Pollution is everywhere, in that ancient Greek sense of miasma: guilt experienced as abject body fluid, moral pollution defining what kinds of beings count in social space.
Timothy MortonRead
I grew up in a haunting postindustrial landscape where prehistoric ferns grew among tens of railway tracks surmounted by brilliant arc lights where birds nested and sang in the dead of night, because for them, it was day.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the juxtaposition of natural beauty and industrial decay.
Timothy Morton's quote paints a vivid picture of a landscape shaped by industrialization, yet simultaneously teeming with life and nature. It suggests that amid the remnants of man's impact on the earth—evident in the railway tracks and artificial lights—nature continues to thrive and adapt, symbolizing resilience and beauty even in a 'haunting' environment.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of environmental conservation, this quote can illustrate how nature endures and adapts despite human intervention.
Pollution is everywhere, in that ancient Greek sense of miasma: guilt experienced as abject body fluid, moral pollution defining what kinds of beings count in social space.
The trouble with ecological invocations of Nature is that they're like calling for a medieval tool, perhaps a portcullis or an arrow slit, to fix a modern problem.
The ecological crisis we face is so obvious that it becomes easy...to join the dots and see that everything is interconnected. This is the ecological thought. And the more we consider it, the more our world opens up." The ecological thought "...is a vast, sprawling mesh of interconnection without a definite center or edge. It is radical intimacy, coexistence with other beings, sentient and otherwise.
If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months.
I pledge allegiance to the soil _x000D_ of Turtle Island, _x000D_ and to the beings who thereon dwell _x000D_ one ecosystem _x000D_ in diversity _x000D_ under the sun _x000D_ With joyful interpenetratio n for all.
My heart is in a world of water and crystal, My clothes are damp in this time of spring rains.
Perhaps walking is best imagined as an 'indicator species,' to use an ecologist's term. An indicator species signifies the health of an ecosystem, and its endangerment or diminishment can be an early warning sign of systemic trouble. Walking is an indicator species for various kinds of freedom and pleasures: free time, free and alluring space, and unhindered bodies.
To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
The Rose is without 'why'—she blooms because she blooms.
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