Week 10 - Gaia & Wilderness, Reading: Cosgrove

Question 1

How does Koyaanisqatsi relate to this understanding of nature and environmental issues?

Answer 1

• Socio-environmental entanglements
• Challenging Nature/Culture Binary (post-modern)
• Debunking progress myths (Shows waste)

Question 1

How does the view from above provide a unique view of understandings environmental issues?

Answer 1

• Territorial Determination (boundaries determining resource allocation/environmental management)
• Timeless Nature (grand presentations of nature can hinder our understanding in terms of human action)

Question 2

What is important about the Whole Earth or Earth Rise images?

Answer 2

They have become symbols of environmentalism, used to represent a universal viewpoint transcending religion and geopolitics.

Question 3

Outline examples how nature has been packaged as an image:

Answer 3

• As ‘wilderness’ associated with American National Identity
• As agency, revealing environmental behaviour and influence perception
• As ‘exotic’, selling nature for the ‘tourist gaze’, making use of geographical imaginaries.