Bio-invaders (Themes in Environmental History)

摘要

This edited collection of papers from the pages of the journals Environment and History and Environmental Values reminds us why the topic of bioinva-sion is good to think with. Just as Hajer (1995) has described acid rain as an 'emblematic environmental issue', an issue that functions as a metaphor for the environmental problematique at particular times, this collection demonstrates that bioinvasion, nativism and associated biosecurity responses are emblematic issues for the twenty-first century. Across a wide variety of political concerns there are resonances with the problematisation of bioinvasion raised in its pages: the extension of security, selective territorialisations against ever-increasing mobility, questions of localism and cosmopolitanism, and concerns over managing uncertain futures. As such, the collection deserves to be read by those with wider interests in environmental values and philosophy. From stories of carp in Palestine, rhododendron in Britain and Ireland, tropical rainforest in Australia and mustelids in New Zealand, emerge issues of the contestable nature of science, of historically and geographically contingent natural values, of appropriate language and definition, of arbitrary nature/culture boundaries, and of natural and human agency, belonging and encounter. What we learn is that in this domain of investigation there is very little firm footing; holding onto the contested status of language and categories leads to an epidemic of apostrophes, as 'native', 'alien', exotic', 'indigenous', 'natural', 'national'and even "nature' are all brought into question.