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With regard to Antarctic policy and politics, I would say that my ecoself centre of gravity is mainly a mixture of eco-strategist and eco-radical, with at least a small dose of eco-holist and eco-integralist. The eco-strategist in me emerged from a childhood spent in the world of geology, palaeontology and zoology; from an early age I showed interest, and by parents and relatives had that interest multiplied, in these formal studies of the natural world. This continued into my graduate and postgraduate university studies, where the focus was ecology and zoology. The objective and interobjective basis of my youth and training means that my bias is generally towards interpreting reality through a scientific framework. Before my trip to Macquarie Island my main way of understanding and relating to the island was predominantly through empirical approaches. This was particularly so as the pest eradication project I travelled to observe was based heavily on using scientific means to restore an ecological system. I had previously worked as a ecological and communications officer for a large restoration project in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia655 and was well-versed in such programs and probably well-suited to the task of observing these systems- based policies. More broadly, the scientist in this ecoself supports technology, progress, and rationality, although I also strongly acknowledge emotional aspects of environmental protection and the intrinsic worth of people and nature. A political or policy communications strategy aimed at the eco-strategist in me would for example use images and messages based on scientific data, the opinions of well-respected academics, and a call for technological progress that does not necessarily exclude a healthy profit. One only has to think of classic climate change communications, which combine things like the promulgation of general trust in the combined opinion of the vast majority of climate scientists, messaging from high profile writers and researchers, and a call for an ecological modernisation through transition to a carbon-free economy.656

My eco-radical self or, as I prefer to say, eco-equality self, is not only aware of objective facts (Terrain of Behaviours) and the higher order political and ecological systems in which we are embedded (terrains of systems), but is also aware of how we are connected through shared experience and intersubjective understanding (Terrain of Cultures). That aspect of my ecoself is able

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Rogers, 'Exploring our Ecological Selves within Learning Organizations.' 655

Known as "Operation Bounceback," a Government program carried out cooperatively with both grazing leaseholders and landowners in South Australia. It utilised integrated vertebrate pest management (control of foxes, rabbits and goats) and monitoring of a range of species (pest species and vulnerable natives like the yellow-footed rock wallaby) and vegetation communities (saltbush, grasslands).

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157 to appreciate conflicting truth claims and support pluralistic worldviews. I am able to appreciate the interiority of beings (individuals) and cultures. This aspect of my ecoself can, then, appreciate the shared cultural mores around Antarctica and how these are connected to complex interobjective political, economic and ecological systems. For example, I am cognizant of the shared political understanding around the role of scientific research in Antarctica as a proxy for sovereignty, and how that connects to the multilateral agreements in the Antarctic Treaty.

Another example of interiority emerged on the journey to Macquarie Island on the Aurora Australis where I recall a surprisingly warm afternoon heading into a lazy-feeling evening and that day's exercise session for Hamish, the retired rabbiting-dog belonging to the project leader. Watching the dog run after his rope chew toy set me thinking about the role of dogs in the eradication project. The media in particular are always interested in "dogs helping us out" stories, drawn to celebrating the things humans and dogs achieve together.657 Such stories operate on a number of intersubjective levels, and they would form an important part of any analysis of the Polity aspect. They indicate that we have a level of shared understanding about and with dogs, that through this intra- and inter- species cultural understanding, both humans and dogs modify their behaviour to achieve an outcome. Mark Beckoff explains how his anthropomorphising of his dog not only allows for his own personal "shared understanding," but makes those wider cultural mores understandable to a wider audience, as does a multidisciplinary approach to animal consciousness and inter-species communication:

So, when I tried to figure out what was happening in my late dog Jethro’s head, I had to be anthropomorphic, but I tried to do it from a dog-centered - “dogocentric” - point of view. Just because I tell you Jethro was happy or jealous, this doesn’t mean he was happy or jealous like humans or, for that matter, like other dogs. Being anthropomorphic, in a reflective way, is a tool to make the thoughts and feelings of other animals accessible to humans. While we surely make errors from time to time, we’re pretty good about making accurate predictions in the realm of the mental. Not to mention that the validity of our anthropomorphic descriptions become all the more strengthened when we collaborate them with findings from other methodological investigations.658

The importance of such cultural understanding was again reinforced when the media crew I was accompanying on the island did a story about the rabbiting dogs currently in action and their handlers.659 With the success of the project, such stories have not lost their gloss.660 My eco-equality

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ABC Premium News, Sep 03, 2015, 'Stamp Honour for Dogs Who Saved Macquarie Island', URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-03/stamp-honour-for-dogs-who-clean-up-macquarie-island/6746672, retrieved 27 July 2016.

658

Esbjörn-Hargens and Zimmerman, Integral Ecology, p. xxiii. 659

Fiona Breen, ‘Evidence of mice offers timely reminder’, ABC News, 27 April, 2012, accessed 27 July 2016, URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-27/mouse-hunt-a-timely-reminder/3977060.

158 self sees the importance of such stories, as they provide access to a shared cultural space that enhances our care and concern for places like Macquarie Island. A political or policy communications strategy aimed at the eco-equality ecoself would use images or messages that show sensitivity to both human and wider ecological issues. It would encourage the liberation of the disempowered (in nature, as well as the human realm) and encourage “participation, sharing, consensus, teamwork, community involvement..” and use the “symbols of equity, humanity, and bonding.”661

The next aspect of my ecoself, the eco-holist, is (at least cognitively for me) at a second-tier level and is deeply aware of the complex overlapping legal, economic, social and ecological systems (Terrain of Systems) as well as the basic objective material processes (Terrain of Behaviours) that give rise to Macquarie Island as it is in the material world. But I also am aware of the multitude of individual and collective values and perspectives around the island and Antarctica (terrains of experience and culture) and understand the need for such perspectives, even if they may differ from my own. I know that the elements of an Antarctic policy tetra-arise in a holarchical way. Going broader than just Antarctic policy, and introducing the developmental aspect of the integral approach, I recognise how current monitory democracy has developed through a number of stages and that, likewise, ecological politics has also gone through at least three recent stages. The eco-holist in me appreciates the healthy aspects in the three stages of democracy (assembly, representative, monitory) and all three stages of ecological politics (participation, survival and emancipatory), but also sees the need for a fourth stage: an integral monitory democracy underpinned by a post- emancipatory or integrative ecological politics.

A political or policy communications strategy aimed at my eco-holist ecoself would use images or messages that reflect and reinforce the way environmental phenomena consist of a range of (tetra- arising) perspectives. It would use a clever juxtaposition of those things symbolic to each of the other ecoselves, putting them all together in a picture or weave them together in a video mandala, with perhaps a voiceover from a well-known but moderate climate scientist saying something like the following (ecoself type in parentheses): We know that climate change should be about scientific facts and figures (eco-strategist) and we think many of the facts and figures show that we need to get ready to adapt, survive and thrive (eco-warrior) in all kinds of possible climates, all kinds ecological systems, and in all kinds of social and political cultures (eco-equality and eco-holist). The economic facts and figures of tooling up for this future (eco-guardian) show it will not cause any high level of pain for very long (eco-manager). In fact, it promises a wealth of new technologies that 660

Steve Austin, ‘Macquarie Island, Once Ruled by Rabbits, is Saved by the Dogs’, The Weekend Australian Magazine, February 20, 2016, Accessed 28 June 2016.

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159 reduce our impact on the planet and also generate strong new sustainable markets (eco-strategist). We have to realise that we all have our own version of nature, our own version of climate change, our own views of whether or not we face an ecological crisis, but at the end of the day we are all just trying to learn how to survive on a planet that has change as a constant (all).

The eco-integralist in me does its very best to integrate and make sense of all of the perspectives and approaches of the other ecoselves. It is the part of me that tries to recognise that no ecological - or indeed no political or democratic - reality lasts forever, and to be open and aware to the suffering in the world. It is an important ecoself to develop as it is based on compassion, for self and other, which helps to prevent the feelings of helplessness the eco-radical and eco-holist often feel at the enormity of the ecological challenges we face. I have probably not embodied this ecoself as well as I could, but this thesis reflects at least part of my efforts to do so. There are, of course, ecoselves that I have not explored here, and I would direct the reader back to Chapter Three for a brief overview. However, as noted above, I was keen to briefly consider what ecoselves might be represented in Antarctic explorers and to also look at what an Integral Policy Adviser might look like.