Wild Ones #17: Environmental Communication Digest
Multispecies storytelling, Six ways to change hearts and minds about climate change, a beginner’s guide to Environmental Communication, and more!
Hi everyone, welcome back to Wild Ones, a bi-weekly digest by me, Gavin Lamb, about news, ideas, research, and tips in environmental communication. If you’re new, welcome! You can read more about why I started Wild Ones here. Sign up here to get these digests in your inbox:
🌿Environmental Keyword
‘multispecies storytelling’
Deborah Bird Rose (1946 – 2018), was an adjunct professor in Environmental Humanities at the University of New South Wales, Australia Deborah. She was an anthropologist of Indigenous Australia, and a leading scholar in establishing the new fields of Environmental Humanities and Extinction Studies.
A key idea in Rose’s work is her notion of ‘multispecies storytelling,’ the notion that meaning-making isn’t just a human capacity, but something all living organisms do, as we all interact and interpret the world around us through our multiple bodily senses, some shared, and some not. In this way, her work explores the ethical dimensions of how people and animals, from dingos to flying-foxes, become entangled together in healthy, but also ecologically damaging ‘multispecies communities.’ For example, writing about endangered Hawaiian monk seals and the volunteers that work on the beach to protect them when they sleep on the sand, Rose says:
“The more I work with multispecies communities, the more I realize that the big philosophical questions apply to all meaning-making creatures. As humans, we make our own kinds of meaning, and no doubt our meanings are not identical to those of others. But here on the beach, one could see multiple forms of meaning, expression, and creation”
In the 1990s, Rose envisioned her work as part of an emerging ‘ecological humanities’ – later known as the 'environmental humanities.’
Her early research and advocacy involved working with Indigenous communities in Northern Australia to help reclaim their ancestral territory stolen through colonization. She has written extensively on Australian Indigenous views of natural landscapes.
She has written several books drawing together her ethnographic research in Australia with her work on environmental philosophy and ethics, especially when it comes to the damaging repercussions of wildlife extinction: Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness (1996); Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation (2004); and Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction (2011).
Check out “A Howling Lament,” a great piece by two of her colleagues in the environmental humanities – Thom van Dooren and Isabelle Stengers. They write about Rose’s life and work, and also her forthcoming book ‘Shimmer,’ about flying-fox conservation efforts in Australia, which she had just finished writing in 2018.
Today, her work continues on in the Extinction Studies Working Group, a collective of interdisciplinary scholars bringing their interdisciplinary expertise to bear on addressing the biodiversity extinction crisis.
In the video below, Deborah Bird Rose discusses her thinking behind her concept of ‘nourishing terrains’ and how this relates to connectivity between the local and global.
Tools 🔭
The Solutions Story Tracker: “Explore the Solutions Story Tracker now with more than 10,000 stories about people building a better world.”
Americans’ Interest in Climate News 2020: ‘maps show how Americans’ interest in news stories about climate change vary at the state, congressional district, and county levels.’
Six ways to change hearts and minds about climate change, a short film and handbook by On Road Media.
News, Events & Creative Environmental Storytelling📰
How Efforts To Save Hawaii’s Forests Are Preventing A ‘Freshwater Crisis.’ This is a great example of multimedia environmental communication being done by local news organizations, in this case, Civil Beat Honolulu.
Mapping Heat Islands: ‘Where Do We Need Shade? Mapping Urban Heat Islands in Richmond, Virginia’
Monkey Beach (Film): “A film about reconnection with the land, its denizens and the secrets it holds, Monkey Beach is also a testament to Indigenous women’s ability to not just endure trials but emerge from them empowered.”
The Sustainable Development Goals After Five Years: Despite the goals’ wide coverage, some people are still left behind. In Psychology Today, by Ilan Kelman Ph.D.
Broto Conference: Affinity: ‘Let's reframe the Anthropocene Epoch to be about human partnership with nature.’ Dec. 5 and Dec. 12, 2020 (free registration).
Research 📚
‘What is Sociolinguistic Competence’ by Dr. Nicole Holliday (video). Dr. Nicole Holliday is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.
#sustainablefashion – A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Fashion Discourse on Twitter: “…while areas like climate change and energy consumption are well known, the concept of sustainable fashion is neither understood nor conceptualized very well. Most research in the field focuses on fashion consumption but has various understandings of sustainability.”
Broaching the brook: Daylighting, community and the ‘stickiness’ of water:
Ideas 💡
Where Did the Phrase “Tree-Hugger” Come From?. Earth Island Journal investigates the roots of the term in India’s history of non-violent resistance.
Why protect salmon? “In short, salmon are the key to protecting a way of life rooted in the North Pacific environment: protect salmon and you protect forests, food, water, communities, and economies.”
How to Untangle Environmental Stories: Five Contradictory Lessons, by Ana Maria Spagna in Brevity Magazine.
Writings from my desk ✍️
Thanks so much as always for your interest in my work, and if you found this useful, I'd love to hear from you, what do you think about this digest, and how can it improve? Leave a comment or send me an email at: lambmgavin AT gmail DOT com