‘We Are All Environmentalists Now’: Mining Development and the Meaning of Environment in an Ecotourism Destination
Erin Hobbs, University of Western Australia
What does it mean to be an environmentalist in Australia today? How can developers and nature protectionists come to identify themselves as environmentalists, yet be working for vastly different outcomes? This paper examines the interactions between a local environmental group and mining developers who are involved in a dispute over a mining proposal in Exmouth Gulf, adjacent to the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. More specifically, I explore key similarities and differences in the ways these two groups come to conceptualise the local environment through these interactions. Kay Milton argues that emotion is a key motivator for action, yet is often scorned in public debate in favour of ‘scientific rationalisation’. This paper builds on Milton’s argument by looking at ways in which both engineers and nature protectionists- who often come from very similar backgrounds- variously rationalise their environmental knowledge and principles, with supposedly competing economic values.
