Grasslands, Garbage Islands, and Plastic Trees: Working Towards a Future Ecology

Alec Koppers, master’s student in the Department of Philosophy, will critique the traditional model of ecological restoration. This model focuses on returning an area to its natural "pre-human" state. Implicitly, this model is historically oriented, refers to a state of nature at a specific point in time, occurs after some damage has taken place, and the restoration is done by humans.

Koppers argues that traditional ecology must be abandoned, and what replaces it must be future-oriented. Instead of attempting to recreate the image of what an environment looked like before human contact, we should focus on restoring its relational-based naturalness and the properties composing them. Koppers offers the North American prairie grassland as a case study for future ecology.

This talk is part of the Climate Change Working Group’s events for Climate Emergency Month: Creating a Just and Sustainable Future.

Co-sponsors: Climate Change Working Group and Department of Philosophy.