Ecologic Crisis & Periodic Comets Notes
The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis
Premise: Humans have long modified environments; the current ecologic crisis is intensified by modern science-technologies and a Western Christian worldview that elevated human dominion over nature.
Anecdotes: Aldous Huxley discussion on human impact; rabbit myxomatosis as an example of human-driven ecological change; other examples include deforestation for shipbuilding and warfare, and urban pollution.
Key historical trajectory: For millennia, humans have shaped ecologies (e.g., Nile valley engineering; Roman/Crusader forest use). In the last ~4 generations, Western Europe and North America fused science with technology, yielding unprecedented environmental power and a new ecological scale.
Ecological science emerges around 1850 as a normal practice; ecology as a concept appears in English around 1873; this fusion marks a major turning point in human history.
Central questions: What should we do about the ecological crisis? Simple fixes are often partial or counterproductive; deeper questions about underlying assumptions are required before action.
Conclusion of the opening argument: The crisis is rooted in fundamental Western assumptions about science, technology, and nature, which themselves arise from Christian patterns of thought about mankind’s relation to creation.
The Western Traditions of Technology and Science
Modern technology and science are distinctly Western in origin; global technology may borrow from many cultures, but successful technology is Western in practice.
Western scientific leadership began well before the Scientific Revolution: as early as AD 1000, water power was applied to industrial processes beyond milling; wind power followed in the late 12th century.
The West developed power machinery, labor-saving devices, and automation; a hallmark is the weight-driven mechanical clock of the early 14th century.
By the end of the Middle Ages, the Latin West outpaced other cultures in basic technologic capacity, enabling overseas expansion and dominance (e.g., Portugal’s East Indies reach).
The typical narrative of science starting with Copernicus and Vesalius is misleading; the distinctive Western science tradition began in the 11th century with translations of Greek and Arabic works into Latin, fostering critical inquiry and empirical observation.
From the 13th century onward, European science increasingly led global knowledge; figures like Newton and Galileo built on earlier medieval scholastic work.
The emergence of science and technology as a united, democratic enterprise helped form a new Western culture, but it also created powerful forces that can overwhelm ecological systems.
The crisis cannot be solved by more science/technology alone; it requires rethinking underlying axioms and cultural assumptions.
Medieval View of Man and Nature
Agricultural revolution: Northern European plow innovations (vertical knife, horizontal share, moldboard) around the 7th–8th centuries made farming far more intense, requiring large plow-teams and pooling resources; land distribution shifted from family-based to capacity-based, changing humanity’s relation to soil.
Visual culture shift: Medieval calendars depict humans actively mastering nature (plowing, harvesting, etc.), reinforcing the idea that man is master of the world.
Religion and ecology: Human ecology is deeply shaped by beliefs about nature and destiny; Christianity, unlike Greco-Roman or many Eastern traditions, tends toward anthropocentrism and an explicit mandate for human dominion over nature.
East vs West: The Greek East emphasized intellectual contemplation; Western Latin tradition emphasized action and moral conduct, making conquest of nature more natural in the West.
Creation theology: Christian creation doctrine posits a God who gave humans the earth and its resources for human use; nature is meaningful primarily as a stage for human purposes; humans are made in God’s image, reinforcing dominion.
Animism and its decline: Pagan nature spirits and animistic reverence declined with Christianity, removing perceived guardians of natural places and enabling more instrumental exploitation of nature.
Natural theology vs science: Early Latin Christian thinkers shifted from reading nature as symbolic scripture to studying the workings of God’s creation; from the 13th century onward, natural theology increasingly aimed to understand how creation operates, paving the way for scientific inquiry.
Religion as motivation for science: For centuries, scientists framed their work as thinking God’s thoughts after Him; this theological impulse contributed to the vigor and direction of Western science, culminating in a religious motive that underpinned early scientific inquiry.
An Alternative Christian View
The crisis challenges the view that simply adding science/technology will fix ecological problems; the root cause lies in Christian attitudes toward nature.
Post-Christian culture still bears Christian axioms: perpetual progress, human supremacy over nature, and a teleology that justifies manipulation of the natural world.
Some alternatives proposed: Zen Buddhism (as a critique or complement) and Saint Francis of Assisi as a radical Christian figure who proposed a different relationship between humans and other beings.
Saint Francis of Assisi: Advocated a radical humility and a democracy of all creatures—Brother Sun, Sister Moon; attempted to depose human monarchy over creation and elevate all creatures as meaningful participants in creation’s praise.
Francis’ approach contrasted with Franciscan doctrine of the animal soul and metempsychosis; his vision emphasized equality among all creatures and reverence for creation.
The author argues that Francis points to a viable ethical direction for ecologists: rethink the human-nature relationship to acknowledge the intrinsic value of all beings.
Conclusion: The ecological crisis has religious roots; there is a need to rethink nature and destiny within a broader spiritual framework, potentially drawing on Franciscan humility and the idea of a natural democracy among creatures.
Implications and Remedies
The remedy requires more than technical fixes; it requires a rethinking of religious and ethical foundations that underlie Western science and technology.
Acknowledging the limits of human dominion and cultivating humility toward nature could help address ecological backlash.
Some contemporary responses (e.g., Zen, Franciscan thought) offer pathways, but any viable solution must be coherent with a historically rooted critique of Christian anthropocentrism.
Saint Francis is proposed as a patron for ecologists to symbolize a new ethical stance toward the natural world.
One Hundred Periodic Comets
Modern observational techniques allow clearer understanding of comets; historical views treated comets as meteorological phenomena predicting disaster.
Tycho Brahe (1577) showed the comet was more distant than the Moon, challenging Aristotelian/Platonic views.
Kepler initially avoided applying planetary laws to comets; later astronomers argued about elliptical vs. parabolic orbits.
Newton established that comets move under gravity along conic sections; Halley linked multiple historical comets (1531, 1607, 1682) as the same body predicting a return around 1758.
Earlier critics (Hoek, 1860s) argued that many comets share similar orbits because they are fragments of a disintegrated parent body, complicating identity checks.
The first well-derived elliptical orbit from observation was generated for a Messier-discovered comet in 1770.
Key concepts:
Elliptical vs. parabolic orbits and the role of eccentricity e: ellipse corresponds to 01.
Orbit determination requires period data to distinguish identical comets from fragments.
Current understanding: Comets are not random travelers; they follow gravity-driven orbits and can be grouped as fragments of longer orbital families.
Implication: The study of comets blends observational astronomy with dynamical theory to reveal the solar system’s history and structure.
Math note: A common form for conic orbits is r( heta) = rac{p}{1 + e\,\cos heta}, illustrating how orbital distance changes with angle for a given eccentricity e and parameter p.