Destination Anthropocene - (Critical Environments: Nature, Science, and Politics) by Amelia Moore (Paperback)

About the Book

Known to travelers as a paradise of sun, sand, and sea, the Bahamas is rebranding itself in response to the rising threat of global environmental change, including climate change. In her imaginative new book, Moore explores an experimental form of tourism developed in the name of sustainability, one that is slowly changing the way both tourists and Bahamians come to know themselves and relate to island worlds.

Book Synopsis

Destination Anthropocene documents the emergence of new travel imaginaries forged at the intersection of the natural sciences and the tourism industry in a Caribbean archipelago. Known to travelers as a paradise of sun, sand, and sea, The Bahamas is rebranding itself in response to the rising threat of global environmental change, including climate change. In her imaginative new book, Amelia Moore explores an experimental form of tourism developed in the name of sustainability, one that is slowly changing the way both tourists and Bahamians come to know themselves and relate to island worlds.

From the Back Cover

"In this fascinating book, Moore offers one of the first accounts that considers the Anthropocene ethnographically. By grounding her investigation in a specific place (The Bahamas) and time, she helps us evaluate the ways in which we think about islands as the epitome of Anthropocenic objects of crisis."
--Laura A. Ogden, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dartmouth College

"In this singular, extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the present Moore weaves together a story that shows the interconnectedness of global change science, colonial and post-colonial history, race and racism, tourism development, and the excesses of consumption. Beautifully written and masterfully conceptualized, this book gives us new insights into the processes by which science and tourism set the conditions of possibility for human lives and place-based futures in The Bahamas specifically but also in the Anthropocene more generally."
--Paige West, Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University

"Destination Anthropocene traces emergent collaborations of science and tourism in The Bahamas in the shadow of climate change. Moore sets her story against the backdrop of long Caribbean colonial histories of scientific and commercial experimentation and brilliantly shows how, in the context of today's 'Anthropocene Islands, ' fantasies of planetary sustainability and efforts to capitalize upon the degradation of the world are less contradictory than they might seem. A fascinating account from a powerful new voice in Anthropocene anthropology."
--Dominic Boyer, Director of CENHS, Rice University

Review Quotes

"The book is a stellar effort to denaturalize both the Anthropocene and anthropogenesis and expose instead the global, classed interests that are served by such naturalizations. Researchers, students and policy makers interested in climate justice would particularly benefit from engaging with this work."-- "Anthropology Book Forum"

"Moore digs deep into the trenches of ethnographic detail to demonstrate the entangled ways that science and tourism commingle in the 'significant spaces' of small islands as critical spaces."-- "Current Anthropology"

About the Author

Amelia Moore is Assistant Professor of Sustainable Coastal Tourism and Recreation in the Department of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island.