The planet and the painted globe

Journal Article · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Human Dimensions Quarterly

OSTI ID:272780

Rockwell, R C

Some years ago a clever cartoonist drew a puzzled astronaut looking down on an Earth painted like a library globe: blocks of pinks, greens, and blues set off the countries, bold lines clearly delineated boundaries, and countries were identified in large letters. Research on human dimensions of global environmental changes would be so much easier if that cartographer`s globe were real. Unfortunately, what the astronauts have actually seen is a planet from which human politics have seemingly disappeared. They see an Earth on which the human creations of countries and their boundaries are veiled by the natural features of the planet-the oceans, seas, rivers, forests, ice fields, plain, and mountains that were mostly here before anyone thought to draw a national boundary or paint a map. This globe without apparent political demarcations is the natural stage on which environmental changes play. It is not, however, the globe on which social science research is conducted. The human-centered globe of the social sciences has places, cities, and nation-states of which social scientists must take account. How to do so in a manner that permits linkages of social and natural science research is problematic. This article discusses the interactions between these two different types of research in looking at global climate change.

• OSTI ID: 272780
• Journal Information: Human Dimensions Quarterly, Journal Name: Human Dimensions Quarterly Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 1; ISSN XZ492O
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
CLIMATIC CHANGE
ENVIRONMENT
GLOBAL ASPECTS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
SOCIOLOGY