Richard Kerridge "Ecocriticism" as a scientific study

Ecocriticism is the study of literature

and environment from an

interdisciplinary point of view where

literature scholars analyze the

environment and brainstorm possible

solutions for the correction of the

contemporary environmental situation

and examine the various ways

literature treats the subject of nature.

Environmentalism began to take place in the second

half of the twentieth century, in response to how

dangerous environmental damage had become. This

movement partly grew out of traditions of enthusiasm

for wild nature.

In the late 1980s, reports began to appear of concern

among scientists about climate changes thought to be

occurring due to the increase of carbon dioxide in the

earth’s atmosphere.

Possible consequences are flooding, desertification,

famine, eco-wars over diminishing resources.

There are few single events large enough to shock the

world into action and those are such as the Chernobyl

nuclear power station disaster.

• Ecology is the scientific analysis and study of interactions among

organisms and their environment, such as the interactions

organisms have with each other and with the environment.

• An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and

microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their

environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a

system.

• There are different kinds of ecosystems such as the forest, wetland and

desert land

• Each local ecosystem is in a way large and together form a global

ecosystem called ecosphere or biosphere

• The niche within the ecosystem is the ‘space’ a species

occupies.

• The startling fall in numbers of house sparrows in London, for

example, due to factors not identified, indicates that this bird’s

local niche is disappearing.

• Food chain is an important concept for ecologists investigating

pollution, because of effects such as biomagnification, in which

some poisons become more concentrated as they pass up the

food chain.

• Due to this, it is not always the ‘man’ at the top of the food chain

is affected but the infant is.

• Deep Ecology proposes drastic changes in our habits of consumption.

• ‘Everything is linked to everything else, and, most importantly, the human

mind must be linked to the natural environment.’

~ The Excursion – William Wordsworth