Grief, Loss and the Cultural Politics of Climate Change

Abstract

In October 2013, when a frighteningly early start to the bushfire season saw nearly two hundred homes destroyed in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia, Greens politician Adam Bandt created controversy when he drew attention to the connections with climate change. He took to Twitter and the newspapers to decry the new government’s proposal to dismantle Australia’s new carbon-pricing scheme, pointing to the scientifically well-established link between climate change and higher bushfire risk. Not while people are grieving, said many people, from the Prime Minister down. “Indecent, insensitive,” thundered the radio shock jocks (N. Mitchell 2013). Even many who agreed with Bandt wondered..