Heliotropes

Abstract

This chapter explores the complex relationship between Cold War ecology and radiation, with particular emphasis on the solar metaphor—the heliotrope—and its byproduct, radiation, as traces of modernity, figures for alterity, and the material legacy of the militarization of the Pacific Islands. It considers the Atomic Energy Commission’s radiological surveys of the Pacific Islands and how they constituted the field of ecology. It also examines how the concepts of global ecology are intertwined with the literal fallout from the Cold War, and highlights solar and military forms of radiation as key indicators of globalization. Furthermore, the chapter likens nuclear weapons to the sun within the context of atomic discourse before concluding with a discussion of the use of natural figures of solar radiation in Pacific Island literature to articulate a heliocentric global modernity.