[APWG] Ecosystem Restoration: On Humans and Ecosystems

[Gena Fleming]

It has been very encouraging to read all the quality commenary on the topic
of ecosystem restoration and the open mindedness to expand our current
thinking.
I appreciate the receptivity that has been expressed in advance to hearing
from non-professional ecologists.

I think it can be agreed that there is no historical past that we can hope
to restore either environmentally or culturally, at least in the sense of
replication.  Ecosystems, whatever they are, are dynamic and as such must
be free to respond to change in order to maintain their resilience.

I would like to know your feelings about how we might assess the quality of
health of an ecosystem.  I am not proposing a static quantitative checklist
of characteristics.  I agree that I don't think that will work.

I practice Chinese medicine.  Wait, wait, please don't click delete!  I
have had to go through a lot of cognitive changes in order to apply
the logic which is distinct from western medicine.  And the relevance is
that the human body is assessed pretty much in metaphors of climate and
weather, as an inner terrain.  It is also considered in a more contiguous
and open relationship to the surrounding environment.  A cold, for example,
is a "wind invasion".   This integration of the human organism in relation
to her environment is why I have trouble distiniguishing between practicing
medicine and practicing ecology.

There is no killing in Chinese medicine.  We do not *fight* disease,
*beat*depression or
*kill* germs.  Our treatment verbs are *tonify, nourish, resolve, move,
clear, calm*, *release* and *harmonize*.  We do not diagnose much in the
western science sense; rather, we are called on to perceive constellations
of symptoms, "patterns of disharmony".  This is a qualitative assessment.

Essentially, we are looking at the relationship between organ systems and
whether they are functioning in a way that allows health.  This makes
visible what western medicine can not see.  By the same token, we can not
see what western medicine's diagnostic technology can visualize so
clearly.  It is possible to toggle one's vision between these two worlds,
but not always possible or advised to try to see them simultaneously.  It's
a different conceptual filter.
This does not deny the reality of either world view.  Rather one needs to
decide which view best serves one's purpose for any given situation.
Concepts are just conceptual tools and not necessarily true or false.

So one of my points is *meaningful qualitative assessment is possible*.
Qualitative assessment is not just saying whatever you "feel" without
having to justify it.  We know that art curators can be relied on most of
the time to assess the value or origin of a work of art.  There are years
of education and experience that go into being able to make this
qualitative assessment.  It is not based on chemical analysis of paint
pigments (o.k., some of it may be but not the whole thing).  Similarly,
psychologists and many other professions rely on making qualitative
assessments.

1)  Can we recognize that there is validity to qualitative assessment?  If
so, what are the qualities and* functional relationships* we are seeing
when we perceive what we recognize as a functionally healthy ecosystem?

2)  Life transforms.  As living beings, we are an integral part of the
environment and transforming our environment for better or worse no matter
what we do.  We can not separate our lives from the ecosystem.  How can we
find our place in this "more than human" world?   Instead of doing what we
do and trying to figure out how to mitigate those effects, what are some of
the transformations that we could be making that support our lives while
allowing a healthy integrative function with the rest of the living world?

I appreciate your thoughts.

thanks,

Gena Fleming
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