More-Than-Climate Temporalities of Loss and Damage in Australia

Abstract

I contribute to an emerging politics of loss through an empirical analysis of temporalities of climate change loss and damage in Australia. How people temporalize climate change informs their conception of causality, designation of losses and damages, and political response. By drawing attention to the diversity of onto-epistemological understandings and characterizations of climate change loss and damage, I illuminate some of the values diverse actors perceive as currently, or at risk of, being lost. I do this by unearthing and theorizing commonly identified temporalities held by a cross-section of social actors in regional Australia. These include the following temporalities: (1) anticipatory loss; (2) natural variability; (3) future perfect (e.g., climate catastrophe, human ingenuity); and (4) the longue durée (i.e., climate change as a historical crisis linked to colonial-capitalism). I consider the social, cultural, psychological, and political determinants of such temporalities and the implications for climate politics in Australia. I argue that recognizing the complexity of temporalities of loss and damage is crucial for both geographical research and climate politics. This nuanced understanding of difference can contribute toward the development of a progressive more-than-climate politics, which, I suggest, must be based on the longue durée temporality of climate change loss and damage.