Abstract

Michaelmas Term Lecture 3

From our destruction of the natural world to the human cultures that are rapidly dying out, Melanie Challenger’s forthcoming book ‘On Extinction’ is an exploration of these disappearances and why they should concern us. Challenger asks questions about how we’ve become destructive to our environment, our emotional responses to extinctions, and how these responses might shape our future relationship with nature. The book narrates her travels to the abandoned whaling stations of South Georgia, the melting icescape of Antarctica, and the Inuit camps of the Arctic, where she traces the links between human activities and environmental collapse.

Melanie Challenger was International Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey for International Polar Year 2007–8 and studied the Inuit community of Pangnirtung under a British Council Darwin Award. ‘On Extinction’ is published in the UK by Granta Books in October 2011.