ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Paradise Lost: Visions of Ecological Collapse in Postwar Conservation

• In Event: Searching for Eden in 20th-Century Ecological Thought

English Abstract

This talk explores how predictions of ecological collapse were integral to the public discussion of conservation in postwar Britain. Scientists and public figures drew on ecology in this period to present endangered species as key components of the delicate ‘natural equilibrium’ that sustained all life on earth. I show how the writer Gerald Durrell and the artist Peter Scott, among others, used ecology to frame endangered species as crucial for humanity’s survival, rather than just useful for science, education or tourism. As Scott told listeners to one radio broadcast, it was in their own interest to prevent extinction since ecology showed that ‘very often if one factor in the relationship is altered, the whole thing breaks down’. These predictions were accompanied by lurid visions of ecological collapse, where species loss caused food shortages, epidemic disease and, ultimately, human extinction. Such dystopian predictions were designed to foster a greater sense of connection with and obligation toward the natural world, and they allowed Scott and others to engage with the growing climate of anxiety that characterised the Cold War decades. But I also show that visions of ecological collapse or ‘paradise lost’ failed to cut through, with members of the public claiming they were hard to follow and depressing. These ambivalent responses ensured that figures like Scott continued to promote the conservation of single species, ‘especially the cuddly ones’, at the same time as they dwelt on ecological notions of interdependence.

Author

• Duncan Wilson, University of Manchester