Epidemiologic information was retrospectively obtained by clinicians through review of medical records, telephone interview, or both. In 1 patient in whom a late diagnosis was made 4 months after the onset of symptoms, a rectal tumorlike stricture was observed. All 14 patients were treated with tetracycline for a mean duration of 16 days (range 1060 days). Treatment duration should be no shorter than 21 days, and follow-up examinations should be conducted until all signs and symptoms have resolved (7,8). If recently exposed to infection, sexual contacts should receive prophylactic treatment to prevent reinfection and to eliminate a potential reservoir. Magid Herida,* Patrice Sednaoui, Elisabeth Couturier,* Didier Neau, Maпthe Clerc,§ Catherine Scieux,¶ Gerard Kreplak,# Vйronique Goulet,* Franзoise F Hamers,* and Bertille de Barbeyrac§ *Institut de Veille Sanitaire, Saint-Maurice, France; Institut Alfred Fournier, Paris, France; Hospital Pellegrin, Bordeaux, France; §Universitй Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France; ¶Hospital Saint-Louis, Paris, France; and #Laboratoire du Chemin Vert, Paris, France References 1. Typing of Chlamydia trachomatis by restriction endonuclease analysis of the amplified major outer membrane protein gene. Number of rectal lymphogranuloma venereum cases diagnosed in men in France, July 2002August 2004. These young soldiers are on leave on weekends, during which time they come in close contact with susceptible family members, including young infants, and may thus facilitate the "import" and "export" of pertussis between the military setting and the general population. An outbreak of pertussis that recently occurred among infantry soldiers (8) indicated the need to conduct the present study, in which we sought to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of pertussis among young soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force. The first was a 15-month (November 2001March 2003), laboratory-based surveillance study of pertussis, which included 110 trainees who complained of persistent coughing (case definition: cough lasting 1090 days) upon admission to compound clinics. The cutoff point was calculated by adding 3 standard deviations to the mean value of a group of 40 healthy study participants. This substudy included 278 trainees who were interviewed regarding the occurrence of persistent cough and seeking of medical care during the preceding 6 months. We multiplied the prevalence of laboratory-confirmed pertussis found in the first study by the incidence of study participants with persistent cough who sought medical care in this study. The result was multiplied by 200,000 to receive incidence estimation for 100,000 personyears. The median duration of cough among the 110 case-patients was 14 days, their median age was 19 years, 94 (85. The first period (November 2001May 2002) was characterized by a high prevalence of pertussis among the 72 patients enrolled, with 19 (26. In the second period (August 2002March 2003), although charac- terized by the same median duration of cough (14 days), a substantially lower prevalence of pertussis was observed among the 38 patients enrolled, with only 1 (2. When we extrapolated from this sample and from the laboratory-confirmed prevalence of 22. The prevalence of pertussis found in this study is comparable with that previously reported among U. Marine corps trainees, university students, and other civilian adult populations (17). However, the high clinical similarity between pertussis-positive and other cases of prolonged cough renders selection bias unlikely. The prevalence of disease in this study showed significant changes in relation to time in contrast to previous studies (3). This difference may be because our present study was conducted in a semiclosed population characterized by epidemic occurrence of the disease. The incidence of pertussis reported in this study (2,132 cases per 100,000 507 Emerging Infectious Diseases · Our findings emphasize the need for revaccination against pertussis of young adults in Israel, primarily of those at high risk for pertussis, such as army recruits. Eyal Klement,* Itamar Grotto,* Itzhak Srugo,§ Naday Orr,* Jacob Gilad,¶ and Dani Cohen *Israel Defense Force, Medical Corps, Ramat-Gan, Israel; Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel; Bnai Zion Hospital, Haifa, Israel; §Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; and ¶Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel 7. Correlation of IgA, IgM and IgG antibody-detecting assays based on filamentous hemagglutinin, pertussis toxin and Bordetella pertussis sonicate in a strictly adult population. However, after the anthrax attacks of 2001, biologic terrorism vulnerability assessments have determined that intentional food poisoning is a plausible means to widely disseminate pathogens, with potentially devastating effect (6). As a consequence, food security has emerged as one of the major priorities for bioterrorism preparedness (710). We describe a naturally occurring incident that demonstrates the potential for premeditated food contamination to target specific populations who are critical for protecting public safety, in this instance, a city police force.
Apart from China, developing countries showed greater internal inequality than Europe, Russia, or North America. Oxfam (2018) estimated that 82% of all wealth created globally in 2017 flowed to the top 1%, with no increase whatsoever for the bottom 50%, most of whom live in the South. But the existing world economic system is entrenched and there seems little prospect of replacing it. Indeed, the injunction to pursue economic growth, a mainstay of the accepted solutions put forward for decades, is a key plank in the existing system which requires ongoing profit. Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 123 control a majority of the entire global productive apparatus19 and depend on growth of both production and consumption for their continued success at generating this profit. Just as in the early post-war years, the rich world continues to avoid the claims of redistributive justice. It will also demand significant reform, if not transformation, of the economic system. They are multifaceted organisations able to contract out elements of their production chains in different countries to take advantage of low wages, permissive regulation, or low taxes. Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 124 increasing material flows, unless it meets actual human needs. We may wish to abandon all economic growth everywhere, but we cannot abandon significant increases in material flows throughout the developing world. This model includes five major strands (Ibid): Accelerated renewables; Genuinely sustainable food production; New development approaches; Investment in education for all, gender equality, health and family planning; Serious reductions in inequality. Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 125 Clearly, material growth will be essential for the South, but to meet that need, the consumption patterns of the North must contract. Design and planning must be promoted-and this will require a retreat from the prescriptions of the neoliberal economics that has dominated economic thinking for nearly 50 years. Preparations and outcomes of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 130 Chapter 6: Degrowth Toward a Steady State Economy: Unifying Non-Growth Movements for Political Impact Brian Czech and Riccardo Mastini Limits to Growth and the environmental movement No later than the 1960s, scholars wrote in rigorous terms of the limits to economic growth. Schumacher, Americans including Herman Daly, and European-born Americans (most notably Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and Kenneth Boulding) set the stage for later studies in ecological economics and sustainability science. Their scholarship, supplemented by the population focus of Paul Ehrlich and the modeling approach of Donella Meadows and coauthors (for the Club of Rome), resonated with ecologists and opened the eyes of millions of concerned citizens worldwide. As indicated by the events of the first Earth Day in 1970, the environmental movement had a global aspect and was a major political phenomenon in many countries. The cumulative movement-limits to growth and environmental protection- was characterized by a rapidly mounting concern over destructive economic activity. The critique of growth was therefore accompanied by skepticism about the behavior of corporations. In Europe, especially, the sustainability of capitalism itself was called into question, with or without Marxist leanings. Although the critique of growth was focused on and in capitalist countries, astute observers noted an obsession with economic growth in socialist and communist countries as well. In fact, virtually nothing was done explicitly to that effect, and hardly anyone aside from Herman Daly even called for it in policy terms. Perhaps the closest thing to macroeconomic reform was the Endangered Species Act of 1973. In the preamble, the 93rd American Congress found and declared that `species have been rendered extinct as a consequence of economic growth and development. In essence, the Endangered Species Act was an implicit (and unintended, for most legislators) prescription for a steady state economy, albeit a steady state with a long list of species dangling from one last twig on the tree of life (see Czech and Krausman 2001). Georgescu-Roegen: Less a debate than a different frame of time When Daly started advancing the steady state economy as the sustainable alternative to growth, Georgescu-Roegen protested, as he had described in magnificent detail the unrelenting forces of entropy, which eventually brings down any economy on Earth as the sun runs out of hydrogen. Instead it was theoretical and philosophical, applying primarily to the longest of long terms, not policy-relevant planning terms. Unfortunately, however, the global economy was starting to look like a Roman candle with a suddenly vulnerable wick. This was a matter of common sense, yet the laws of thermodynamics were required to refute the notions of neoclassical economists who believed in perpetual substitutability of resources in an ever-growing economy. There was a sort of middle ground: Within limits, additional mastery over the use of renewables could take up some of the slack as non-renewables were liquidated. Also during this adjustment phase, recycling of non-renewables would still be economic.
The first occurring most prominently are the empty lumens lined by a layer of inflammatory cells which most believed to be gas-filled pseudocysts within the subcutaneous tissue. Occasional cysts in most sections appeared to be lined by endothelial cells leading some to conclude they were gas-distended lymphatics. Finally, as the contributor mentioned, the inflammatory infiltrate surrounded filamentous bacteria and, in some sections, encompassed much of the cystic space lending credence to speculation these were either primary granulomas or secondary bacterial infections. The hypothesis proposed by the contributor is quite plausible given the history of aspiration in this case. In rare slides, there is a section of bone likely representing the vertebrae of this animal. When present, the bone edges are scalloped and often lined by activated osteoclasts consistent with active bone remodeling. This seems to provide further evidence in support of a chronic bacterial infection, which may correlate with the initial positive bacterial culture of this area. Considerable information has been derived from the lifecycle of seahorses following the development of commercial rearing facilities. They are peculiar creatures with the responsibility of fertilization and incubation of the young taken on by the males following a monogamous relationship with a single female. In addition to vibriosis and mycobacteriosis, gas entrapment problems are a major health issue for seahorses in culture and their relationship with gas supersaturation and infectious agents is largely unresolved. On examination the rat had left head tilt with bilateral mydriasis and absent pupillary light reflexes. Ventral to the right ear, there was a hyperemic swelling; when compressed, pus exuded from the ear canal. Over the next 12 hours the animal was treated with antibiotics but deteriorated and was euthanized. On manipulation of the swelling, yellow, creamy exudate mixed with heterogeneous, firm, yellow and brown material oozed from the ear canal. The right tympanic bulla was enlarged and measured 10 x 9 x 4 mm, whereas the left tympanic bulla measured 7 x 3 x 3 mm. The right cerebral hemisphere was slightly swollen and there was thick, creamy, yellow-green, opaque exudate in the leptomeninges covering the rostral cerebellum. Laboratory Results: Postmortem cultures yielded Prevotella melaninogenica from the ear, brain, and an acutely congested and edematous lung. Histopathologic Description: Skull (multiple levels): Bilaterally associated with ulceration of the external ear canal, extending into and multifocally effacing the tympanic cavities of the middle ears, and extending into the cranium on the right side, are innumerable degenerate neutrophils and fewer macrophages mixed with abundant cellular debris, edema, and fibrin (lytic necrosis). In the right external ear, there is fibropapillomatous epithelial proliferation, with abundant underlying granulation tissue that entraps squamous epithelial cells and debris. The right tympanic bulla is four times normal size and contains large amounts of keratin and multifocal inflammatory cell infiltrate as previously described. The cell infiltrate also fills the left tympanic cavity and bilaterally infiltrates the extensively ulcerated stratified squamous epithelium and the subepithelial tissue of the middle ears, accompanied by multifocal resorption and remodeling of the temporal bones. Right external ear canal, rat: On manipulation of the ear base, swelling, yellow, creamy exudate mixed with heterogeneous, firm, yellow and brown material oozed from the ear canal. Within the submucosal stroma of the middle ears, the infiltrate is predominantly lymphoplasmacytic. There is also goblet cell metaplasia/hyperplasia and multiple glands distended with amphophilic (mucous) secretion. The inflammation extends along and multifocally infiltrates degenerate trigeminal nerves, and results in necrosis of approximately 10% of the right cerebral hemisphere. Adjacent to the necrotic regions in the brain, multifocal areas of neuropil are rarefied (malacia). Within the right lateral and the third ventricles of the brain, there are small numbers of neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes, and plasma cells. Multifocally and primarily at the edges of the foci of necrosis in the tympanic cavities and in the brain there are colonies of gram-negative rodshaped and gram-positive coccoid bacteria.
Elm seedlings from regional seed collections, conducted in 1959 and again in 1981, were inoculated to assess tolerance to Dutch elm disease (Smalley and Guries 1993). This study revealed an increase in the frequency of tolerance in seed collected from trees that had experienced a longer exposure time to Dutch elm disease (Smalley and Guries 1993). In some cases, mortality caused by invasive insects and diseases is so extensive it severely reduces genetic diversity 8 Restoration of Landscapes and Habitats Affected by Established Invasive Species 189 Table 8. Invasive species Common name Scientific name Sudden oak Phytophthora death ramorum J. This can lead to inbreeding depression and a catastrophic loss of essential allelic variants, resulting in a loss of fitness in the next generation. Despite indications of natural selection in American elm for Dutch elm disease resistance and in European ash for resistance to ash dieback, both are facing new threats. The loss of genetic diversity in these species has likely made them even more vulnerable to new threats, as will be the case for North American ash trees that survive emerald ash borer, should ash dieback ever invade the United States. Black ash (Fraxinus nigra) is reported to be highly susceptible to ash dieback, and green ash is reported to be moderately susceptible (Drenkhan and Hanso 2010; Gross and Sieber 2016). Despite these promising results, residual stands ravaged by invasive insects and diseases frequently consist of a small number of widely dispersed surviving individuals that are unable to recover naturally. Kinloch and Dupper 2002), and several types of partial or quantitative (controlled by multiple genes) resistance have been identified (Sniezko et al. Assessment of genetic resistance is underway in all nine species, and more extensive efforts for breeding resistance are ongoing for several of the species (summarized in Table 8. Resistant seedlings are currently being deployed (as part of artificial regeneration strategies) for four of the species to date (Waring and Goodrich 2012), and substantial progress has been reported (see Box 8. Efforts are underway to further increase the level of resistance in several of these species. The Japanese walnut, which is resistant to but- ternut canker, was widely planted in the United States since it was introduced in the nineteenth century and has since naturalized in many areas (Hoban et al. As a result, hybrids of Japanese walnut and butternut, including advanced-generation hybrids, occur in natural populations and retain the pathogen resistance from the Japanese walnut lineage (Broders et al. Complete resistance to this pathogen has been identified in one of the hybrid breeding lines (Jeffers et al. Although the first widespread tests of advanced-generation hybrids demonstrated promising levels of early seedling establishment, susceptibility to both ink disease and chestnut blight remains a significant issue (Clark et al. Dutch elm disease, caused by the invasive pathogens Ophiostoma ulmi and Ophiostoma novo-ulmi, was first identified in Ohio in 1930 killing a tremendous number of American elm trees that were highly valued street trees for their beautiful arching canopies. One of the most significant successes attributed to a forest tree resistance breeding is development of populations of Port-Orford-cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) that have genetic resistance to a root disease caused by Phytophthora lateralis (Sniezko et al. This program identified both single gene and multi-genic sources of resistance, delineated breeding zones, and established seed orchards. Reforestation and restoration efforts using Port-Orford-cedar seed resistant to P. Field trials to monitor the efficacy and durability of resistance have been established. Laurel wilt is among the newest invasive diseases affecting trees in the United States. The beetle was first detected in 2002 and, along with its fungal symbiont, was associated with extensive mortality of redbay (Persea borbonia) in 2003. Eight additional forest and landscape tree or shrub species (including two that are considered threatened or endangered) have been confirmed to be infected, and five additional species are vulnerable, based on results from artificial inoculation (Hughes et al. Field trials demonstrated tolerance in a few selected genotypes, and additional genotypes are being propagated for testing. The original vector for Dutch elm disease was the native elm bark beetle (Hylurgopinus 194 J. In the absence of scale infestation, species of Neonectria alone have not been associated with the high tree mortality levels characteristic of beech bark disease. Effective techniques to screen for resistance to the scale insect in the field, in potted seedlings, or in grafts have been developed (Koch and Carey 2014), as have efficient methods to propagate resistant beech trees (Carey et al.
Other natural sources of sometimes large-scale disturbance include weather-related phenomena such as long-term drought, extreme wind events, and ice storms (Lafon 2015; Millward and Kraft 2004), and outbreaks of native insects (Raffa et al. At mid-scale, geomorphic disturbances such as flooding, avalanches, and landslides can have dramatic effects, while at a smaller scale, gap formation from the death of individual trees as well as the activities of ungulates and rodents and local-scale flooding and frost-heaving can create openings in otherwise undisturbed vegetation. The anthropogenic impacts on forest disturbance regimes have been great, beginning with the clearing of large areas for agriculture and resulting forest fragmentation. A second major impact has been through fire suppression, which has major consequences for successional trajectories in all forest types (Zouhar et al. Timber harvest and associated silvicultural activities, including control of understory vegetation, represent other major sources of anthropogenic change in disturbance regimes (Cyr et al. Norway Maple As mentioned earlier, intact forests are generally thought to offer substantial biotic resistance to plant invasion, and the primary limiting resource is usually light. Most forest invaders are more light-limited than the dominant tree species, and invasion is almost always initiated at forest edges where human-assisted dispersal is also more likely. It produces a canopy that creates conditions too shady for recruitment by the native sugar maple (A. It also experiences significantly less herbivory than sugar maple where the two species grow together in North American forests (Cincotta et al. Invasion by Norway maple has a long initial lag time because of a prolonged juvenile period under deep shade conditions, and it may be punctuated by multiple lag periods as successive generations mature, but its invasion, though slow, may be inexorable (Wangen and Webster 2006). These may have limited shade tolerance, but they have the advantage of a climbing habit, which permits them to reach more favorable light conditions by overtopping trees. It has limited ability to establish in forest interiors, but because it can shade out and kill the trees it overtops, it can improve light conditions as it migrates further into the forest, thus reducing the effectiveness of biotic resistance through light limitation. Experimental evidence suggests that kudzu has benefitted from escape from natural enemies in its home range, enabling it to divert resources from defense to growth and thereby evolve increased growth rate and competitive ability (Yang et al. When many of these plantings were abandoned and the areas underwent natural reforestation, kudzu was already a dominant component of the resulting vegetation. It has high shade tolerance and is favored by fire suppression, although it is a root sprouter that is also quite fire-tolerant. Closed-canopy forests offer some biotic resistance to invasion by this species, but it can penetrate forest interiors at low rates of spread, then take advantage of the improved light conditions in small-scale disturbances such as treefall gaps to increase its reproductive success (Horvitz et al. The fruits are bird-dispersed, which provides an avenue of introduction into forest interiors, but the species is reported to be pollinator-limited in at least some of the invaded range (Larson et al. Garlic Mustard Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a deliberately introduced herbaceous forest invader that has undergone explosive range expansion (Kurtz and Hansen 2014; Rodgers et al. A great deal of research has been carried out on this species, and it has been proposed as a model species for the study of plant invasion (Colautti et al. It is not palatable to deer, and several studies have shown that its spread is accelerated by deer overstocking, which impacts more palatable natives and gives garlic mustard a competitive advantage (Eschtruth and Battles 2008; Kalisz et al. This difference could reflect intrinsic differences in the structure of the invaded communities or possibly differences in modern or historic disturbance regimes (Nuzzo 1999). A common thread that runs through the narrative for almost all invaders of relatively undisturbed forests is that these species were introduced deliberately for horticultural purposes and were not accidental arrivals. As mentioned earlier, this makes it more likely that they will not be constrained by the light limitation in forests that would prevent invasion by the great majority of accidental introductions (Martin et al. They are characterized by highly dynamic disturbance regimes, with frequent, intense disturbance and broad natural ranges of variability as the norm (Middleton 1999). This increases the likelihood of state changes as a result of natural disturbances (Richardson et al. These natural disturbances often involve dramatic changes in hydrologic regime, including seasonal flooding or episodic flooding associated with extreme weather events like hurricanes. Water level fluctuations due to drought or changes in flow caused by erosion and aggradation processes as well as modification of woody debris structure of stream channels and beaver (Castor canadensis) activity are additional sources of frequent natural disturbance. The complex community structure and high native biodiversity characteristic of these ecosystems are maintained by these natural disturbance regimes, and efforts to restore wetland or riparian communities to static, ideal states cannot be successful in the long term (Middleton 1999; Zedler and Kercher 2004). Wetlands have been much reduced in areal extent in many parts of the country due to draining for agriculture or urban development. Because wetlands tend to be sinks in terms of their position on the landscape, they are more dramatically affected by waterborne nutrient pollution than other ecosystems.
People are not to blame for the immobility; indeed it is essential to recognize that cultural individualization and globalization create precisely that historical orientation and those preconditions for an adaptation of institutions to a coming second modernity that are obstructed by the institutions (or those controlling them). The conservative bemoaning of the decline of values (in all social camps) is not only self-righteous, it is also stricken with historical and empirical blindness. In Germany we have managed to put two dictatorships behind us, both of which stood under the motto: `You are nothing, your class is everything. This is all the more true since it is completely false to equate individualization with unpolitical behaviour, indifference and egoism. In quite superficial terms, there has never been such a remarkable increase in the number of liberal democracies, in the East but also in the south of the world. It is too quickly forgotten that a thoroughly militarized system of orthodox communism imploded peacefully. At the same time, however, nationalism, wars and civil wars have re-erupted everywhere. Even dyed-in-thewool pacifists find themselves forced to reconsider the connection of freedom, human rights and war. Is there a right or a duty to go to war when human rights are being barbarically violated? Will we have to choose in the future between two unbearable alternatives, shocking indifference or global wars for human rights? The growth economy and consumer society with the knowledge of their ecological destructiveness? The welfare state in the global competition of the world economy and in view of the erosion of the old standard labour relationship? The nationstate in the network of global economic, ecological and security policy dependencies? Taken together, ambivalence and vacuum mean that the system is not simply hopeless, it is also more open than ever, intellectually and politically. They do not want to become the executive organ of some set ideal of service (Gerhard Schmidtchen). The price of a high degree of self-determination and a diversity of opportunities appears to be a loss of orientation. This in turn leads to a demand for binding social networks that create a sense of belonging and a meaning in life. More emotional than contracts but more sober than love, it does not dissipate itself in selfless charity, but assumes mutuality of support at least for an indeterminate future. It is inspired by the idea of some sort of equality between givers and receivers, despite the differences between them and their mutual distress, it originates voluntarily and can be dissolved the same way. Beck, the Reinvention of Politics, Cambridge: Polity, 1996; and Beck, Giddens and Lash, op. It has all the chief characteristics of such a fact: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its progress. Is de Tocqueville claiming that democracy is an unintended side-effect of all attempts to check it? He wanted to show the overwhelming power that is concealed in European modernity and its principle of individual self-organization. This basic theme of political freedom always goes unrecognized when people are sure of freedom; it develops its hugely subversive force when it is withheld from them. At the same time, de Tocqueville is in no doubt that the idea of political freedom endowed with power of its own is nothing but empty sentimentality, which has been refuted in the most terrible way down the centuries. It is precisely he Freedoms Fathers who looks ahead with such clear eyes and sees the despotism of the democratic age: I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavouring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone. Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing.
If the globalization debate took up the territorial bias, the individualization debate has probed and criticized the collective bias of the social sciences. It assumes that individuals alone can master the whole of their lives, that they derive and renew their capacity for action from within themselves. Yet this ideology blatantly conflicts with everyday experience in (and sociological studies of) the worlds of work, family and local community, which show that the individual is not a monad but is self-insufficient and increasingly tied to others, including at the level of worldwide networks and institutions. The ideological notion of the self-sufficient individual ultimately implies the disappearance of any sense of mutual obligation which is why neoliberalism inevitably threatens the welfare state. A sociological understanding of Individualisierung is thus intimately bound up with the question of how individuals can demystify this false image of autarky. It is not freedom of choice, but insight into the fundamental incompleteness of the self, which is at the core of individual and political freedom in the second modernity. A history of sociology could be written in terms of how its principal theorists from Marx through Weber, Durkheim and Simmel to Parsons, Foucault, Elias, Luhmann, Habermas and Giddens have varied the basic idea that individualization is a product of complex, contingent and thus high-level socialization. The individual creativity which it releases is seen as creating space for the renewal of society under conditions of radical change. In developed modernity to be quite blunt about it human mutuality and community rest no longer on solidly established traditions, but, rather, on a paradoxical collectivity of reciprocal individualization. Central institutions of modern society basic civil, political and social rights, but also paid employment and the xxi Preface training and mobility necessary for it are geared to the individual and not to the group. Insofar as basic rights are internalized and everyone wants to or must be economically active to earn their livelihood, the spiral of individualization destroys the given foundations of social coexistence. In second modern society the separation between subjective and objective analysis, consciousness and class, Ьberbau and Unterbau is losing its significance. Individualization can no longer be understood as a mere subjective reality which has to be relativated by and confronted with objective class analysis. To put it in a nutshell individualization is becoming the social structure of second modern society itself. But sociology as an institutionalized rejection of individualism is no longer possible either. So what does individualization beyond the collective bias of the social science mean? An institutionalized imbalance between the disembedded individual and global problems in a global risk society. The Western type of individualized society tells us to seek biographical solutions to systemic contradictions. For example, the tension in family life today is the fact that equality of men and women cannot be created in an institutional family structure which presupposes and enforces their inequality. But does this not mean that everyone just revolves around themselves, forgetting how much they rely on others for the assertion of their own push-and-shove freedom? Anyone who wants to live a life of their own must also be socially sensitive to a very high degree. If the former refers to general norms, the latter establishes specific rules for the intimate interactions involved in relationships, marriage, parenthood, friendship and the family a normative horizon of expectations of reciprocal individuation which, having emerged under conditions of cultural democratization, must be counterfactually assumed and sustained. The French sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann once asked what actually constitutes a couple now that it is no longer a marriage certificate. His answer was that a couple arises when two people buy one washing-machine together, instead of two separate ones. By the same token, any kind of discussion presupposes shared meanings that cannot simply be placed in doubt; limits must therefore be set to argument and confrontation if you want to live with somebody on a daily basis. The partner who shuts up and washes is swallowing the fact that the pain of injustice will ultimately suffocate the love. But it involves an awakening of, or a fight for, co-operative individualism, which presupposes that each has a right to a life of his or her own and that the terms of living together have to be renegotiated in each case. The twofold search for individuation, which is often unsuccessful, might be termed the freedom culture.
Once the vaccine has been developed, the cost of producing an additional unit is negligible, while the benefits of achieving herd immunity are immeasurable-if herd immunity is not achieved, the virus can evolve vaccine resistant strains, taking us back to square one. However, in our capitalist economy, corporations are competing to get the first vaccine and the monopoly profits it can generate (AstraZeneca 2020; Karlin-Smith 2020). Publicly funded teams of scientists freely sharing their research are likely to develop vaccines quicker, while making the resulting formula freely available to all maximizes its value by maximizing the likelihood of achieving herd immunity. With the formula free, firms could compete to produce it as cheaply as possible, though the risk of collusion might require government manufacture as well. Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 36 We live in the information age. Information by its very nature benefits from collective provision and free access. Another clear example is nature, which has been historically viewed as a source of raw materials to be converted into economic products. We have now come to understand, however, that a particular configuration of those raw materials from nature form ecosystems that generate a flux of life sustaining ecological functions essential for all species on the planet (Malghan 2006). Ecosystems generate ecosystem services without being physically transformed in the process. Individuals can decide the rate at which they deplete ecosystem structure: how much fish to catch, how much timber to harvest, how much oil to extract and burn. Individuals, however, cannot choose how stable the climate they wish to have, how many species or how much wild biomass they wish to preserve, how clean the air they wish to breathe, or how clean the lakes, oceans and rivers that surround them. Once we have a given level of climate stability, clean air, or life sustaining ecosystem services, we cannot ration access, allowing some individuals to consume them while others cannot. The concept of ecosystem services calls attention to the fact that when we deplete raw materials and spew waste into the environment, we unavoidably degrade ecosystem services. Some ecosystem services are rival, such as the waste absorption capacity for greenhouse gases, so rationing is necessary. Making rationing possible requires excludable property rights, for example, through auctionable emission permits. If emissions are limited to absorption capacity and equitably distributed, commodification can be both sustainable and just. However, many ecosystem services are inherently non-excludable and non-rival and therefore cannot and should not be commodified. Public services serve all members of the human community; economists recognize that these services are ill-suited to commodification and market allocation (Samuelson 1954). Ecosystem services in general Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 37 are an even worse fit for commodification than public services (Washington 2020). In short, if humans are to solve the numerous ecological challenges we currently face, cooperation is essential. The most serious challenges we face, ranging from climate change to pandemics, take the form of social dilemmas, in which members of a group can gain by cooperating, but cooperation is costly, so each individual does better personally by not cooperating no matter what the others do (Gintis 2011). The world is obviously better off if everyone cooperated by not emitting greenhouse gases. However, any given individual gains enormous benefits from the incredible energy available in a barrel of oil, and refraining from using that oil is costly. The same is true for overharvesting oceanic fisheries, air and water pollution, and investing time and energy in developing clean new technologies (Hardin 1968; Farley and Perkins 2013). Around the world, we see growing nationalism, worsening partisan divisions within countries, increasing racism and xenophobia. Darwin believed that any group with more cooperative and altruistic individuals would likely outcompete other groups with fewer such individuals (Darwin 2004). From the 1960s onward, however, mainstream evolutionists argued that the evolution of altruistic cooperation. Within a group of cooperative individuals, selfish individuals would benefit from the generosity of others without sacrificing any of their own fitness to help others. This would enhance the fitness of the selfish individual relative to more cooperative individuals. Over time, selfish individuals would outcompete generous individuals within Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 38 the group, and altruistic cooperation would not evolve (Dawkins 1990). Evolutionists proposed kin selection (Hamilton 1964) and reciprocal altruism (Trivers 1971) as genetically selfish mechanisms favoring psychological altruism (Sober and Wilson 1998), but these mechanisms have difficulty explaining why humans regularly help non-kin with whom they will never interact again.
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