Link to "Contradictionary - an almanac of resistance" online (Open Access)

The book Contradictionary - an almanac of resistance - is available for reading and download (Open Access) here. The book, which was edited by Bernd Herzogenrath and Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo and is published by Open Humanities Press, includes two entries written by me, namely "Environmental quality" and "Pollution". The concept of the book is that it lists and explains terms that have been "banned" (or rather black-listed) by the Trump administration in a research context.

Book launch event for "Philsophising with Rocks. Henrik Steffens and the Anthropocene" in Stavanger June 10th

On Wednesday June 10th at 18 o'clock, I will take part in a book launch event which takes place at Stavanger Antikvariat, downtown Stavanger. The book Philsophising with Rocks. Henrik Steffens and the Anthropocene appeared earlier this Spring, and includes my chapter "Steffens’ early outlook reconsidered-Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene".

At the book launch event, Jørg Arne Jørgensen (KåKå) will chair a conversation about the book with Benedikt Jager (editor), me, Morten Tønnessen (contributor) and Terje Torkildsen who has had a central role in highlighting the work of Steffens locally.

If you read this before the event takes place you can also check out the registration link.

At any time, you can check out this link which takes you to a page where you can download the book for free.

Steffens book featured in Karl Alber Verlag Spring catalogue

The book Philosophising with rocks: Henrik Steffens and the Anthropocene (which you can buy, or download for free here) which features my chapter "Steffen´s early outlook reconsidered. Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene", is featured in the Spring catalogue of the German publishing house Karl Alber Verlag.

Book chapter "Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered: Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene" published

The book Philosophising with Rocks. Henrik Steffens and the Anthropocene, edited by Benedikt Jager and Marius Timmann Mjaaland, has now been published by Karl Alber Verlag (with contributions in English and German). The book includes my chapter "Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered: Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene". This is the second chapter I have written on the work of Steffens, but the first to be published (the first was approved a long time ago but remains to appear in print).

Reference:

Tønnessen, Morten 2026. Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered: Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene. Pp. 83–102 in Andreas Benedikt Jager & Marius Timmann Mjaaland (eds.), Philosophizing with Rocks: Henrik Steffens and the Anthropocene. Karl Alber Verlag.

The book is available for sale and as Open Access. See also the chapter on my ResearchGate profile.

Commentary "The evolutionary origin(s) of the Umwelt" published online

A few days ago my commentary article "The evolutionary origin(s) of the Umwelt" was published online in Biosemiotics. This is a commentary to Eva Jablonka & Simona Ginsburg´s Target article "Learning and the evolution of conscious agents".

Reference:

Tønnessen, Morten 2022. The evolutionary origin(s) of the Umwelt. Commentary. Biosemiotics. Published online November 3rd 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-022-09506-7 

Biosemiotic Achievement Award announcement text published in Biosemiotics 14(2)

Volume 14, issue 2 of Biosemiotics has appeared, featuring our Biosemiotic Achievement Award announcement text.

Full reference:

Rodríguez, Claudio Julio Higuera & Morten Tønnessen 2021. Biosemiotics Achievement Award for the Year 2020. Biosemiotics 14(2): 233–236. Published online August 21st 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s12304-021-09445-9

Article on CCS and generational climate justice published

My Norwegian language journal article on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) was published this week.

Reference: 

Tønnessen, Morten (2021). Karbonfangst i lys av generasjonsrettferdighet. Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift 56(2–3): 91–101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-2901-2021-02-03-04 

The article is Open Access and thus freely available for full-text reading and download.

English language summary:

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) stands out from other climate mitigation measures by involving storage of CO2 in geological formations for several thousand years. Few if any other mitigation measures raise similar questions related to the long-term impact of the measure. This accentuates the issue of intergenerational justice in relation to CCS. Reliance on CCS represents a moral hazard, since it risks delaying and undermining the needed transition to a fossil-free energy system and society. It would also be fundamentally unjust in that it would burden future generations with much of the practical responsibility for dealing with environmental problems caused by current generations. Emphasis on intergenerational justice should lead us to commit to rapid climate gas emission reductions today rather than relying on negative emissions at some point in the future. Such an assessment is in line with central contemporary climate research as well as key norms in environmental ethics. It is also in line with some of the fundamental insights of deep ecology as developed by Arne Næss.  

Keywords: Carbon capture and storage (CCS), bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), intergenerational justice, climate ethics, moral hazard, deep ecology

"Publications available online" link list updated

I have updated the links list "Publications available online" with more publications from the last 3-4 years. It now counts 37 articles/texts (mostly freely available in full online). You find the list in the right margin.

"The ethics of laying hen genetics" accessed more than 4.000 times

Our article "The ethics of laying hen genetics", published online in November 2019, has by now been accessed 4.155 times according to article metrics. The article is Open access.

Biosemiotics 13(1) published; includes my global/Amazon human ecology article

Biosemiotics 13(1) has now appeared. This is a special issue guest-edited by Nelly Mäekivi and Riin Magnus, titled "The semiotics of hybrid natures". Table of contents here.

The issue includes my article "Current human ecology in the Amazon and beyond: A multi-scale ecosemiotic approach" (open access).

"Current human ecology in the Amazon and beyond" published in issue; final reference with pagination

My article "Current human ecology in the Amazon and beyond: A multi-scale ecosemiotic approach" has now been published in Biosemiotics 13(1). Final reference:

Tønnessen, Morten 2020. Current human ecology in the Amazon and beyond: A multi-scale ecosemiotic approach. Biosemiotics 13(1): 89–113. Published online February 19th 2020. DOI: 10.1007/s12304-020-09379-8.

 The article is published Open Access and therefore freely available online.

Laying hen ethics article accessed 2.563 times

Our Open Access article "The ethics of laying hen genetics" has 2.563 accesses to date.

"The ethics of laying hen genetics" to appear in print issue soon

I have been notified by Springer that our article "The ethics of laying hen genetics" (which was published online November 22nd 2019) will soon be included in a print issue of Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics.

The online version, which is Open Access, has been accessed 1.231 times so far.

"Current Human Ecology in the Amazon and beyond: a Multi-Scale Ecosemiotic Approach" published online; reference

My article "Current Human Ecology in the Amazon and beyond: a Multi-Scale Ecosemiotic Approach" was published online (Open Access) in Biosemiotics yesterday.

Reference:

Tønnessen, Morten 2020. Current human ecology in the Amazon and beyond: A multi-scale ecosemiotic approach. Biosemiotics. Published online February 19th 2020. DOI: 10.1007/s12304-020-09379-8. 

The article includes these tables and figure (see also Figure 1 below):

• Figure 1 A house in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve
• Table 1 Adjacent levels of study in general semiotics and ecosemiotics
• Table 2 Adjacent levels of study in ecosemiotics with regard to related aspect of Umwelt
• Table 3 Various scales in the context of global human ecology
• Table 4 Types of semiosis involved in alternative scales in human ecology
  
• Table 5 Scale of global human ecology from personal point of view applied to the Mamirauá case

Forum for forskning restarted - first event November 5th

I am involved in organizing a Forum for forskning event at University of Stavanger Tuesday November 5th. This is the first event under that name for two years, and represents a restart of Forum for forskning, in collaboration with 3 other UIS faculties.

This is the Forum for forskning homepage on UIS intranet. Here is presentation of the event November 5th, "Open Access og Dora-erklæringen" (Open Access and the Dora declaration).

Book "Animal umwelten in a changing world" freely available as PDF; for sale in print

The recently published book Animal umwelten in a changing world, co-authored and co-edited by me, is freely available for PDF download at the Directory of Open Access Books, and for sale (print copy, 23 EUR) at Tartu University Press.

See also:

New title; full reference for forthcoming book "Animal Umwelten in a changing world"

The journal Politics and Animals launched; first issue out now

The open access journal Politics and Animals, published by Lund University (Sweden), has now been launched, with the publication of its first issue, featuring contributions by Will Kymlicka and others.

I am in the Associate Editorial Collective (editorial board) of the journal, along with a group of good people.

CFP for a new journal on human-animal studies: Trace

I have been asked to distribute the Call For Papers below. Trace will be published by the Finnish Association for Human-Animal Studies,

***

CFP for a new journal on human-animal studies: Trace 

The Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies is launching a new scientific journal called
Trace – Finnish Journal for Human-Animal Studies. 

Trace is a peer-reviewed, fully open access online journal that provides a forum for the discussion of human-animal relations from social and cultural perspectives. The journal publishes original research articles, lectiones praecursoriae, and conference reports, as well as reviews on books, art exhibitions, films, and other media. Trace accepts submissions in Finnish, English, and Swedish. 

Trace invites contributions to human-animal studies that deal with a wide range of topics and represent diverse perspectives. The editorial board encourages writers to offer multi- and transdisciplinary contributions which broaden the conventional ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies applied in human-animal studies. 

The first Editor-in-Chief for Trace is D.S.Sc. Outi Ratamäki (University of Eastern Finland & Finnish Environment Institute), who is substituted for the first issue by D. Sc. Nina Nygren (University of Tampere, Finland). 

*** 

The deadline for submissions for the first issue of Trace is 15. 12. 2014. The issue will be out in the spring of 2015. 

For more information on the journal and on submitting, visit the journal’s homepage. 

*** 

Human-animal studies is a broad and multidisciplinary field of research that includes a diversity of topics, such as the social, cultural and material construction of beliefs, values and attitudes relating to animals; the ethics and politics of animal issues; animal welfare legislation and governance; approaches to the agency of animals; philosophical issues in the epistemology and ontology of human-animal relations; as well as a variety of other theoretical and practical questions concerning human-animal relations.

Invited to be in eSci Editorial Review Board of Ontology Development and Applications

I have received an email sent by Managing Editor Musarrat Nawaz inviting me to join the Editorial Review Board of the journal Ontology Development and Applications for a period of 2 years. The journal is, or will be, published by eSci Journals Publishing, based in Pakistan. According to the journal's Archives no issue has been published yet. As other eSci journals, this one too relies on article fees - 70-200 $ per article.

In evaluating this invitation, I came across Jeffrey Beall's Criteria for Determining predatory Open-Access, and his associated list of such publishers. eSci Journals Publishing was on the previous list, but not on the most current one. 

My own reaction: I find it reassuring that eSci Journals Publishing uses peer-review - but not that they invited me to serve in the Editorial Review Board of this particular journal, which I am not so competent to work for given the journal's thematic description. 

I will decline this invitation.