Sgarcia

Archives, Herbarium and the Arctic: Biodiversity Preservation at RBGE

On Monday June 26, Emily and I teamed up again and went back to the RBGE, this time to meet one of the staff members responsible for digitisation. We had previously sent her a list of those archival materials we have identified for our project in order to determine which digitisation equipment we would need to use.

By the time we arrived at the library/archive, the material was already prepared and ready for us to use. We briefly explained the rationale behind our choices and how these digital surrogates would fit within the narrative we aim to build.

It was decided, for logistic and technical issues, that the day digitisation workflow would be focused on the specimens collected by Isobel that had not been digitised yet and on a fascinating letter documenting earlier evidences of global warming that I will discuss later.

From the Isobel Wylie Hutchison small collection, we have selected a plant press used by Isobel to dried and flatten collected specimens; a sketch book with some of her drawings; and two herbarium pages with dried specimens containing side personal annotations.  Those annotations are not ‘scientific jargon’, but personal recollection of memories associated with places and people Isobel knew and loved. They are records of what I would poetically call a ‘taxonomy of memories’ and as such, belong to the realm of archives not herbaria.

Although small in number, we believe that these items are powerful tools that will enable us to create new links that open up an invaluable dialogue between collections held by the RBGE, breaking the conceptual separation of objects, textual records (in this case drawings and watercolours) and the specimens and plants. Searching on two log books for incoming plants, we located two entrances which recorded some of the specimens sent by her to the RBGE from the Arctic.

Once we digitise these book entrances we aim to link them with the living collection and then geo-reference and plot them to our ESRI story map, which will create a digital expedition map. Further synergies will be creating using Google Earth, which will enable users to interact with the map and find the exact locations where the plants where collected. By using satellite imagery of the areas explored by Isobel alongside old photographs and documents, a compelling new narrative will emerge. The story map will be not only a window to the past but also a window to our present, and a reminder of what it is at stake for planetary survival.

The Arctic preservation is a pressing matter since the effects of global warming in the Arctic  are already altering weather patterns and will have a terrible impact on a global scale. The anthropogenic induced global warming caused by highly industrialized countries knows not precedent in human story. It is threating biodiversity through uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources and modification of ecosystems functions. Biodiversity is a key factor underpinning social and economic sustainability as recognised and ratified by the  Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD Secretariat, 2007).

In their infancy, botanic gardens were physic gardens were medicinal plants played a key role and a mean to connect humans with the natural world around them, a mean to apprehend and expand human knowledge. Imperialism and colonialism era brought a new political dimension to plants collections. Plants, in fact, are important cultural artefacts at the centre of political and economic struggles[1]. Specimen and seeds were sent from distant and exotic lands, transforming botanical gardens into trade centers.

Nowadays, Botanic Gardens have evolved and their goals expanded to include protecting plants biodiversity and long-term preservation of plant specimens. The Herbaria are our custodians of plants and seeds diversity, essential for human and non-human survival. They are Holy of Holies of natural wonders, the Ark for seeds and plants.  Further available information on the collaborative and interdisciplinary lines of research led by the RBGE on biodiversity preservation can be found in here.

Biodiversity science provides a framework for the research of the links between the physical phenomenon of global warming and the subsequent impacts on human and non-human communities. The global climate and Earth’s ecosystems are changing and scientists need to measure linkages between atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial processes to properly study and understand the phenomena. Earth science disciplines generate floods of their respective data, as well as models and assumptions and new technologies enable those different models to be compared. The data is mostly digitally born, generated by sensors, radars or satellites but the historical data and field data are now being digitised [2]. Two interesting projects on digitization and preservation of old paper weather records are Weather Wizard and Old Weather.

For our delight, the RBGE’ s archivist located for us an extremely interesting document dated 1860. It is a letter sent by Oswald Heer to Joseph Dalton Hooker in which former documented earlier evidences of warmed climate in the past.

Interesting enough, some of Oswald Here’s work on fossil plants covered the same geographic area –Arctic- at the same time as Countess of Dalhousie were collecting and sending specimens to RBGE.

We have selected as well two log entrances that recorded the incoming plants collected and sent by the Countess of Dalhousie to be digitised as well. As with Isobel’s, plants from the living collection will be mapped and geo-located. Both historical records will show the evolution of and shifts on recordkeeping practices within the RBGE, from paper-based records to databases.

Meanwhile Soph’s tasks were concentrated on locating further related material held by other repositories to expand Isobel’s narrative beyond the RBGE. The Royal Society of Geography of Edinburgh holds an important collection, and her films are deposited on the Moving Image Archive based in Glasgow, although the institution does not hold the rights. Soph is getting in touch with the rights holders to investigate the possibilities of a very much desired integration of some of these material within our project.

[1] For some context on the historical role of botanical  gardens see: Powledge, Fred, ‘The Evolving Role of Botanical Gardens, Hedges against Extinction, Showcases for Botany?’, BioScience 61: 743–749.

Londa L. Schiebinger, ‘Feminist History of Colonial Science’, Hypatia, 1, 2004, p 236. In her paper, Schiebinger highlights how in the West Indias of the eighteenth century, plants played a major role in political struggles surrounding slavery.  Her paper is a fascinating work on how gender relation in Europe and the colonies shaped collecting practices.

[2] James R. Hunt, Dennis D. Baldocchi, and Catherine Van Ingen,  ‘Redefining Ecological Science Using Data’ . In the Forth Paradigm: Data- Intensive Scientific Discovery, ed. Hey, Tony, Tansley, Steward and Tolle Kirstin, (Microsoft Research, Washington 2019),  p. 21-23.

yunhyongkim

Project wrap up: “Harvesting Collections for Social and Scientific Benefit”

From October 2016 to October 2017, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, and University of Aberdeen collaborated on a project funded by the Scottish Crucible, to look at the Hebarium Collection at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to:

  • Support narratives that connect the scientific collection to datasets outwith the immediate area of research (for example, other sciences, government records, and/or social media);
  • Enable fine-grained narratives interacting with lesser understood specimen, collectors, geography and time periods, and;
  • Investigate practices in long-term digital preservation that better support narrative discovery.

Several narratives were created focusing on the collectors Isobel Hutchison, Ian Hedge, and Bill Burtt. The project clearly brings the social and scientific value of the Herbarium to the forefront by illustrating its connection to political, geographical, and/or natural climate change in multiple places (e.g. Afghanistan, Malaysia, Artic Alaska) across the globe.

Please feel free to explore our stories:

Thank you to the whole project team across University of Aberdeen, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and University of Glasgow for their work beyond the call of duty, and thank you to the Scottish Crucible for supporting the project.

Sgarcia

A Fractal World

 

While digging into papers and publications on databases, archives, botanical science, digital data etc, it became evident that the irruption of digital technologies have impacted our perception of the nature of records and their quality as evidence. The use of natural analogies to describe the ephemeral condition of all human endeavours has been extended to the digital realm.  Meanwhile, new technologies of information process and distribute human ‘archived’ memory creating ‘neuronal paths’.

Digital data is constantly poured into databases, which in return have been declared to be the preeminent cultural form of post-industrial era. It has been suggested that fractals may be the most useful imaginary to describe databases. For Dimock fractal database ‘comes as a spectrum, ranging from the microscopic to ‘phenomena on or above Man’s scale’.  He defines fractal as ‘a geometry of what loops around, what breaks off, what its jagged, what comes only in percentages’. [1]

Fractals are endless complex patterns created by constantly repeating a simple process in an infinitely loop. The complexity of many nature’s shapes is fractal: from trees, rivers, coastlines, mountains, seashells etc.[2] Since nature has constituted a source of inspiration for artist, the fractal geometry of nature is found in art through centuries and across cultures.

There is growing interests in the possibilities of using fractal geometry in biology for classification etc. For instance, its opportunities and challenges are discussed in ‘Images Processing in Biology Based on the Fractal Analysis’.

Paul Bourker, a computer scientists at the University of Western Australia, helped by contributors, has assembled a collection of 45 maps. By zooming out Google Earth images, landscapes show fractal patterns. Although not infinitely uniform –as mathematical fractals-, they do replicate themselves across smaller range of scales.

 

[1] Ed Folsom, ‘Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives’, PMLA, v.122, 5, Special topic: Remapping Genre, (2007), p. 1573-1575.

Wai Chee Dimock, Trough Other Continents: American Literature across Deep Time, (Princeton: Princeton UP,2006), pp.76-77.

[2] http://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-are-fractals/

 

Sgarcia

Biodiversity Science and Climate Change

We are approaching a crossroad or perhaps we are already in the midst…

The Western industrialization and globalisation have become the main force of change of the Earth climate systems, endangering the life on this planet as we know it. The global increase of temperatures is directly behind biodiversity loss and disruption of ecosystem functions. Extreme weather patterns have devastating effects on human and non-human environments and will keep causing massive exodus of people while armed conflicts will escalate for the control of natural resources.

It is becoming increasingly more evident that this stage of late capitalism will need at the very least to be adjusted, or perhaps even totally –and ideally -transformed into a sustainable, eco-friendly and fairer new economic system, are we to address the social impacts and ecological degradation left behind for such a predator system.

As Oreskes and Conway points out ‘when human begun to burn fossil fuels, no one intended to create global warming.  But they (and we) did’.[1] And we are paying the toll. The most recent scientific literature has concluded that ‘if all human carbon emissions were to stop tomorrow, the earth would still warm at least another 0.5°C. But emissions will not stop tomorrow, so the “climate commitment” we have already made to future warming is much larger –most likely 2-3° C or more, and perhaps substantially more’.[2] The planet is experiencing its sixth great extinction event and the first caused by natural phenomena unlashed by a biological entity, modern industrialised humans.

For the overwhelming majority of research scientists, climate change ‘is no longer a prediction, but an observation’; and the scientific community wide consensus on climate change as a global and acute problem started as early as 1979.[3]

The study of climate change and its repercussions require the ability to acquire, manage and make available data from many Earth science disciplines, with their respective models and assumptions. In fact, the ability to address complex scientific questions is contingent upon scientist managing and sharing data, especially as new online computational tools emerge.[4]

One key Earth science is Biodiversity science and the botanic gardens are at the forefront of planetary biodiversity protection. For instance, the RBGE’s statistical models calculate the impacts of climate anomalies on biodiversity, singling out species or vegetation types which are more directly threatened by global warming and need therefore faster responses in order to protect them.  Since the impact of climate change on biodiversity is also predicted by population genetic mechanisms, the RBGE is leading several research, including, cryptogam projects, molecular projects, flora projects, and phenology projects.

Botanic gardens archives and herbaria are essential tools for Earth science research as well. Herbaria specimens are preserved as from its location at the time of collection and can allow scientists to asses any climatic change produced since when compared with other locations and specimens. Historical records (including herbaria) and the context of their creation enable us to acquire not only the level of understanding of climate changes triggers and processes, but also to envision long-term sustainable solutions for the planetary crisis.

Environmental records present several challenges. They are voluminous and contain a sheer amount of information spanning years of scientific observation. What scientists seek are the patterns that emerge from their accumulative nature when viewed longitudinally. Environmental records are especially obscure for those not educated in the science. Many of them are packed with more data than any other type of record, and the content are often technical specially if the records are digital. Without a knowledge on the contextual creation (scientific process), those records could not be properly understood.[5] Loewen rightfully connects ‘our longstanding neglect of the consideration of the whole, or context’, and the ‘deplorable state of the environment –and of archives’.[6]

So, scientific datasets need to be interpreted, mediated and poetically liberated for the use of diverse communities.  As Benson reminds us, in front of the ‘dataset lies not chains of reference’ but ‘chains of significance’, comprising a series of meditating devices, practices, and institutions that render that data valuable in particular ways and for particular purposes. But for the dataset to become a matter of public concern, ‘a new assemblage of mediating devices and practices must be constructed’.[7] For this reason, Earth scientists are attempting new strategies for reaching and mobilising public support.

Digital humanities, environmental humanities, scientific and IT community are working together to present scientific evidences of climate change in a more dynamic, attractive, inclusive and creative way. As a result, new powerful ways of communicating inclusive and engaging narratives are emerging.

Among some of the projects that recently have made good use of big data to visualise global warming issues are: NASA’s Climate Time Machine;  Migrations in Motion (showing forced migration fluxes of mammals, birds and amphibians  caused by their disrupted habitats and ecosystems);  Ed Hawkins’ climate spirals of carbon dioxide emissions since 1850; NASA’s Earth Observatory: Ice Age Animation; 160 years of weather observation etc.  Recently, Finnish researcher Antti Lipponen released, ‘Temperature anomalies arranged by country 1900–2016’, a video in which through radial patterns of lines running from blue to hot red, global increase of temperatures is displayed thought years.  In his blog, a list of visualisation resources created by different organizations working on climate change are provided.

Only a well-informed public can change the destructive tide sweeping our planet. Digital curation is essential for preserving and promoting collections and data, providing long-term access to born-digital and digitised records and collections. By social media, digital curators can reach and engage with communities and public from diverse backgrounds.

There is a global trend towards interdisciplinary work in research and curation projects and digital humanities includes not only humanities and technology but also library and information science, computer science, systems and records management and archival science.  ‘Harvesting Collections for Social and Scientific Benefit: Hidden Stories at the Herbarium of RGBE’ brought together digital humanities and botanical science. More than ever, Botanic Gardens need attract wider audiences and connect them with nature. The planetary survival is at stake. It is crucial that we all get this grim data right. And then act consequently.

 

[1] Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, ‘How Climate Science Became a Victim of the Cold War’, in Agnotology: The Making & Unmaking of Ignorance, eds. Robert N. Proctor & Londa Schiebinger, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008), p. 79.

[2] Ibid, p.57.

[3] Oreskes and Conway, pp.58-59. In 1995, the IPCC conclude that the impact on climate from human activities were perceptible. The same evidences that lead to those conclusions resulted in the United Nations ‘earth summit’ in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which led to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The National Academy of Science commissioned a study led by Jule Charney, a distinguished MIT meteorologist. His committee concluded that ‘If carbon dioxide continues to increase, [we] find no reason to doubt that climate changes will result, and no reason to believe that those changes will be negligible. U.S. National Academy of Science, “Carbon Dioxide and Climate Change: A scientific Assesment’ (Charney report), 1979.

[4] Kimberly Douglass, Suzie Allard, and others, ‘Managing Scientific Data as Public Assets: Data Sharing Practices and Policies Among Full-Time Government Employees’, Journal of Association for Information Science and Technology’, 65 (2): 251–262, 2014, p.250-253.

See also: Carol Tenopir, Elizabeth D. Dalton, and others, ‘Changes in Data Sharing and Data Reuse Practices and Perceptions among Scientists Worldwide’, PLoS ONE 10, 8 (2015), p.2-4.

[5] Candace Loewen, ‘From Human Neglect to Planetary Survival: New Approaches to the Appraisal of Environmental Record’, Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92), p.90, <http://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/11801> [accessed September 2017]

[6] Ibid, p.87.

[7] Ettienne Benson, ‘Ecologies of Data Part III: Circulating Significance in Civic Hacking’, PPEH LAB, <http://www.ppehlab.org/blogposts/2017/3/23/ecologies-of-data-part-iii-circulating-significance-in-civic-hacking> He adds that ‘just as chains of reference give scientists confidence that the numbers and images they are manipulating in the laboratory will tell them something about the world, these devices and practices give members of the public ways of making data meaningful in their own lives’.

Sgarcia

The RBGE: Custodians of Planetary Biodiversity

The human imprint on Earth has become so pervasive that in 2000, a new term was introduced by Paul Cruzten and Eugene Stoermer for coining a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The Industrial Revolution would represent the starting point for the new era in Earth history.[1] The term is widely and informally used nowadays, although it has sparked a heated debate within the scientific community.[2] Although, from a geological point of view it might be more difficult to defend the term, its philosophical and political implications are more evident and easier to grasp.

From an environmental point of view,  uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, industrial farming, monocrops, unsustainable use of lands, deforestation, pollution and global warming are causing an unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Seven out of ten biologists affirm that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction or Holocene extinction. It is the fastest extinction in the 4.5-billion-year history of the planet.[3]

For Nick Bostrom, the human beings would remain complacent about its devastating history and future as long as it continues to forget that its situation is, indeed, catastrophic. For him, this self-destructive tendency prey on the human relation between destruction, memory and the future of life.[4]  We humans, seem to forget what Stengers reminds us: ‘What we call a catastrophe will be, for 
it, a contingency. Microbes will survive, as well as insects, whatever we let loose (…) From the viewpoint of the long history of the Earth itself, this will be one more ‘contingent event’ in a long series’[5]. And it is precisely planetary historical perspective what we need. As an upright hominid species, the homo sapiens have dwelled this planet Earth for a fraction of a second.  Our history is as short as a blink from a cosmic perspective.

The relationship of many aboriginal peoples to nature was- and still is- holistic. The nature had/has intrinsic values not merely instrumental, and the world was/is perceived as an organism. Nowadays environmental historians are looking for ways of making history of humankind more inclusive, telling us to pay attention to a this holistic, inclusive view. Otherwise what is left is an incomplete and fragmented human history.[6]

But, the Scientific Revolution changed the perception of a holistic universe where spirit and nature constituted a unity, into a fragmented, compartmentalised one, composed of mechanic parts. As Loewen argues, the ideology of mastery over nature, based on mechanistic exploitation of its individual parts, undermined the idea of nature as living entity. Things value moved from organic and inclusive- ‘contextual’-to fragmentary and exclusive.[7] The Industrial Revolution exacerbated the cult of the machine as a measure of man’s achievement and self-definition for Europeans, in their cross-cultural encounters. As Oldenziel argues, such taxonomy of the material world marginalized excluded groups, becoming agent of gender and race differentiation, at times used in arguments against women’s rights or to justify Western domination of others cultures.  She adds that fetishism of commodities was closely related to the industrial capitalism.[8]

New environmental philosophers are calling for a new environmentalism less focus on nature’s intrinsic value and more on an enlightened anthropocentrism that acknowledge the myriad ways in which human life depend on non-human beings. This ontological shift will prevent environmentalism from marginalise the needs and interests of vulnerable human beings: poor and indigenous populations.[9] This new approach conflates with the critiques to the Anthropocene term, namely: by attributing the destruction of nature to a collective entity loosely defined as ‘humanity’, the Anthropocene displace our attention from the evident inequalities of responsibilities between human beings. Especially those inequalities arising from geography and wealth.[10]

Human and nature factors are intimately interconnected and biodiversity is an essential factor for guaranteeing social and economic sustainability, as recognised and ratified by the Convention on Biological Diversity. As such, biodiversity preservation needs to be considered part of any meaningful discussion about global social justice, and of course planetary survival.

The political dimension of plants spans from food sovereignty and security, energy, climate change and global environmental health. Plants are a renewable but finite resources[11], and as such, uncontrolled, unbalance and unfair use of them are putting at risk human communities and natural environments.  At the heart of social and environmental justice lie a sustainable and respectful use of natural resources. Neoliberal globalization has jeopardised food availability and distribution in developing countries. As global warming, plant biodiversity possesses a postcolonial geopolitical dimension.

Since biodiversity loss is a by-product of neoliberal globalization and has global impacts, tackling it requires international collaborations. The conservation tasks and scientific research carry on by botanic institutions are crucial for the survival of life on Earth as we know it, including humans –and non-humans.  The Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a global plant conservation network of 500 botanic gardens from more than 100 countries.  Several international frameworks have been developed to inform countries on national policies and resources allocation for meeting environment goals, such as The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), three international agreements sprung from the UN Conference on Environmental and Development (UNCED) –the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The international Agenda for Botanic Gardens  in Conservation (second edition) can be found here.

Documenting plant diversity is essential for conservation purposes and the RBGE’s is contributing to the goals of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. Through international collaboration the RBGE is documenting plants of certain regions or countries, providing conservation assessments. The Inventory research in threatened areas can be found in here. For more information on plant conservation tasks see conservation at RBGE.

The RBGE are using large-scale floristic, environmental and land-use datasets to document and research the impact of global environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystems. The aim of these line of work is to inform conservation policies and land use planning. For the RBGE’s work on Ecology and Global Environmental Change, see here. Using a plant metaphor, Ecology and Global Environmental Change branches out from the RBGE’s Genetics and Conservation section. The other two branches are Molecular Ecology and Conifer Conservation.

A long understanding of the environment is vital –understanding that can only be attained by looking at historical records, including herbaria specimens. The Herbarium at the RBGE possess a worldwide collection of about 3 million specimens of plants and fungi. Covering over 300 years of plant diversity, the Herbarium is a reference institution in which scientists around the world conduct their research. Its collection continues to grow by up to 30,000 specimens each year and about 4,000 specimens are sent out on loan to other institutions. Alongside the dry mounted specimens, the herbarium holds a spirit collection of over 7,000 specimens and a carpological collection.

The idea of the “fourth paradigm” of scientific research is based on data-intensive, cross-domain research where collaborative and distributed networks of researchers work together to tackle scientific research problems[12]. But scientific data needs to be interpreted and mediated for the use of local and global communities.  As we have seen climate change, trade and industrial farming are modifying ecosystems and destroying biodiversity, causing species extinction.  More than ever, botanic gardens need to reach wider audiences, placing the symbiotic co-dependant human-nature relation and the vital role of plants as guarantors of planetary survival at the heart of a new system of values.

 

[1] Steffen, Grinevald and Crutzen, Paul and others, ‘The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives’, Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society, 369, 842-867.

[2] Many geologists have criticised the idea, arguing that for applying geologic-time terms, boundaries need to be clearly defined as shown in the rock strata. See <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/>  [accessed September 2017]

The term is still under evaluation and consideration, and information on the Working Group on the Anthropocene can be found in here:<https://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/workinggroups/anthropocene/> [accessed September 2017]

[3] Steger, Manfred B., Globalization. A very Short Introduction, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p.87. See also, Steffen, Grinevald and Crutzen, ‘The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives’, Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society, 369, 842-867, p. 850.

For a list of studies on Holocene extinction see: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction> [accessed September 2017]

Holocene extinction has been widely comment on mainstream outlets such as:<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/oct/20/the-four-horsemen-of-the-sixth-mass-extinction > [accessed September 2017]

[4] Brostom, Nick, ‘The Fable of the Dragon Tyrant’, Journal of Medical Ethics, 31.5: 273-277. In ‘Framing the End of the Species: Images without Bodies’, Death of the PostHuman, Essays on Extinction, vol. I, by Claire Colebrook, p.13.

[5] Isabelle Stengers, The Invention of Modern Science, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), p.144.

[6] Candace Loewen, ‘From Human Neglect to Planetary Survival: New Approaches to the Appraisal of Environmental Records’, Archivaria 33, (1991-92), 87-103, p. 93.

[7] Ibid, pp.88-89.

[8] Ruth Oldenziel, ‘Object/ions: Technology, Culture, and Gender’, in Learning from Things: Method and Theory of Material Culture Studies, ed. W. David Kingery (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996), p.56.

[9] Gregory Koutnik, ‘Environment as Home (for Humans and Non-humans)’, PPEH Lab, March 1, 2017<http://www.ppehlab.org/blogposts/2017/3/1/environment-as-home-for-humans-and-nonhumans> [accessed September 2017]. He adds that in securing or restoring habitats for intrinsically valuable nonhuman beings, especially those privileged by the Global North, wilderness preservation risks causing the eviction of humans from their homes. He cites the work of environmental philosopher Bryan Norton, environmental historian William Cronon, and those of Bill McKibben, Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton and Yogi Hendlin. Koutnik acknowledges that most. See also: Darren Chang, ‘Reflections on Angry Inuk: White Animal Saviour (Industrial) Complex and the Perpetuation of Colonial Domination’, PPEH Lab, March 18, 2017: <http://www.ppehlab.org/blogposts/2017/3/18/1y0q4mmk9vzjfe135r5cbdv0pljwox> [accessed August 2017].

[10] Haraway, Donna, ‘Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin’ Environmental Humanities, v.6, (2015),159-165, <http://environmentalhumanities.org/arch/vol6/6.7.pdf> [accessed August 2017]

[11] Emma Frow and others, ‘The Politics of Plants’, Food Security, v. 1, 1, , p. 17-23,  (2009),p. 17.

[12] Kimberly Douglass, Suzie Allard, and others, ‘Managing Scientific Data as Public Assets: Data Sharing Practices and Policies Among Full-Time Government Employees’, Journal of Association for Information Science and Technology’, 65 (2): 251–262, 2014, p.250-253