Inventing for an Anthropogenic Catastrophe

Abstract

THE CATASTROPHE We are facing a tipping point in human evolution, one driven by an ecological catastrophe of our own making. We have affected the Earth in such a profound manner, that scientists constitute the informal designation of the current epoch as the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene arguably began 8000 years ago, when assured access to water began to define human expansion through irrigation and agriculture. While currently 70 per cent of the fresh water extracted is utilised for irrigation, increasing demands over the next century will likely exacerbate the already annual 100 to 400 thousand litre per capita water shortage dilemma. This shortage will be compounded by climate change. When temperatures exceed 25 degrees, rain has to fall continuously to prevent desertification. Warming has already led to a doubling of arid land over the past century, from 15 to 30 per cent. It is posited that a further three degree rise in mean global temperatures would catalyse irreversible changes in atmospheric patterns, leading to failure of the remaining six (of nine) functional ecological regulators identified by scientists to support human life on Earth. By 2090, it is estimated that New Zealand will experience a mean 2.1 degree rise in average temperatures, or be about two thirds of the way to irrevocable environmental collapse. INVENTING Responses to climate change often entail mitigation, as the actions of natural ecologies often escapes common comprehension due to their vast levels of complexity and our inability to fully understand their effects. These contingencies facilitate designs that are reduced to mere mimicry of natural systems, where natural processes are substituted with extravagant and inefficient artificial constructs. The intent of this project is to invoke urgency in the development of integrated ecological systems, by questioning the futility of current contingencies in resisting climate change. The result is Evolution of an Anthropogenic Catastrophe, presented as the third document of this thesis. It explores the evolution of three emergent humanoid species, whose adaptation in partial isolation is driven by pressures of extreme climate change. The site is the Franz Josef Glacier, a frozen river on the West Coast of New Zealand. The glacier is entirely dependent on water ecologies to sustain its growth, including the ocean estuary, rivers and alpine snowfields. These three water ecologies of the glacier form the setting for the development of the three humanoid species. The project is a response to current cultural, social and ecological exigencies; attempting, through the assemblage of social and physical systems, to alter the excessive tendencies of our anthropocentric society against increasingly limited resources.