Anthropocene Noir
Rose, D. B. (2013). Anthropocene noir.
It is the most arresting and apt of titles.
Deborah Bird Rose (1946-2018) is best known to policymakers for Nourishing Terrains (1996), her major report to the Australian Heritage Commission about the cultural significance of Country. She worked with many different First Nations peoples as an anthropologist assisting travelling judges, listening to testimony on Country to establish Native Title, following the historic 1992 High Court of Australia Mabo ruling that legally recognized Indigenous land rights and overturned the false concept of terra nullius (‘land belonging to no one’).
In this insightful essay published in 2013, Rose weaves together her work on Country, and the wisdom of her Aboriginal teachers with the ecological sensibilities of extinction studies. Focusing on grey-headed flying foxes and dingos, she unpacks the ways colonial projects damaged native species.
The titular ‘noir’ refers to three strands of denial within Australia: the continuing denial of frontier wars associated with the British invasion, its appalling record in biodiversity loss (including leading the world on medium-sized mammal extinctions in the 20th century), and the climate-change denial of then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who abolished the government-funded, independent Climate Commission. This provoked zoologist Tim Flannery and Will Steffen, well-known internationally for leading cross-disciplinary conversations about the Anthropocene, to launch Australia’s philanthropically funded Climate Council, to continue documenting global change without government support.
The power and relevance of Rose’s essay persists, as it interweaves colonial legacies and the destruction of the life support systems of the planet that darken our Anthropocene times. Earth’s own agency, once provoked, can casually upend modernity’s siren promises. To interleave the darkness with light, Rose suggests a way forward, learning from Indigenous understandings of time and place.
Essential reading.
Jan Zalasiewicz and Libby Robin
Rose, D. B. (2013). Anthropocene noir. Arena Journal, (41/42), 206–219. DOI: https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.860610859642687. Also here.
Misinformation: A climate policy risk
This report explains how misinformation affects climate policy and what it means for the Australian Climate Change Authority’s (CCA) work. The report draws on evidence from the findings of the Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy, independent research and engagement with misinformation experts in government, academia, industry, and the community sector.
The CCA was established in 2013 when PM Abbott sacked the Australian government-funded Climate Change Commission. Private investment leapt into the breach, led by prominent campaigners Tim Flannery and AWG member, Will Steffen. Will spent his “retirement” doing hundreds of media interviews for the CCA and raising funds to secure its future. If you are interested in Will’s career, there is a website from a 2003 conference in Bern about his work in the USA, Australia and Sweden. He became a citizen of Canberra in the 1970s (and an Australian citizen) as a chemist at ANU, and then moved across into resilience and his work at IGBP. Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory has 100% renewable energy and stands out as very different from all the states to a great extent because of his work locally. Will was also a prime mover in picking up and promoting Paul Crutzen’s Anthropocene concept from 2000 onwards. He was a global leader and also a practical local campaigner.