News

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

One of the many unique capabilities of archaeology is its capacity to make visible things and patterns that otherwise are hard to see. These of course include objects and other remains that are buried; they also include what those objects, remains, and the landscape around them combined can share:  lives and experiences of those not included in written history, events that some parts of society would prefer to forget, and sometimes practices that even in the past were often hidden. 

Which is why I bring an archaeologist’s appreciation to recent reports of the energy and water artificial intelligence (AI) systems are using. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably seeing many of the same AI prompts that I am – chat boxes showing up unbidden in almost every application, offering to take away the effort of thinking or typing.* To be sure, there are applications of AI and machine learning that are useful. These include analysis of the tens of thousands of climate science articles now being published every year, a rate beyond human capacity to read and synthesize directly. But the everyday tools showing up in so many places, they have the allure of simple magic. What isn’t visible at these interfaces are the quantities of energy and water required for each and every interaction: as the Washington Post (see link below) estimates, a bottle of water and 14 hours of an LED lightbulb for a 100 word email generated by ChatGPT.

 Archaeology is part of exposing social systems that we now understand need our active attention to unwind. As we face the challenges of reducing emissions and improving environmental sustainability, this turning of the spade on what lies beneath AI is also useful. 

*Note: I hereby confirm that none of these blog posts have been written with AI.

Featured Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/18/energy-ai-use-electricity-water-data-centers/

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Illustration of the energy usage of a 100-word email generated by ChatGPT shared by the Washington Post at the link above.

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

Sharing news in support of heritage in Ukraine. The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, commonly known as ICCROM, based in Rome, through their program First Aid and Resilience  for Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAR), has completed training of its first class of Ukrainian first aiders for protection of heritage in times of conflict. 

The conflict in Ukraine is a heart-bending case of the complex intersections of heritage, conflict, and climate. In February 2022, I was working with the ICCROM FAR program to complete work from their conference Climate.Culture.Peace when the headline flashed that Putin was claiming historical connections to Ukraine as a pretext for invasion. Within a day, colleagues in Ukraine were reaching out to FAR requesting assistance in protecting their collections, which FAR jumped into providing. In this moving 2023 conversation hosted by the International Coalition for Sites of Conscience, Ihor Poshyvailo from Maidan Museum, Kyiv, in conversation with Hadi Marifat, of the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, describes what it has been like to live through these events and care for his museum. And climate-wise, conflict in Ukraine has reshaped flows of oil and natural gas around the world.

With this new class, FAR moved beyond reaction to building new capacity to care for the heritage of Ukraine during this conflict and other events that may come in the future.

Featured Link: https://www.iccrom.org/news/ukraine-gets-its-first-national-team-cultural-first-aiders-support-cultural-recovery

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Participants providing first aid measures to the Viazivka church in Ukraine, including its decorative elements and historic paintings; credit: ICCROM/Maidan Museum, shared at link above.

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

The 2024 hurricane has been an unusual one. Predicted in the spring to be highly active with large numbers of large storms, there was an unexpected lull mid-August to mid-September, and then a roar back to life with Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton, and others that have followed. Along with immediate and deeply needed practical approaches to disaster preparedness and recovery, the variability of this season should raise our attention to questions of how our society handles long-term risk, tracks longer-running patterns and changes in those patterns, and incorporates memory and experience into our planning for the future.

Which is why this recently released compilation of historic hurricane tracks by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a fascinating resource for research. To which, of course, archaeology should be added. Together these allow consideration of clusters and lulls in hurricane strikes, and consideration of which are remembered, which have been forgotten (a process called landscape learning), and what the effects of both have been on how and where we live now. 

In exploring these questions, I’ve long been inspired by the work of Nicholas Laracuente in the archaeology and hurricane history of Pensacola, FL. Between 1559 and the mid-18th century, European settlers endured several clusters of hurricanes, moving around the bay to find safer locations and letting the Spanish crown know of their struggles. But the area was geopolitically important and pressure to stay was strong. Thus his historical archaeological work allows us to see with a long-term perspective some of the tensions between local environmental experience and other forces that shape our lives.  

Featured Link: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/hurricanes.html

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Screenshot of ca. 150 years of hurricane tracks across the panhandle of Florida listed in the NOAA tool, at link above.

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

Flavor, memory, and words are all connected here. The tropics where vanilla beans are warming and being hit by stronger and longer-lasting cyclones, which is making their cultivation more difficult. And the forests that host the vanilla-bearing orchids are being cut down for other purposes, reducing the already small regions from which vanilla can be naturally produced. A visit to a grocery store shows that vanilla flavor can be produced synthetically, but this article asks the question that will be asked by ice cream lovers, bakers, and nearly everyone else – can artificial vanilla truly stand in for the scent and flavor of real vanilla?

I’m particularly struck by the phrasing at the start of the closing paragraph- “It would be a pity to lose these soothing, warm sensations to something chemically made and one-dimensional, while the real deal gets relegated to the memory bins of an older generation.” Pity feels the wrong word here. To me it denies the depth of experiences with which vanilla is interwoven – which are tangible, intangible, and natural heritage all brought together,  the grief of losing a species, and utterly misses our own role and complicity in the forces that are removing vanilla plants from our world. I won’t go on a full rant about “solastalgia” here, but I will note that, again to me, this word doesn’t do the job either. A word that begins with the sounds and concept of comfort does not convey what is happening. I don’t know what word would work, the ending of -cide may be a place to start. One of the things that archaeologists do is assess both what exists in a place and what doesn’t or is no longer there. So I am bringing that lens here.

Featured Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/04/opinion/vanilla-cooking-climate-change.html

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Illustration of a vanilla bean pod by Scott Semler and shared at link above.

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

Is protection from climate change a human right? The International Court of Justice taking up the issue of climate change and questions of whether and how countries might be held accountable for not taking sufficient action to protect citizens from climate change and uphold pledges they have made for greenhouse gas reductions. A challenge to this is that climate laws should have enforcement mechanisms; if they don’t, that is for legislatures to fix. But there is a role for courts in addressing climate change and this current challenge builds on the more than 2,500 climate litigation cases that have been filed around the world.

Though it is not yet well developed as part of this case or other climate cases, culture and heritage are essential pieces in climate justice. Drawing from this 2023 essay by Adam Markham of the Union of Concerned Scientists, multiple international agreements, beginning with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, speak to the right to “freely participate in cultural life.” As Markham’s essay and the work many archaeological and heritage colleagues is showing, effects of climate change are damaging both places and human connections to archaeology and heritage (a 2022 report compiling these is here). I think it is important we ask – at what point do responsibility for climate change and loss of connection to our past meet in ways that would support or be a point of litigation? 

Featured Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02600-5?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-08-14&utm_campaign=Daily+Briefing+14+08+2024

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: A protester in Brazil calls for ‘climate justice now.’ Photo taken by Adriano Machado/Reuters and shared at link above.

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

At the university level, attention to climate change as a field of study is increasing. As reported in this piece by InsideClimate News, some universities (such Arizona State University and University of California, San Diego) will be requiring students to take courses in climate change, while others (such as Columbia, Stanford, and Harvard) have established climate change schools. A recent $10m gift to Penn State will support their Penn Climate Sustainability Initiative.

 What I look for in each of these initiatives is whether and how social sciences are included. For example, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability highlights the following focus areas: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geophysics, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Earth System Science, Energy Science & Engineering, Oceans, Environmental Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Programs. The Environmental Social Sciences includes behavioral sciences and global environmental policy; there is no visibility for anthropology, archaeology, or history. 

With this in mind, I appreciate InsideClimate News including the observation that “‘Most faculty and students don’t see the relevance of their courses and major areas of concentration to climate change,’ said …Karl Maier, a psychology professor. A lot of work needs to be done to convince people that climate change is interdisciplinary…It does not only have to do with the environment or geology. Sustainability… applies to subjects as varied as economics, psychology, engineering, and sociology.”

A key challenge I see for anthropology and archaeology is to build both outward visibility for the climate connections of these subjects and confidence and connections within the fields to support that. If this blog can help with this in some small way, that’s what I want it to do.

Featured Link: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17082024/aspen-institute-calls-for-systemic-approach-to-climate-education/

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Scene linked to new Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University. Photo provided by Harvard University to InsideClimate News, shared at link above.

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

A new U.S. environmental assessment is underway – the National Nature Assessment (NNA). To date, the U.S. has published five National Climate Assessments and the sixth is now in preparation. The NNA will join this family, assessing not only what we know about our natural environment but how we know it. The initial outline of the NNA is now out for public review and comment and this outline includes, for the first time in these U.S. assessment reports, a titled chapter that considers cultural heritage.

If you’ve been reading this blog so far, it will not be a surprise that I see a need for an assessment with culture and heritage as the central focus. But a titled chapter within the NNA may be a critical starting point for considering and presenting issues, available data, and gaps in knowledge and management. So please review and submit comments if you can.

Topics I will have in mind as I review include:

• Current definitions of archaeology and heritage, how these have changed over time
• How changes in definitions and understandings of archaeology and heritage do and don’t reflect changing understandings of human relationships with the natural world
• Impacts and challenges to archaeology and heritage from climate change and efforts to address it
• Current systems for managing archaeology and heritage in relation to the environment and climate

Resources for thinking include the beautiful essay Trouble with Wilderness by environmental historian William Cronon and a recent study by me on Capacity of the U.S. Federal System for Cultural Heritage to Meet Challenges of Climate Change.

Review comments are due November 4, 2024.

Featured Link: https://www.globalchange.gov/notices/public-comment-nna1-zod

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Image from globalchange.gov announcing the call for review of the National Nature Assessment.

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

A compare and contrast today. Carbon Brief has summarized and assessed recent research about the current potential to limit global warming to 1.5℃. Key conclusion is that, in words of one of the authors, “the technological feasibility of climate-neutrality is no longer the most crucial issue…it is much more about how fast climate policy ambition can be ramped up by governments.”

I would need to hand in my archaeologist stripes if I didn’t note here that this parallels what I understand a century and more of archaeological research and theory to now say about human relationships with environmental change: that what we see as success, change, or so-called “collapse”  in relation to past environmental stress was not determined by that stress alone but rather was an outcome of what people, communities, and societies decided to do in response to that stress. And that such doing has included transitions not only in technology but in relationships between people, place, and power.

In comparison and an example of some of the challenges we face, at about the same time the New York Times published a summary of six major climate tipping points (MR will add gift link closer to time of posting: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/11/climate/earth-warming-climate-tipping-points.html). I tend to lose my power of speech when I consider the potential shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the remaining gaps in governmental action in the same brainspace. Which connects this to the point above. Presentation of these physical environmental tipping points, gorgeous graphics aside, as separate from both the human actions driving them and the human action thresholds necessary to address them is itself a choice, and we should recognize it as such.

Featured Link: https://www.carbonbrief.org/meeting-1-5c-warming-limit-hinges-on-governments-more-than-technology-study-says/

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Closing ceremony of COP28 in Dubai, December 23, 2023. Photo by Mahmoud Khaled, shared at  https://news.mit.edu/2024/reflecting-cop28-progress-toward-meeting-global-climate-goals-0206

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

New legislation! Which at first glance doesn’t look like heritage legislation but has several historic preservation provisions (hat tip to Preservation Action for noting this). It also doesn’t say it’s climate action but if enacted, it could be. 

Bill is the Revitalizing Downtowns and Main Streets Act (H.R. 9002, S. 4963) and it would create a new 20% tax incentive to convert older commercial properties and office space into affordable housing. This approach is modeled on the US Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit program (and this is where I jump up and down and note that action taken to support heritage often can have wider applications and benefits. See also: 1906 Antiquities Act). There are several provisions in the bill that  support and link to preservation of historic buildings. 

On the climate side, climate and carbon aren’t mentioned in these bills. But if you scoot over to the Carbon Avoided Retrofit Estimator (CARE Tool), it’s possible to do some estimations of the carbon that is held (embodied) in the buildings that are to be reused and the carbon emissions that are avoided through doing so. This combination of valuing and reusing existing and historic buildings is brought together in the graceful words of architect Carl Elefante, “the greenest building is the one that is already built.”

Featured Link: https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/hr9002/BILLS-118hr9002ih.pdf

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Screenshot of H.R. 9002 taken on August 29, 2024