Destination Anthropocene: Science and Tourism in The Bahamas by Amelia Moore

Abstract

Reviewed by: Destination Anthropocene: Science and Tourism in The Bahamas by Amelia Moore Matthew Lauer Amelia Moore, Destination Anthropocene: Science and Tourism in The Bahamas. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019. 216 pp. During a boisterous academic conference in the late 1990s Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist, made an off-the-cuff comment that we no longer live in the Holocene, but have entered the age of humans and are living in the Anthropocene geologic epic. The scientists were reviewing the growing evidence that human beings had fundamentally altered the geologic record to the extent that they could now declare that we had entered a new geologic anthropogenic era. Although defining this new geohistorical period continues to be controversial within geology, the concept has overrun its original boundaries, capturing the attention of scientists across the social and natural sciences as well as the humanities. In her lively and highly readable book, Amelia Moore explores the Anthropocene not as a concept to be contemplated or debated, but its effects in a particulate locale—the Bahamas. Rather than detailing Bahamian environmental degradation, the loss of species, or efforts to mitigate sea level rise, she instead describes how the idea of the Anthropocene has propelled the rise of "Global Change Science" (GCS), a burgeoning conglomeration of natural and social science disciplines focused on characterizing anthropologic change occurring to the earth system. She then asks a provocative question: What are the effects of GCS knowledge and practice in the lives of Bahamians? To answer this, Moore adeptly draws on series a of ethnographic accounts highlighting GCS field work at sites across the Bahamas. We learn that GCS researchers are descending on the islands in increasing [End Page 181] numbers, herself included, to document their environmental fragility as anthropogenic pressures mount. In each case she explores the intersection of GCS knowledge and the Bahamian tourist industry. The Bahamas, of course, have a long history as a global tourism destination. With its gorgeous coastlines, idyllic beaches, and close geographic proximity to the United States, tourism has formed the basis of the islands' economy for decades. In Moore's account, she details how the tourist industry has adeptly repositioned the islands' imaginary over time to attract tourists. The most recent form of repackaging involves leveraging GCS scientific discoveries and concepts into profitable tourist attractions. Thus a paradox lies at the heart of what Moore calls "Anthropocene tourism" (21): as GCS attempts to understand and protect critical habitats and threatened species on the island, the tourism industry capitalizes on their knowledge and practices to attract more tourists and perpetuate the damaging anthropogenic effects of the tourism industry. In the opening chapter, which also serves as the now requisite ethnographic "entrance story," Moore provides a personal and nuanced account from the frontlines of GCS research in action. Moore was introduced to the Bahamas as an undergraduate student employed by an interdisciplinary funded GCS project. As a ground-level field researcher conducting pilot surveys in a rural fishing community, she describes ethnographically how concepts such as "individual," "stakeholder," "livelihood," and the "social" tend to be produced rather than explained by GCS research. More broadly, she makes that point that GCS conceives of sociality in specific ways that enables its legibility. "Local people" people are framed as objects that need to be enumerated and described rather than project collaborators or knowledge producers who can contribute their own insights. Armed with "social" data, her project was also tasked with providing scientific input into the placement of marine protected areas (MPAs). The project was a means to validate environmental management in the region, which in this case was the creation of an MPA suitable for marine tourism. Moore's account uniquely contributes to the literature about the impacts of MPAs by suggesting that they not only extend the state apparatus, including tourism interests, but also the reach of GCS research itself. The second chapter, "Educational Islands," describes another manifestation of the Anthropocene: the entangling of science, tourism, and education. Here we become acquainted with a small island where a defunct, large-scale hotel was converted into an elite high school academy that [End Page 182] trains mainly US students in environmental science and...