Swamp-philia and Paludal Heroism: The Passion of Wetlands Conservationists in Australia and Elsewhere

Abstract

In a climate change epoch, in which each year harrowingly turns out to be "the hottest on record"-marked by more and more habitat destruction, species decline, unrestrained urbanization, and other serious ecological problems-environmental heroes reassert hope, empowerment, transformation, and possibility against prevailing despair. From all corners of the globe and of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, eco-heroes devote themselves to "other-regarding choices over self-interested ones" for the betterment of humankind and more-than-humans. Since 1990, the Goldman Environmental Prize has honored "grassroots environmental heroes" and has acknowledged "individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk." Recent Australian recipient, octogenarian Wendy Bowman, for instance, successfully defended her family farm in Camberwell, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, against the incursions of a multinational mining company. In 1990, moreover, Bob Brown received the inaugural award. Brown founded the Tasmanian Wilderness Society and galvanized a successful nationwide campaign in the 1980s to block the construction of the Franklin River dam. Indeed, environmental heroes, such as Brown and Bowman in contemporary Australia and Thoreau before them in the nineteenth-century United States-as well as other contemporary wetlands heroes discussed later in this chapter-are moral exemplars who highlight that "each life, no matter how long or short, can have great significance if lived well."