Understanding Cultural-Environmental Connections

Featuring philosopher Kate Soper (London Metropolitan University), ecocritic Hannes Bergthaller (National Chung Hsing University), ecocritic Christopher Oscarson (Brigham Young University) and historian Finn Arne Jørgensen (University of Stavanger).

How well do we grasp the impacts of our habits of consumption on the world? Does it really make a difference at the poles, or in small island states threatened by sea-level rise, just what food we choose to put into our bodies? How do we imagine ourselves in relation to the environments we inhabit? More importantly, how do we imagine ourselves in relation to the environments we never see? What impact does the pace of working life have on the atmosphere? Do our vacations make threatened habitats more vulnerable? Four environmental humanities scholars from Taiwan, Britain, Norway and the USA reflect on a variety of cultural trends and individual routines as they play out, sometimes unexpectedly, in many of today’s greatest environmental challenges and risks.