2 results
13 - The Anthropocene and Criminological Theory
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
-
- Book:
- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 June 2023
- Print publication:
- 21 November 2022, pp 53-56
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Extensive resource extraction serving a fast-growing global human population has, on the one hand, brought about rapid economic growth and prosperity, whilst on the other hand has caused climate change, pollution, destruction of ecosystems and species extinction. As a result, a geological transition is underway in which the earth is shifting out of the Holocene epoch (that is, time since the last ice age) to a post-Holocene era. This new era is characterized by degraded environmental conditions that differ significantly from the ‘safe operating space’ (see Rockström et al, 2009) that humans, along with all other species, have depended upon for their wellbeing and survival. A proposed term to identify this new era, the Anthropocene, emphasizes how humans have impacted these developments as they transitioned from being ‘insignificant animals’ to being a significant ‘geological force’ (Holley and Shearing, 2018) over the past couple of centuries.
Ontological and epistemological developments that recognize the human/non-human entanglements that the Anthropocene foregrounds, have challenged conceptions that posit the existence of two sui generis realities, namely a social world studied by social science and a natural world studied by natural sciences, in favour of a single socio-material reality. In understanding the rapidly increasing impact of human activities on the natural world, considerable attention has been paid to urban-based industrialization – particularly the extraction and use of fossil fuels – and its effects on global climate change and rising sea levels.
Less front and centre have been the broadly conceived ‘rural’: countryside and ocean-based industrial developments such as extensive land and ocean-based harvesting of minerals (industrial-scale mining) and food production through industrial-scale fishing, as well as industrial-scale agriculture and aquiculture. This (over)harvesting of resources has been facilitated by the largely uncoordinated and poorly regulated use of a plethora of technological advancements, most recently artificial intelligence. Technological advancements have also been employed to mitigate or adapt to the effect of humanity’s ever-increasing consumption of natural resources.
These planetary developments have profoundly changed rural terrains, and the non-human and human lives that exist within them. For example, lifestyles associated with agriculture and aquaculture have been fundamentally impacted as food production methods have become increasingly industrialized; a development that has negatively impacted biodiversity.
Nonhybrid Progeny from Crosses of Dioecious Amaranths: Implications for Gene-Flow Research
- Federico Trucco, Danman Zheng, Andrew J. Woodyard, Jared R. Walter, Tatiana C. Tatum, A. Lane Rayburn, Patrick J. Tranel
-
- Journal:
- Weed Science / Volume 55 / Issue 2 / April 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 January 2017, pp. 119-122
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Large proportions of nonhybrid progeny result from controlled crosses between Palmer amaranth and common waterhemp, both dioecious weeds. Agamospermy was proposed as an explanation for this phenomenon, and here we provide evidence in support of this hypothesis. We evaluated 60 nonhybrid offspring from two interspecific crosses, and all plants were females and had DNA content values similar to the female (Palmer amaranth) parent. Among nine hybrids resulting from these crosses, eight were nonviable (lethal or neuter), and only one hybrid allowed for continued gene movement. Cytogenetic evaluation of this hybrid revealed triploidy, further supporting the occurrence of unreduced gametes in these species. In light of this new evidence, we examine earlier data regarding Palmer amaranth by common waterhemp hybridization and suggest some prior conclusions may be premature.