Global Warming, Earthly Disasters, the Moon and Mars: Transfers of Knowledge (TOK) The American Problem

Abstract

[Abstract] Global warming, disasters in increasingly more populated and infrastructure'd regions of the world, the decline side of oil, and the space endeavor are part of the overarching problem of the expansion of the human ecology. The onset of the Anthropocene Epoch and the axial shifts of a highly globalized world and global economy are challenging the United States at a time when it is declining as a leader in science, engineering, knowledge, and technology --when it is ill-prepared to make quantum-leaping innovation. Rich multi-path transfers of knowledge lie at the crossroads of global warming and the space enterprise. They are critical to solving human ecology expansion problems during the bottleneck between two environmentalgeological epochs. The United States is losing the lead in being able to contribute to these transfers of knowledge in the world system of societies. And, it is the capability of having something worth transferring in a world becoming evermore extreme that will keep the United States at the core of the world system of societies. Taking the astrosociological perspective, the author explores an important root cause of why the American lead is being lost. She outlines what must be done for the nation to regain its place as a competitive cooperator in the human prospect. A. IntroductionThe definition of the expansion of the human ecology depends on the viewpoint of the definer. For me, as a geoarchaeologist, sociologist, social psychologist, educator, and policymaker, there are many meanings bound up in that phrase. As a geoarchaeologist, I am concerned with the movements of Pleistocene and Holocene Epoch humans owing to the expansions and retreats of continental glaciation, to sea level rise, to changes in climate, to availability of resources, to diffusion of technologies, and the like. Wearing that disciplinary hat, I am primarily concerned with how humans managed to move into increasingly harsh environments and thrive. As a sociologist, I am concerned with taking what I know as an archaeologist and viewing the human experience over the millennia -from the smallest scale social phenomena to the greatest. As a social psychologist, I am concerned primarily with how groups of people function (and dysfunction) in extreme environments like refugee and disaster settings, polar winter-overs, and on space stations. As an educator, I am concerned with how national leaders promote (or don't) the training of their citizenry to meet a host of problems that impact their societies. As a policymaker, I take active roles in motivating solutions to problems. In this paper, I will be addressing the importance of transfers of knowledge among categories of phenomena that relate to the expansion of the human ecology. I will discuss central issues and obstacles of the United States remaining a competitive cooperator in making those transfers of knowledge. I will even stray into areas more reminiscent of international relations and geopolitics.

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