Drawing on heritage ecologies, this article proposes a role for the environmental humanities in formalizing a shift from predominantly historical to increasingly futures-focused heritage, reflecting the planetary shift from the Holocene to the early Anthropocene. Its geographic focus is Antarctica, a region formally dedicated to peace and science and governed through the Antarctic Treaty System. Historic Sites and Monuments (HSMs) in the Antarctic are designated to commemorate events ranging from late nineteenth century exploration to contemporary scientific endeavors. Some are tourist destinations, many are almost inaccessible, and others have disappeared under ice. One is yet to be located. As an assemblage, the HSMs appear a little unruly, entangled with geopolitics and ambiguous in purpose. Heritage ecologies suggest that natural processes should not be separated from cultural contexts and include relations between human and more-than-human. More nuanced, potentially disruptive interpretations of Antarctic heritage should extend to new sites that both recognize the peace and science principles of the Antarctic Treaty and highlight the Anthropocene's precarities. This article is thus a provocation within the environmental humanities to rethink heritage practices with respect to nonhuman nature and the Anthropocene and to consider monuments for the end (geographically at least) of the world.

Drawing on heritage ecologies, this article proposes a role for the environmental humanities in formalizing a shift from predominantly historical to increasingly futures-focused heritage, reflecting the planetary shift from the Holocene to the early Anthropocene. Its geographic focus is Antarctica, a region formally dedicated to peace and science and governed through the Antarctic Treaty System. Historic Sites and Monuments (HSMs) in the Antarctic are designated to commemorate events ranging from late nineteenth century exploration to contemporary scientific endeavors. Some are tourist destinations, many are almost inaccessible, and others have disappeared under ice. One is yet to be located. As an assemblage, the HSMs appear a little unruly, entangled with geopolitics and ambiguous in purpose. Heritage ecologies suggest that natural processes should not be separated from cultural contexts and include relations between human and more-than-human. More nuanced, potentially disruptive interpretations of Antarctic heritage should extend to new sites that both recognize the peace and science principles of the Antarctic Treaty and highlight the Anthropocene’s precarities. This article is thus a provocation within the environmental humanities to rethink heritage practices with respect to nonhuman nature and the Anthropocene and to consider monuments for the end (geographically at least) of the world.

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This paper explores how the COVID-19 pandemic affected science and tourism activities and their governance in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. The pandemic reduced the ability of Antarctic Treaty Parties to make decisions on policy issues and placed a considerable burden on researchers. Tourism was effectively suspended during the 2020–2021 Antarctic season and heavily reduced in 2021–2022 but rebounded to record levels in 2022–2023. The pandemic stimulated reflection on practices to facilitate dialog, especially through online events. Opportunities arose to integrate innovations developed during the pandemic more permanently into Antarctic practices, in relation to open science, reducing operational greenhouse gas footprints and barriers of access to Antarctic research and facilitating data sharing. However, as well as the long-term impacts arising directly from the pandemic, an assemblage of major geopolitical drivers are also in play and, combined, these signal a considerable weakening of Antarctic exceptionalism in the early Anthropocene.

OPINION article Front. Environ. Sci., 03 October 2023Sec. Environmental Policy and Governance Volume 11 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1239966

In search of the last continent: Australia and early Antarctic exploration. A. McConville (2022). Melbourne, Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing Ltd. 227p, paperback. ISBN 978-1-922669-94-0. AUD 44.00. - Volume 59

Developing effective policy for highly complex, long-term, societal issues requires processes that include systems thinking and behavioural insights. The recent article by Michael Hallsworth (1) presented a rigorous manifesto that formalised a structured approach for the next phase of applied behavioural science which we wholeheartedly welcome. Here, we discuss a case study that embodies the shift to applying behavioural insights and complex adaptive systems articulated in the manifesto. The case study goes beyond behavioural insights and focusses on integrating behavioural science into an organization’s core activities—specifically in environmental policy making in Aotearoa New Zealand. We also propose advice on implementing such initiatives and encourage government bodies to risk investing in systems approaches appropriate to their jurisdiction.

Developing effective policy for highly complex, long-term, societal issues requires processes that include systems thinking and behavioural insights. The recent article by Michael Hallsworth presented a rigorous manifesto that formalised a structured approach for the next phase of applied behavioural science which we wholeheartedly welcome. Here, we discuss a case study that embodies the shift to applying behavioural insights and complex adaptive systems articulated in the manifesto. The case study goes beyond behavioural insights and focusses on integrating behavioural science into an organization’s core activities—specifically in environmental policy making in Aotearoa New Zealand. We also propose advice on implementing such initiatives and encourage government bodies to risk investing in systems approaches appropriate to their jurisdiction.

The ability to anticipate, plan for and adapt to the changes of the early Anthropocene is limited by human behaviour, political inertia, and short-termism. This ‘tragedy of the horizon’ is explored through three specific lenses on early Anthropocene futures. We begin with the dominant scientific evidence: mathematical and probabilistic modelling synthesised into increasingly rigorous and sophisticated scenarios for assessing policy options and broadening societal understanding. We then draw on the set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols through which people imagine their social whole in what Sheila Jasanoff describes as sociotechnical imaginaries. We also draw on institutional epistemologies as reflected in two global assessment initiatives: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has been described as a ‘view from nowhere’, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a ‘view from everywhere’, though analysis has concluded that both organisations merely offer ‘views from somewhere’. We then present examples of other early Anthropocene imaginaries from writers, activists, and philosophers. The arc through these suggests both common themes and broad variation in underlying assumptions and world views. We argue that, especially in a post-truth world, a much richer form of (re)visioning the future is required in a project that must span far beyond the biophysical and include the full breadth of the social sciences and humanities. Without the inclusion of multiple underlying, competing, and creative long-term perspectives, society in general, and research in particular, may not adequately illuminate the complex possible future trajectories.

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The guidelines on heritage management adopted by the 2018 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting provide the most recent iteration for an Antarctic tourism sector which had, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, been projected to increase further with various risks and potential impacts requiring careful management. In this paper the role of cultural heritage for tourism prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is examined through three empirical perspectives. First, how the Antarctic cultural heritage is represented through the designation of Historic Sites and Monuments and Site Guidelines for Visitors; then how this is presented through tourism operators' websites; and, finally, how it is experienced by visitors as narrated in open-source social media information. Each dataset suggests that, while cultural heritage is an important component of an increasingly commodified tourist offering, it is only part of an assemblage of elements which combine to create a subliminal and largely intangible Antarctic experience. In particular, a polarization of the heritage experience between cultural and natural does not appear productive. The paper proposes a more nuanced understanding of heritage tourism in Antarctica which accommodates the notion of a hybrid experience that integrates cultural heritage, the history and stories this heritage represents, and the natural environmental setting.

'Think global, act local' has been linked with climate change issues for several decades and suggests a simple downscaling of ideas, tools and processes can be relatively easily achieved. Adaptation pathways, for example, are increasingly used to identify and evaluate adaptation options against a range of plausible futures. The process is applied to both large-scale infrastructure and investment decisions, as well as smaller-scale, sub-national issues associated in part, with climate change impacts and implications. Consequently, pathways are being developed in the context of multiple contested values, competing with other, more immediate, non-climate-related or indirectly related planning processes, such as freshwater management, community resilience and wellbeing, and biodiversity conservation. In this Short Communication we reflect specifically on place-based adaptation pathways constructed, presented, and implemented within limited budgets and without recourse to resource-intensive research capacities. We emphasise the need to meet criteria for local credibility, legitimacy, and relevance. Specifically, we suggest there is a need to accommodate the complexities of local conditions; establish affordable and accessible processes; and build technical and participatory capability. These considerations may assist with co-creating place-based pathways and incorporate a wider range of complex issues both political and contextual with multiple constituencies including, as necessary, where science itself is increasingly questioned or disregarded. In turn this might lead to sets of country specific, nested local hierarchical adaptation options developed through pluralist approaches.

Adaptation pathways is an approach to identify, assess, and sequence climate change adaptation options over time, linking decisions to critical signals and triggers derived from scenarios of future conditions. However, conceptual differences in their development can hinder methodological advance and create a disconnect between those applying pathways approaches and the wider community of practitioners undertaking vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation assessments. Here, we contribute to close these gaps, advancing principles, and processes that may be used to guide the trajectory for adaptation pathways, without having to rely on data-rich or resource-intensive methods. To achieve this, concepts and practices from the broad pathways literature is combined with our own experience in developing adaptation pathways for primary industries facing the combined impacts of climate change and other, nonclimatic stressors. Each stage is guided by a goal and tools to facilitate discussions and produce feasible pathways. We illustrate the process with a case study from Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, involving multiple data sources and methods in two catchments. Resulting guidelines and empirical examples are consistent with principles of adaptive management and planning and can provide a template for developing local-, regional- or issue-specific pathways elsewhere and enrich the diversity of vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation assessment practice.

As the short to medium-term social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic dominate world issues, longer-term environmental and geopolitical concerns remain of great concern. However, the appetite for tackling complex transdisciplinary anthropogenic change processes may be receding rather than accelerating. In this essay, we propose that Antarctica, the continent of peace and science, a place that assumes a role as the global imaginary Other, where short- and long-term horizons co-exist, is a site where signs of global regeneration in the Anthropocene should be clear. To provoke discussion, we imagine two scenarios set in the five Gateway Cities of Antarctica to 2050. In the 'Gatekeepers' scenario, there is a fragmented global order with minimal unregulated behaviour based on narrowly defined national interests; in the 'Gateways' scenario, values-based partnerships generate novel institutional arrangements. By contrasting these polar opposites as a performative act, we highlight the need for future-making at the interface between science and policy.