled: ‘Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects.’ ... Though it seems light years away from our medieval countryside, contemporary California has nonetheless attempted to reinvent the idea of a law of natural beings…”

The DNP will be posting student work and research over the coming months. These quotes are merely intended to set some terms of debate for the students as they wade in.