Friday, May 01, 2009
Bereft of Humanity
In Human Nature, Mark Dowie discusses the creation of commodified wilderness in the US, wild expanses bereft of humanity. Noting the history of this cultural project of evicting aboriginal inhabitants from the landscapes of our imagination, Dowie describes their indigenous descendants as "conservation refugees". As the UN and its member states prepare to evict natives worldwide in response to the climate change crisis, our unnatural conception of wilderness is once again at fault.
