Human impact on the environment is global: the influence of humans on the appearance of the planet is already comparable to the processes in the Earth’s core, continental drift, and cosmic catastrophes. The anthropogenic factor is becoming the leading one, and without taking it into account, it is impossible to understand and assess what will happen to the Earth. The level of human impact on nature is also determined by how the changing environment affects the further development of society. Like other writers of environmental history, Mike Davis is concerned with the impact people have on the natural environment and how human interactions with nature change the Earth.
Mike Davis, an American scientist, activist, and writer, provides an unsurpassed critique of the impact of capitalism on urban and natural environments. He has earned a reputation for his impressive volume of publications on the conflictual evolution of Los Angeles and other cities in the 20th century, for example, City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, Magical Urbanism, etc. At the same time, Mike Davis is an urbanist with a deep understanding of radical social theory. In his work Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, he portrays Los Angeles in 1980-1990 as a kind of paradigm. It is a scenario of future development for all cities in the coming decades which should be studied (Davis 25). Davis is side by side with the so-called LA School, in the company of Michael Diar, Ed Soya, and Allen Scott, who developed influential postmodern theories, largely influenced by the changing environment of Los Angeles.
The idea of “mythic California” has had a great impact on Davis. In his Ecology of Fear, the author explores the “artistic destruction” of California through fiction and disaster films (Davis 15). Besides, Davis issues a chilling warning of imminent retaliation from nature as the city grows through a constant assault on the environment. The writer tries to imagine what will happen in the future if negative environmental and urban processes continue. By 2000, Davis has significantly expanded the geographic scope of his analysis, demonstrating the impact of uneven development on urban living conditions using a variety of examples. Davis’s particular interest in nature is beginning to play a central role, reflecting the growing interest in “shock nature” (Davis 38). The author argues that urbanization is destroying the regional ecosystem, triggering earthquakes, fires, and droughts. Moreover, he is showing increasing interest in the so-called neocatastrophism, according to which unexpected natural phenomena have serious consequences for both social and natural history.
It is not a secret that now humanity is living in the Anthropocene, a new geological era that has come after the Holocene. The Holocene lasted for about 11 million years; at this time, climatic changes occurred without the influence of human activities on the climate. The Holocene was characterized by a stable climate and favorable conditions for agriculture. For centuries, mankind has enjoyed these favorable conditions. However, the Anthropocene is rapidly changing the conditions of life on the planet. This new era is marked by a warming trend, the closest analog of which may be the catastrophe known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal. It will lead to the radical instability of the ecosystems of the future (Haslam 23). The main source of anthropogenic influence on the climate is emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, in particular carbon dioxide. The temperature of the world’s oceans has become higher, eternal snow and glacier are melting.
As depicted by many scientists and Mike Davis in particular, extreme natural events are increasingly occurring, such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, and fires. They lead to the destruction of infrastructure, hunger, and the lack of clean water. The combination of extinction and global migration of species with widespread replacement of natural vegetation by agricultural monocultures creates a distinctive modern biostratigraphic signal (Haslam 31). These effects are permanent since future evolution will occur at the expense of surviving species. People exploit all possible resources, and in a few years, the deposits located at a depth of fewer than 100 meters will be almost completely depleted. People invade ecosystems, so that industrial waste and plastic fall into the lava of active volcanoes flowing through populated areas. By its content, it is possible to see how the composition of rocks will gradually change. There are already noticeable traces of plastic in the new deposits. Humanity has invaded almost all ecosystems and this fact has provoked many negative changes in nature.
Mike Davis stresses the scope of tragedy if people do not start changing their attitude to nature right now. The specter of global epidemics caused by urbanization has undoubtedly already appeared. The analysis, which accompanied the public debate during the recent pandemics, has proved the significance of Davis’ research. People are starting to realize their responsibility for her future. The environmental agenda is getting louder every year, and governments and corporations from different countries are joining the voices of a few activists. It is not yet clear how much the necessary changes will cost and how much money and resources people will lose in the future if they do not do something. Therefore, environmental awareness must become a pressing issue for many corporations right now.
Works Cited
Davis, Mike. Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. Vintage, 1999.
Haslam, Gerald W., ed. Many Californias: Literature from the Golden State (2nd ed.). Western Literature, 1999.