Ecological grief, nonhuman loss and environmental change - exploring human reactions to species decline through African Wild Dogs

随着环境的不断变化，人类与环境的关系和反应也在不断变化。从森林砍伐到荒漠化、水源污染、极地冰川融化等等，人为因素加速了这些变化。然而，尽管学者们努力详细记录、调查和分析这些物理变化，人们对正在消失或改变的环境的了解往往多于居住或生活在这些环境附近的人。安娜的项目主要关注在环境变化的背景下人类对非人类损失的反应，关注撒哈拉以南非洲东部的物种灭绝和非洲野狗。在调查气候变化的情感影响方面，一些著名学者已经开辟了这一地理调查领域，Albrecht（2006）关于日光痛的工作，Cunsolo-Willox（2012）关于生态悲伤和哀悼的工作以及Lorimer（2007）关于非人类魅力的工作都是值得注意的例子。尽管如此，这些主题中有许多研究不足，需要做更多的工作来加强对环境变化的文化和情感理解，把对幸福的关注放在决策的首位-使周围受影响的人群，并了解为什么人们成为重视某些环境和物种摆在首位的原因。通过这个博士收集的数据旨在涉及尽可能多的参与者群体，从研究人员向游客、住在狗附近的人、科学家、护林员和自然资源保护者进行了调查，研究这些不同的角色和身份如何影响人与狗的关系以及对狗数量减少的反应。选择这个案例研究特别是因为它邀请交叉研究对损失的情感反应与有关保护，发展和后殖民主义的其他问题。

As the environment continues to change, so do the ways in which humans relate and react to it. Anthropogenic causes accelerate such changes from deforestation to desertification, pollution of water sources, polar ice melt and so on. Yet whilst academics have endeavoured to record, investigate and analyse these physical changes in detail, often more is known about the environments that are being lost or altered than the people that inhabit or live nearby them. Anna's project focuses on human reactions to nonhuman-loss in the context of changing environments, looking at species extinction and African Wild Dogs in eastern sub-Saharan Africa.On investigating the emotional impacts of climate change, some notable scholars have already opened up this field of geographical enquiry, with Albrecht's (2006) work on solastalgia, Cunsolo-Willox's (2012) work on ecological grief and mourning and Lorimer's (2007) work on nonhuman charisma all being notable examples. Still, many of these topics are under-researched and more needs to be done to strengthen cultural and emotional understandings of environmental change, put concerns of wellbeing at the forefront of decision-making surrounding affected populations and understand the reasons why people become attached to certain environments and species in the first place.The data collected through this PhD aims to involve as many groups of participants as possible from researchers to tourists, those living near the dogs, scientists, rangers and conservationists, investigating how these different roles and identities affect the person's relationship to the dogs and reaction to their decline. This case study was chosen in particular for its invitation to intersect investigating emotional responses to loss with other questions regarding conservation, development and post-colonialism.