Rückblick auf die Natur

Rolf Peter Sieferle's "Rückblick auf die Natur" was first published in 1997, during a period when environmental issues were experiencing a downturn. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany brought other necessities to the forefront of the 1990s agenda. In this context, Sieferle found it prudent to remind us of the foundations upon which our economic expectations are based: nature and its alteration by humans. He examines this relationship with a sober perspective, without seeking to extract political nectar from it. It is precisely this distanced yet melancholic view of the changes over millennia that ensures the book's continued relevance. Sieferle spans a wide arc from the hunters and gatherers of the Paleolithic era through agricultural cultures to industrialization or modernization, which he sees as the second transformation of the landscape: from an agrarian system to a fossil fuel-based industrial system. This identifies the crucial process that has turned the landscapes around us into "total landscapes," subject to constant reshaping and no longer capable of achieving a stable state. Sieferle is not a romantic who identifies stable equilibria in the past. He focuses on the totality and speed of change that occurs within a few years, which previously took generations. Sieferle's interdisciplinary approach to environmental history opens new perspectives on the relationship between nature and humanity. The conservation movement must also grapple with the question of whether its efforts are merely a part of environmental design, as there has not been an independent nature for a long time. However, the complete subjugation of nature also seems impossible: its complexity eludes human planning aspirations.