Shifting Baselines: On the Mean Sea-Level and Other Resilient Constructs

While much has been said and written about anthropogenic environmental change since the term Anthropocene was coined in 2002, a full recognition that points of reference, metrics, and scientific methods used to assess change and determine the baselines necessary to plan resiliently are social and historical constructs seems to be lacking. However, lines have been drawn, baselines defined, standards set by experts, scientists and state officials where none exist in nature, and still determine what is judged to be the "natural" state of things. Reference points like the mean sea-level, for example, are eminently social constructs, developed in the search for a better understanding of the space around us and yo make it more legible. Elements like these have become ubiquitous in the modern world, leading us to forget to question where they came from, what interests they have served, and if they still correspond to current needs.  Only the analysis of how environmental expertise has been mobilized in particular historical moments and on different geographical scales allows us to reach a better understanding of present apprehensions of global change, environmental historical narratives, and attempts at resilient everyday practices. Starting from these considerations, my research paper focuses on an exemplary case study analysis of the intellectual and material roots of the mean sea-level in its transition from geodesy to current discourses on climate change, in the context of European state building and colonial policy-making, with particular attention to the role of the "Mitteleuropaeische Gradmessung" and its successor organizations.