Whale in the rainforest – is this the new normal?
Shared by JENNY RITCHIE
Whale in the rainforest – is this the new normal? On a recent holiday we drove north of Brisbane, Australia, along the ‘Sunshine Coast’, where we noted the frequency of shiny new concrete suburban developments and malls on one side of the highway contrasting with wilderness on the other. These observations were punctuated by occasional signage alerting drivers that koalas and kangaroos ‘live here too’. We have similar signage in Aotearoa (New Zealand). As humanity continues its encroachment into the habitats of other creatures we come across frequent dilemmas of co-habitation, a coyote eating a pet chihuahua, a (bizarre) claim that “Conservationists should consider people before native species are restored”. It seems that anthropocentricity prevails. And then there was this starkly dramatic image of the whale in the rainforest. Such a juxtaposition calls attention to the impacts of uncritiqued, unchecked anthropocentrism. Yet, as Jonathon Jones points out: “A whale in a forest is no more unnatural than plastic on a beach”.