High-Altitude Commodities in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Session Submission Type: Complete Panel

Abstract

Despite thriving societies, ecologies, and economies, high-altitude environments remain at the margins of most national and global histories, with only occasional exceptions. But the realities of climate change urge us to better understand high elevation commodities: Climate records suggest that high-altitude regions have been warming at a faster rate than low-altitude regions. This panel seeks to foreground high-altitude environments as key centers of speculation and extraction in the twentieth century. By taking a global perspective the panelists show how twentieth century perceptions of high-elevation climates and environmental adaptability shaped how scientists, politicians, and capitalists saw economic value in spaces that were once considered barren, dangerous, or unfit for human life.

Intense commodification of high-altitude resources has led to precarious economic development thanks to changing precipitation patterns and global temperature rise. In response, states and corporations have sought both to conserve and exploit high-altitude resources enmeshed in global networks. To investigate the relationship between climate, extraction, and speculation, the panelists offer a set of case studies in diverse geographic and social contexts. Jesse Ritner investigates the monetary value of snow in the Rocky Mountains of the United States, highlighting early impacts of climate on the economy as early as the 1980s. Drolma Gadou explores the recent history of yak wool commodification in Tibet and the inequities in the commodity chain. Thuy Lihn Nguyen examines how French colonial coal mining in highland Vietnam both disrupted and invigorated timber and opium trade networks under the control of Chinese, Vietnamese and ethnic Dao traders who mobilized their understanding of high-altitude forests to adapt to changing economic, political, and environmental conditions. Matthew Turetsky discusses how quinoa's unique properties and adaptations to high-altitude environments confounded twentieth century Andean scientists and inhibited industrialization.

Sub Unit

• ASEH Annual Conference

Individual Presentations

• Climate Tradeoffs and Impossible Futures in the United States Ski Industry - Jesse Ritner, The University of Texas at Austin

• Timber and Opium on a Sino-Vietnamese Coal Frontier - Thuy Linh Nguyen, Mount Saint Mary College

• The Yak Wool Commodity Chain and Uneven Geographic Development - Drolma Gadou, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Quinoa Commodification in the Andean Highlands and the Pursuit of Alternative Grains - Matthew Turetsky, Carnegie Mellon University

Chair

• Rachel Gross, University of Colorado Denver