Resurgent natures? More-than-human perspectives on COVID-19

Abstract

<jats:p> Stories of nature’s resurgence during quarantine have been dangerously conflated with an alarming narrative contending ‘Earth is healing, we are the virus’. Deploying a more-than-human perspective, we show how this discourse arises from biocultural decontextualisation that assumes nature has an inherent capacity to resurge. Such fetishisations distract from the need for urgent environmental action and obscure what resurgence actually is: a multispecies endeavour requiring cultivation and nurture. </jats:p>

Hitting the ‘pause’ button: What does COVID-19 tell us about the future of heritage sounds?

“…The disruption caused by COVID-19 also resulted in a range of environmental side e ects, which are perceived to be bene cial, such as reduced air pollution on a local [78], national [79,80], and global scale [81], reduced recreational shing pressure [82], and reduced pressures on wildlife [83] with increased sightings of uncommon species in urban [84,85] as well as near-shore areas [86] and, at least temporarily, reduced pollution of beaches [86]. The reduced human activity also had a owthrough e ect on the nature, volume and geographical distribution of human-generated sounds.…”

Climate change, COVID-19, and the co-production of injustices: a feminist reading of overlapping crises

“…A Lancet editorial recently argued: 'Indeed, without considering the current and future impacts of climate change, efforts to prepare for future pandemics are likely to be undermined' (Watts et al, 2021, p. 3). While scholars and policy-makers are making comparisons between the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis (Cantellano, 2020;Fernando, 2020;Forster et al, 2020;Fuentes, 2020;Hulme et al, 2020;Searle & Turnbull, 2020), a feminist reading engaging intersectional analyses of both these overlapping crises together, instead of separately, brings into even sharper relief how people are impacted across social groups, identities, and locations. This fosters more nuanced understandings and explanations.…”

After the anthropause: Lockdown lessons for more‐than‐human geographies

“…Finally, spectacular images of “resurgent natures” flourishing in humanity’s wake were rife during the pandemic (Mathur, 2020; Rubio Ramon, 2020; Searle & Turnbull, 2020). Benjamin Schultz‐Figueroa (2020) suggests these images encapsulate certain hopes and fears regarding human–animal relations amidst the ongoing climate emergency.…”

“…In a recent Nature article, Christian Rutz et al (2020, p. 1156) – a team of ecologists and biologists – coined the term “anthropause” to signify the “considerable global slowing of modern human activities” due to worldwide mobility restrictions. Human impacts on the environment were called into question as stories of nature’s apparent resurgence gained widespread media attention and spectacular images of wildlife “reclaiming” “human spaces” circulated rapidly online (Mathur, 2020; Searle & Turnbull, 2020; Turnbull et al, 2020a).…”