Constructing Green: The Social Structures of Sustainability

Think about 50-year-old car engines. Only a few of them still exist and their use is improbable if not for motor shows or other eccentric exhibitions because of their low efficiency, smoky wastes and costs. In the 1970s, car producers turned their attention to more efficient engines when the energy crisis compelled them to replace older models and adopt continuous technical enhancement practices

Earth system governance. Ruling climate across society

This paper collects notes and reflections emerging from the survey of three volumes published in the Earth System Governance MIT Press series, dealing with issues of world politics, international institutions, consensus, deliberative democracy, and leadership of global governance in the dawn of the Anthropocene. The gathering arguments of the texts discussing the social, cultural, economic, and practice difficulties actually hindering the transition to a viable society worldwide ruled according to safe conditions for the environmental cycles and living beings. Progressively, the series unpacks implications for global-scale governance at the epoch of the ever-increasing impact of men. Authors consider Earth governance offering analytical insights and normative perspectives on the possible implementation modalities, including questions on democratic means and the possible role of national and transnational organizations to achieve sustainability, before the irreversible destruction of the biodiversity wealth constituted on Earth through entire eons

Sam Kean. The Violinist’s Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by our Genetic Code. (New York: Little, Brown & Company 2012)

When looking at the overall history of DNA studies and the investigations into its multiple functions, what is most striking is the recurrence of representations containing references to the laws of mechanics or informatics, identifying genetic information as the source of any biological alterations of living beings. On the other hand, DNA is not a biological mould able to totally determine the destiny of its possessor, even as far as the details of sexual, political, and cultural preferences, or the diseases that will affect health. Such still-dominant mechanistic perspectives concerning such a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon as DNA reveals what are the prevailing visions in science education and information

The laws of nature and the nature of law

Book Review: The Ecology of Law. Toward a Legal System in Tune with Nature and Community, by Fritjof Capra, and Ugo Mattei, Berrett-Koheler Publishers, Oakland (CA) 201

Lev Tolstoy and modern science

Modern Science, an essay written by Lev Nikolàevič Tolstoy in 1898 is here reproduced in its complete version, as a historical document containing philosophical reflections on the practical functions and the cultural and educational role science has, or should have, in contemporary societies. The text was cited by Aldous Huxley in the foreword to Science, Liberty and Peace, a booklet written in 1946 in the aftermath of the second world war, with the threat of nuclear doomsday on the horizon. Are science and technology really at the service of universal needs, as it is continuously claimed – Tolstoy asks, and Huxley echoes – or are their services rather directed to preserving the power of the elites or dominant classes against the multitude of the oppressed

Undersea - Rachel Carson

Originally Published as Rachel Louise Carson (1937). Undersea. Atlantic Monthly, 78:55–6

A second series of visions, perspectives, and experiences

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