An ecological whodunit: Examining loss and grievability in an age of extinction

Portus, Rosamund

Abstract

In a time when immeasurable numbers of Earth’s living species are having their timelines cut short, the bee decline stands out as a crisis which people have willingly and actively engaged with. This lightning talk will therefore examine the cultural frameworks by which bees have become broadly seen as a grievable species. To do so, this talk will travel back to the root of public discourse around the ongoing loss of bees, tracing the story of the honeybee syndrome known as colony collapse disorder which caused honeybees to begin disappearing from their hives in the mid-2000s. The cause of this disappearance proved a mystery for some years, a fact which paved the way for the loss of honeybees to become framed as an ecological whodunit in the public imagination: a framing which not only encouraged the pre-emptive mourning of honeybees’ extinction, but extensive advocacy on the behalf of bee species in the years which followed. In telling this story, I will emphasise that how we respond to nonhuman species extinction is rooted as much in human histories, cultures, and values, as it is scientific fact.

Citation

Portus, R. (2021, September). An ecological whodunit: Examining loss and grievability in an age of extinction. Presented at Loss, British Animal Studies Network, University of Birmingham (Online)

• Presentation Conference Type: Speech
• Conference Name: Loss, British Animal Studies Network
• Conference Location: University of Birmingham (Online)
• Start Date: Sep 7, 2021
• End Date: Sep 9, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 13, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7762257
• Related Public URLs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd67jN6PBy0