Human Cultures as Niche Constructions Within the Solar System

Abstract

This commentary seeks to refine Kashima’s timely and topical but too general call for embedding culture within the planetary ecosystem. My starting point is that cultures are to an underestimated extent ongoing niche constructions within the merry-go-round of the Sun’s radiation, the Earth’s rotation around its axis, and the resulting cold and hot seasons. Among the downstream consequences are clear connections between warm-blooded life and culture; between winter cold, summer heat, and culture; and, conversely, between culture and global warming. Cultural inventions of monetary resources have come to influence further culture creation on the foundation of seasonal solar heat. The odds are that climato-economic engineering of culture is just around the corner.