Becoming a Place of Unrest: Environmental Crisis and Ecophenomenological Praxis

289 Pages·2021·0.986 MB·English

by  Robert Booth

ROBERT
BB O OO T HH
BECOMING A
PLACE OF UNREST
ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS AND
ECOPHENOMENOLOGICAL
PRAXIS
SERIES IN CONTINENTAL THOUGHT
Becoming a Place of Unrest
SERIES IN CONTINENTAL THOUGHT
Series Editor Hanne Jacobs
Editorial Board
Hanne Jacobs, Chair, Tilburg University
Michael Barber, Saint Louis University
Elizabeth A. Behnke, Study Project in Phenomenology of the Body
David Carr, Emory University (Emeritus), The New School for Social Research
James Dodd, The New School for Social Research
Sara Heinämaa, University of Jyväskylä, University of Helsinki
William R. McKenna, Miami University
Algis Mickunas, Ohio University (Emeritus)
J. N. Mohanty, Temple University (Emeritus)
Dermot Moran, Boston College
Thomas Nenon, University of Memphis
Rosemary Rizo-Patron de Lerner, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima
Gail Soffer, Rome, Italy
Ted Toadvine, Pennsylvania State University
Nicolas de Warren, Pennsylvania State University
Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University (Emeritus)
International Advisory Board
Albert Borgmann, University of Montana
Amedeo Giorgi, Saybrook Institute (Emeritus)
Alphonso Lingis, Pennsylvania State University (Emeritus)
David Rasmussen, Boston College
John Sallis, Boston College
Carlo Sini, Università di Milano
Becoming a Place of Unrest
...................................
Environmental Crisis
and Ecophenomenological Praxis
R o b e r t B o o t h
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS ATHENS
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Booth, Robert, 1983– author.
Title: Becoming a place of unrest : environmental crisis and ecophenomenological
Praxis / Robert Booth.
Description: Athens : Ohio University Press, [2021] | Series: Series in continental
thought ; no. 55 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021003011 (print) | LCCN 2021003012 (ebook) | ISBN
9780821424568 (acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780821447420 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental sciences—Philosophy. | Nature—Effect of human
beings on. | Environmental ethics. | Phenomenology.
Classification: LCC GE40 .B675 2021 (print) | LCC GE40 (ebook) | DDC
304.2/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003011
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003012
For Wilson, Elkie, and the promise of something better

C O N T E N T S
...................................
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
1 Perception and Unrest 22
2 Ecofeminism and Ecophenomenology 63
3 Seeing Better 90
4 The Specter of Correlationism 140
5 Androcentrism, Nondiscursive Grounds,
and the Hyperdialectic 160
6 Radical Reflection, Reversibility, and the Flesh 189
“Conclusions”; or, Becoming a Place of Unrest 221
Notes 233
References 251
Index 265

P R E F A C E
...................................
I write this as the Himalayas become visible from India for the first time in
three decades and most of the world’s major cities report huge improvements
in air quality (Boyle 2020). These changes reflect dramatic reductions in air pol-
lutant concentrations from traffic and factory emissions. But none of this im-
provement is the result of some sudden environmentalist awakening. It stems,
rather, from restrictive public health measures imposed in response to a global
pandemic. It’s frustratingly commonplace, therefore, to read of such changes
described as “temporary,” even by parties such as the United Nations Confer-
ence on Trade and Development who appear otherwise optimistic about the
possibility of making substantive improvements (Hamwey 2020). For all the
talk of “building back better” (Institute for Public Policy Research 2020, 14),
optimism among experts that this is the beginning of some global sea change
toward environmentally responsible attitudes and behaviors is in short supply.
Even setting aside the pandemic’s own unwelcome results (e.g., huge in-
creases in unrecyclable waste and greenhouse gas emissions), the global pic-
ture is worse than ever. Limiting ourselves to climate change, for instance,
scientists estimate that human activities have now caused a mean global tem-
perature increase of 1 degree Celsius over preindustrial levels. The rapid ac-
celeration of anthropogenic emissions over the past ten years, which ensures
rising temperatures to come, shows little sign of slowing. Even in the now
increasingly unlikely event that we act to limit mean global temperature rises
to 1.5 degrees Celsius (as per the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious goal),
over the next few decades, 350 million people will suffer water scarcity, 80–90
percent of coral reefs will disappear, 69 million people will experience sea
flooding, and 14 percent of the world’s population will be exposed to ex-
treme heat. Much of this is already well underway (Hamwey 2020; Steffen,
Crutzen, and McNeill 2007; Steffen et al. 2018; Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change 2018).