Fog

The Anthropocene Project. An Encyclopedia

Steaming, evaporating, mixing, particles moving to other forms, changing states. From the smokestacks and chimneys into the clouds or hovering over a cup of hot coffee into your nose. Alas, how weak is the individual in the face of the concatenations and conflicts of the whole blurred thing that leaves such a nasty smell and takes our breath? Facing politics, industry, technology, the forces of nature, the rest of the world? Let us confront this with a particularly new quality of thinking things. Smog for example. Created in part by humanity, a combination of weather conditions and injudicious industry. Or the ozone hole; here we look at cows, meat production and bovine emissions. The solution always comes in small parts: research, demonstrations, bans, filter devices, more vegetarians perhaps. Pressure is clearly essential for any change. Politics and everyday life in this course react biochemically, too, somehow, they definitely react within a process. Hardly predictable and blurry, but we rely too much on prospect and sight anyways. Perhaps we should think foggy. Welcome to the fog of reality.