Cultural aspects of our environment
by
Geraldine Hinter
A new UniSA Study shows that while people generally think solutions
to environmental problems are science, technology, or policy-based, they
often leave out cultural aspects, in particular, the relationship that
human beings have with their environment.
“Cultural studies can contribute significantly to our environment and the way we manage our landscape and waterways,” postdoctoral research fellow Dr Emily Potter from UniSA’s Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies said.
One solution to Australia’s increasing water shortages put forward by satirical ABC news team CNNNN was to tilt Australia: the team argued that “there’s too much water on the Eastern seaboard but if we tilt the country to the west the water will naturally flow inland… all we need is a few strategically controlled explosions on the edge of the continental shelf. Western Australia drops five metres.
Country tilts like a seesaw. Water moves. Drought solved!”.
CNNNN’s suggestion leveraged off a debate instigated by Alan Jones from Radio 2GB, Sydney, who came up with an idea to drought-proof Australia by turning rivers to run inland.
Reading into these ideas, Dr Potter explains that “many people see the environment as something we manipulate, are external to, and act upon, but it is not something we are caught up in”.
“I am asking people to think not only about ideas to control the environment, but to think culturally about the way that we as humans live in and relate to our environment,” Dr Potter said.
Dr Potter has been studying the work of urban designer Paul Carter, whose substantial public space plaza design Nearamnew at Federation Square, Melbourne, tells a story of environmental vision that returns a culturally significant civic city space to the community.
He draws in the Yarra River through the way in which the text appears to move, evoking the natural flow of water coursing through the local area into regional creeks and then flowing out into the global river network.