2020

Our 2020 content highlights

Articles

Salt in the wound: social impacts, public health and the Narrabri gas project

The proposed Narrabri Gas Project flouts dire climate predictions and as Dr. Alison Ziller argues, the negative, but lesser publicised, social harms for the region just add insult to injury.

What’s at stake in approving the Narrabri gas project?

Following on from an expert report submitted to the IPC last month, SEI researchers explore the social, economic and environmental risks posed by the Santos Narrabri Gas Project.

The Urban Field Naturalist Project: an invitation

A new initiative co-led by researchers including SEI’s Thom van Dooren and Dieter Hochuli aims to kindle a sense of awe and wonder by learning to appreciate the natural world through story rather than data alone.

Multispecies justice: challenging the Institutions of political theory

Understanding justice through the multispecies lens does not simply mean expanding our circle of care, says Danielle Celermajer, it means rethinking justice itself. So what does this mean for political theory, and beyond?

Plastic over people: coronavirus war profiteering

The plastics industry is notorious for manipulating consumer behaviour by tapping into our most fundamental desires and fears, writes India Gill, and with the industry’s future in jeopardy, the opportunity to re-brand single-use plastic bags as a safer option for public health than reusables is a marketing dream come true.

Corona and climate: mental health in an age of uncertainty

Jo Longman and Maddy Braddon find stark parallels between their work on the mental health and wellbeing impacts of climate change and the current pandemic gripping so many lives.

Nature in culture: learning to value empirical but intangible truths

Reflecting on Niuean scholar Dr Jess Pasisi’s work in Episode 4 of Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Multimedia Series, Genevieve Campbell questions the colonial positivist worldview and its reliance on tangible evidence, as opposed to more fluid conceptions of time, action and practice as ontologies.

Nature in culture: flowing from Kunama Namadgi, the mother of snow

Frozen or flowing, connection to the waters of the Snowy Mountains is inextricable from Ngarigu identity, says Jakelin Troy in response to Virginia Marshall’s notion of ‘Aqua Nullius’ in Episode 3 of the Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Multimedia Series.

Multispecies justice series: Amphibious justice

Herpetological worldings point to the importance of imagining justice as metamorphic, says Sophie Chao, requiring a nomadic ethics that can move across and through elements and ecosystems.

COVID-19 and renewable energy: Australia’s golden opportunity

“With the right policy and green funding settings, we can finally live up to our ambitions as a renewable energy superpower and overthrow our reliance on non-renewable energy,” says Dr Madeline Taylor.