Interscalar maintenance: configuring an Indigenous ‘premium carbon product’ in northern Australia (and beyond)
Interscalar maintenance: configuring an Indigenous ‘premium carbon product’ in northern Australia (and beyond) Journal Article
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
- Author(s): Neale, Timothy
- Published: 2022
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Abstract: Abstract Mitigating climate change requires us to constrain combustion in a double sense: decreasing both the use of fossil fuels and the flammability of the biosphere. Fire management by Indigenous peoples in Australia's northern savannas has been presented as a solution to offset the former and assist with the latter, leading to the foundation of a regional economy of projects generating 'premium' carbon credits on Indigenous lands. This article attends to the translational zone - predominantly made up of non-Indigenous white professionals - that functions to configure the 'right story' of these credits across diverse epistemes and contexts. Following such commodities' interscalar connections, I suggest, helps illustrate the contingencies and contradictions produced by tradeable carbon, as individuals and organizations seek to maintain a niche within a changing climate and shifting global atmospheric relations.