The Trouble with Climate Change and National Parks

Mark Carey has published a chapter in the new book, National Parks beyond the Nation: Global Perspectives on “America’s Best Idea”, edited by Adrian Howkins, Jared Orsi, and Mark Fiege (Oklahoma, 2016). Carey’s chapter compares climate change rhetoric, discours

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e, and perspectives in Glacier National Park (USA) and Huascaran National Park (Peru). He argues that the climate discourse exposes and builds on longstanding perceptions of national parks, which are different in both regions. The chapter brings a critical perspective to other studies that focus primarily on documenting climate change impacts in parks. Instead Carey asks why people want to be saving those parks in the first place, how the efforts diverge or perpetuate trends from the past, and what exactly they are trying to save (or not).

Overall, the edited collection featuring the work of prominent scholars working around the world is an excellent contribution to scholarship on national parks globally.