NASA History Listserv Readers:

 

Please join us on April 14, 2020 at 11:00am-11:45am EDT for our Virtual History Brown Bag talk:

 

Dr. Jenifer Barton, Branding the Earth: A History of the Earth System Concept in the United States, 1983-1988

 

Microsoft Teams link for the event: Click here to join the meeting

 

Abstract: The phrase “Earth system” is today used ubiquitously by Earth scientists to describe the planet as a system of interconnections between the air, land, water, and biota.  When and how did the “Earth system” become a common concept?  How did it become possible to conceive of the Earth as a system?  This talk examines how the concept of the Earth system was developed in the 1980s by the Earth System Sciences Committee, a small group of scientists formed via NASA’s Advisory Council.  Though the new research program proposed by the committee, Earth System Science, failed to garner widespread contemporary support, the committee’s promotional efforts—including an extensive branding campaign—significantly contributed to the spread and later entrenchment of the “Earth system.”

 

Dr. Jenifer Barton is a historian of science with specialization in American Earth science in the Cold War and the intellectual history of different conceptions of the whole Earth.  She recently completed a PhD in the history and philosophy of science and technology at the University of Toronto and currently lectures on interdisciplinary topics at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

 

Regards, 

Brian

 

256-541-8974 (cell)