ABSTRACT

    Anthropocene Antarctica offers new ways of thinking about the ‘Continent for Science and Peace’ in a time of planetary environmental change. In the Anthropocene, Antarctica has become central to the Earth’s future. Ice cores taken from its interior reveal the deep environmental history of the planet and warming ocean currents are ominously destabilising the glaciers around its edges, presaging sea-level rise in decades and centuries to come. At the same time, proliferating research stations and tourist numbers challenge stereotypes of the continent as the ‘last wilderness.’ The Anthropocene brings Antarctica nearer in thought, entangled with our everyday actions. If the Anthropocene signals the end of the idea of Nature as separate from humans, then the Antarctic, long considered the material embodiment of this idea, faces a radical reframing.

    Understanding the southern polar region in the twenty-first century requires contributions across the disciplinary spectrum. This collection paves the way for researchers in the Environmental Humanities, Law and Social Sciences to engage critically with the Antarctic, fostering a community of scholars who can act with natural scientists to address the globally significant environmental issues that face this vitally important part of the planet.

    chapter 1|14 pages

    Anthropocene Antarctica

    Approaches, issues and debates

    part I|2 pages

    Governance and geopolitics

    chapter 3|23 pages

    Subglacial nationalisms

    chapter 4|17 pages

    Frozen Eden lost?

    Exploring discourses of geoengineering Antarctica

    chapter 5|12 pages

    The Anthropocene melt

    Antarctica’s geologic politics

    part II|2 pages

    Cultural texts and representations

    chapter 6|14 pages

    Ice and the ecothriller

    Popular representations of Antarctica in the Anthropocene

    chapter 7|16 pages

    Listening ‘at the sea ice edge’

    Compositions based on soundscape recordings made in Antarctica

    chapter 8|16 pages

    Save the penguins

    Antarctic advertising and the PR of protection

    part III|2 pages

    Inhabitations and place

    chapter 10|16 pages

    Populating Antarctica

    Chilean families in the frozen continent

    chapter 11|13 pages

    Placing the past

    The McMurdo Dry Valleys and the problem of geographical specificity in Antarctic history

    part IV|2 pages

    Conclusion

    chapter 12|3 pages

    Antarctica looking forward

    Four themes