An Australian feeling for snow towards understanding cultural and emotional dimensions of climate change

In Australia, snow is associated with alpine and subalpine regions in rural areas; snow is a component of ‘natural’ rather than urban environments. But the range, depth and duration of Australia’s regional snow cover is imperilled by climate change. While researchers have considered the impacts of snow retreat on the natural environment and responses from the mainland ski industry, this paper explores associated cultural and emotional dimensions of climate change. This responds to calls to account for local meanings of climate, and thus localised perceptions of and responses to climate change. Accordingly, this paper presents a case study of reactions to the affect of climate change on Tasmania’s snow country. Data is drawn from a nationwide survey of responses to the impact of climate change on Australia’s snow country, and a Tasmanian focus group. Survey respondents suggested the uneven distribution of Australia’s snow country means snow cover loss may matter more in certain areas: Tasmania was a key example cited by residents of both that state and others. Focus group respondents affirmed a connection between snow and Tasmanian cultural identity, displaying sensitivity to recent changing snow patterns. Moreover, they expressed concerns about the changes using emotive descriptions of local examples: the loss of snow cover mattered culturally and emotionally, compromising local cultural activities and meanings, and invoking affective responses. Simultaneously, respondents were ‘realistic’ about how important snow loss was, especially juxtaposed with sea level rise. Nevertheless, the impact of climate change on cultural and emotional attachments can contribute to urgent ethical, practical and political arguments about arresting global warming. Keywords Australian, feeling, for, snow, towards, understanding, cultural, emotional, dimensions, climate, change Disciplines Life Sciences | Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details Gorman-Murray, A. W. (2010). An Australian feeling for snow towards understanding cultural and emotional dimensions of climate change. Cultural Studies Review, 16 (1), 60-81. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/scipapers/3383 Cultural Studies Review volume 16 number 1 March 2010 http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/csrj/index  Andrew Gorman-Murray 2010    An Australian Feeling for Snow Towards Understanding Cultural and Emotional Dimensions of Climate Change ANDREW GORMAN-MURRAY —CARING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE: DO AUSTRALIANS HAVE ‘A FEELING FOR SNOW’? What does snow mean to Australians? I asked this question of participants in a study  on  the  cultural  significance  of  snow  conditions  in  Australia  that  was  undertaken  throughout  2008  and  2009.  This  investigation  was  prompted  by  models  of  the  impact  of  climate  change  on  snow  conditions  in  mainland  Australia  published  in  2003  by  the  Commonwealth  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research  Organisation  (CSIRO). The CSIRO projected a significant reduction in the area, duration and depth  of winter snow cover  in  the Australian Alps as a  result of  rising  temperatures and  precipitation  changes  associated  with  global  warming:  the  area  receiving  at  least  thirty days of snow cover will decrease by 14 to 54 per cent by 2020 and 30 to 93  per cent by 2050, while the area with at least sixty days snow cover will decrease by  18 to 60 per cent by 2020 and 38 to 96 per cent by 2050.1 Simultaneously, maximum  snow depths will decline and the snowline will rise: at Mt Kosciuszko, ‘the snowline  elevation  on  1  September  is  predicted  to  rise  from  the  present  average  of  1461  metres to between 1488 and 1624 metres by 2020’.2 These figures suggest the effect  of climate change on snow conditions in Australia will be significant at the lower end  of the spectrum and devastating at the higher end. 

At one level, I wanted to know if Australians cared about the diminution of snow and, consequently, those landscapes and ecosystems dependent on snow cover. 4 Moreover, I wanted to think about how concerned reactions might be channelled intoameliorativeactionsagainstclimatechange.Snowmatterstotheviabilityofthe mainland ski tourism industry, of course-and this is the site of most work on cultural implications of snow loss 5 -but I was interested in broader meanings and feelingsassociatedwithsnowcoverandwondered,mighttherebewiderlessonsto belearntfromourresponsestoimminentchangesinAustraliansnowconditions?
This article reflects on some of the findings of this project.I begin with a conceptualframework,arguingfortheneedtoappreciatelocalisedinterpretations of climate change through cultural meanings.Here, I also outline data collection methods: a survey, participant observation and focus group discussions.I then discuss several emergent themes.The survey indicated that distinct geographical patterns were associated with Australian snow conditions.Snow conditions and cultures were linked with rural, regional and 'natural' mountain wilderness areas rather than urban settings.This positions the project under the remit of rural -

CULTURAL AND EMOTIONAL DIMENSIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: CONCEPTS AND METHODS
MyprojectrespondstoHulme'srecentcallformoreculturalgeographicalworkon climate change. 6Hulme, whose interdisciplinary approach to climate change straddles both human and physical geography, asserts that since the mid-1980s climatechangepolicyandpublicdiscoursehasbeenshapedbythenaturalsciences, whereclimateis'definedpurelyinphysicalterms,constructedfrommeteorological observations, predicted inside the software of Earth system science models and governed (or not) through multi-lateral agreements and institutions'. 7This spatial dissociation engenders severe problems for policy-driven attempts to advocate for effective responses to climate change, especially in the developed West. 13Over the last decade a range of surveys has shown that the globalised discourse of climate change has distanced and de-contextualised the problem from our everyday lifeworlds 14 -particularly in the West, with our reliance on air-conditioning and heating to 'terra-form' our immediate environment. 15This provides a way for individualstoexpressconcern,butavoidbehaviouralchange:It'saglobalproblem, sowhatIdolocallywon'treallymakeadifference. 16ankfully,asrecentreportsbyHulmeandHead 17 19 TogethertheyarguethatlocalweatherpatternsandclimatetrendsinAustraliahave been 'invested with meanings that cannot be read from a thermometer or rain gauge'andhave'mergedwiththeimaginingofnationhood,withtheconstructionof an Australian identity'. 20This project follows the path initiated by these scholars, focusing on local and national values around a particular climate pattern-Australian snow conditions-in order to advance localised cultural and emotional promptsregardingclimatechangemeaningsandresponses.
In particular, understanding individuals' emotional responses to altered landscapesandseasonalrhythmshasbeenabsentfromresearchonclimatechange to date. 21This lacuna demands attention.As I suggested above, individuals 'feel' their environments through 'embodied' engagements with seasonal weather conditions, 22 and it is clear that climate change will fundamentally alter seasonal patterns of precipitation, humidity and temperature. 23Yet much work on 'human dimensions' of climate change (as it is called by natural scientists) utilises risk perception lenses that gauge public opinion on the relative importance of climate changevisàvisothersocioeconomicandenvironmentalissues. 24Theseapproaches favour cognitive rational-choice models, which assume individuals 'distance' themselves from their environments to make 'rational' assessments of climate risk overconsiderationsofsensoryengagementswithplace. 25Theythereforeexhibitthe sameproblemsasscientificmodelsofglobalwarming,cleavinghumanperceptions from everyday experiences of landscape, climate and weather.Insights from the burgeoning field of emotional geographies might address this gap. 26Within this bodyofwork,emotionsareunderstoodnotasinteriormentalstates,butrelational achievements that provide the connective tissue between individuals and place. 27ile there are several traditions informing emotional geographies, phenomenological approaches are most relevant to my concerns here. 28Under the banner of humanistic geography, phenomenological geographers have emphasised theimportanceofexperientialdimensionsofplace,feltthroughembodiedpractices, for understanding local and regional cultural values. 29In this light, emotional responses are situated embodied engagements that cement place attachments and meanings,andthusprovidenewinsightintolocalmeaningsofclimatechange.-  Likewise,focusgroupdiscussantsnotedaconsiderabledeclineinsnowfallandsnow cover over the last two decades.Susan has lived all her life in Ferntree, a higher-elevationHobartsuburbwhichhasfelttheeffectsofchangingsnowconditions: Susan:IgrewupinFerntreeatabout500metresaltitudeonMtWellington and we used to get snowed in two or three times a year in the '70s and '80s,andithasn'thappenedfor-itnowonlyhappensonceeverytwoor threeyears.
Andrew: Have you spoken to other people in the area about that as well? Havetheyseenthesamething?
John, meanwhile, reiterated the diminishing snow conditions higher up Mt Wellington: Certainlythere'sbeenalotlesssnowuptherethanthereusedtobe.We've hadyearswhenthere'sbeenalmostnosnowrightthroughwinter…It'sa combination of warmer winters and drier winters that has meant there has been less snow up there than there has been.Well, I think Susan is right-the last time there was regular snowfall was the late '80s and perhaps just into the early '90s.Since then it's been, as I'm saying, less precipitationandwarmerinthewinter.LorenzoniandPidgeonargue,'situatingclimatechange"inthelocality"willprovide the driver to initiate behavioural change, as the benefits become tangible to active participants'withintheirownlifeworlds. 41Inturn,successful'locallevelinitiatives may set the precedent' for and prompt wider-ranging national policies. 42Indeed, emotionalandsensoryexperienceofourlocalenvironmentisafundamentalpartof our quality of life, and thus should crucially inform the terms of social justice and environmentalpolicyatallscales. 43w,then,mightthisprojectalsoaddressandadvancetheburgeoningwork inruralculturalstudies?Ruralculturalstudiesisanunrulyfield,comprisingarange of issues and approaches. 44The point of commonality is a sense of material and imaginative geography, with questions of rurality and regionality at the fore.

These assertions affirm
significance of snow conditions in Australia that was undertaken throughout 2008 and 2009.This investigation was prompted by models of the impact of climate change on snow conditions in mainland Australia published in 2003 by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).TheCSIROprojectedasignificantreductioninthearea,durationanddepth of winter snow cover in the Australian Alps as a result of rising temperatures and precipitation changes associated with global warming: the area receiving at least to access multi-scaled and multi-local perspectives on the cultural significance of Australian snow conditions in light of climate change.This included meanings framed at both the scales of the nation and the region, with localised case studies (below).Initially, a qualitative online survey was conducted between March and October 2008.Thirty questions were designed to elicit general knowledge of the geography of Australian snow conditions, personal experiences of snow, and reactions to the projected loss of snow cover due to climate change.Through this collectionprocessIwantedtogainanational-scaleperspective,soanonlinesurvey was used to expediently access views from across the country.An invitation was distributed through various online groups focused on environment and climate awareness, including Weather Zone, Envirotalk and Climate Change Action. 30Importantly, these groups largely comprise interested members of the general public, not environmental scientists, and thus this purposeful sampling was intended to contact people interested (and/or sceptical) about climate change scenarios.Ninety-fiveresponseswerereceived:forty-threefromNewSouthWales, thirtyfromVictoria,sevenfromTasmania,fiveeachfromQueenslandandWestern Australia,threefromSouthAustralia,andtwofromtheAustralianCapitalTerritory.Of the respondents, 95.8 per cent had British or European ancestry and their ages ranged from sixteen to sixty-eight years.I have analysed these data elsewhere, alongsidearchivalmaterials,tointerrogatenationalculturalvaluesoftheAustralian Alps visàvis climate change. 31I use them here to understand the spatial and local contingencyunderpinningmeaningsofsnow.The second stage of data collection was designed to access localised practices,feelingsandvaluesassociatedwithsnowconditions,andcomprisedfocus groups and participant observation in places strongly linked with snow culture.Accordingly, I spent a week in Hobart in July 2008, in winter, observing everyday interactions between local residents and snow conditions.As intimated in the introduction, I chose Tasmania rather than the Australian Alps because of the comparatively lesser prominence of commercial ski tourism, and more 'mundane' relationships with snow cover.I interacted with locals, asked about the historical geography of snow in Hobart and Tasmania, and observed casual utterances and conversationsaboutlocalsnowconditions.Ialsoconductedafocusgroupwithlocal residents about what snow means to Hobartians and Tasmanians, including links with local cultural practices and values and how these are being affected by changing climatic trends.Participants were recruited with the help of a key informant with 'insider' knowledge of local snow cultures.These discussions and observationsprovidedvaluableinsightsintoculturalandemotionalattachmentsto localsnowconditions.InthepenultimatesectionofthisarticleIinterpretthisdata, combined with the seven survey responses from Hobartians, to understand meanings and feelings associated with climate change impacts on local climateculture connections.First, I discuss what the survey revealed about the cultural geography of Australian snow, including the place of Hobart and Tasmania in this spatialimaginary.
, make stronger arguments for behavioural changes that might assistinamelioratingtheeffectsofglobalwarming.Giventhatastronglinkbetween snow conditions and Tasmanian lifestyles emerged in the survey responses, I undertook fieldwork in Hobart about the meaning of climate change impacts on Hobartian and wider Tasmanian snow conditions.I analyse those findings in the penultimatesectionofthisarticle.-CULTURAL AND EMOTIONAL DIMENSIONS OF SNOW LOSS IN HOBART AND TASMANIA Analyses of the cultural and emotional dimensions of snow loss in Tasmania is drawn here from three data sources outlined earlier: a one-and-a-half hour focus group discussion held in Hobart on this topic, combined with replies from seven survey respondents resident in Hobart, and participant observation in Hobart duringwinter2008.Thefocusgroupdiscussantscomprisedtwowomen(both30something) and two men (one 30-something, one 50-something), all tertiaryeducated, environmentally conscious Anglo-Australians. 36It is important to note that the data is based on responses from a particular part of Tasmania-Hobartand that in analysing this material I am therefore focusing on perceptions and experiences of snow loss provided by Hobartians.In describing their personal encounterswithsnow,bothfocusgroupandsurveyrespondentsdrewattentionto localexperiencesof(changesin)snowcover;thatis,onconditionsandengagements in and around Hobart.But, simultaneously, the respondents also reflected on their experiencesofsnow,andperceptionsofsnowcoverchanges,acrossTasmaniamore widely.As respondents themselves suggested, such multi-scaled engagement is perhapsenabledbythesmallersizeofTasmaniacomparedtootherstates.Thedata thus elicited responses to both Hobartian and wider Tasmanian changes in snow cover,andanalysisofthesediscussions,responsesandobservationseducedseveral themes about spatially contingent cultural values and emotional facets of Tasmania's diminishing snow conditions.I focus on four intersecting themes: local sensitivitytosnowcoverchange;localculturalmeaningsaboutsnowconditionsand climatechange;theroleofaccessibilitytosnowinculturalpracticesandvalues;and emotional responses to climate change impacts on snow conditions and cultures.While I discuss each in turn-roughly-they are not discrete elements, of course.Rather,theyinterleavetoproduceamultifacetednetofclimate-cultureconnections, andtheseintersectionsareapparentbelow.While the CSIRO advocates more meteorological work be done on climate change impacts on Tasmanian snow conditions, 37 respondents indicated that local snowlossiswellunderway.Take,forinstance,thesesurveyresponses: IbelievethatHobart'ssnowfallnumbersandintensityhavegreatlyfallen offinrecentdecades.[Anglo-Australianmale,68,Glenorchy]PeoplesayitusedtobecolderandHobarthasreceivedsnow-Ihaveyet toseeitotherthanonMtWellington[adjacentHobart]andotherpeaksin Tasmania.[Britishmale,64,Lindisfarne]Really,overthelasttwenty-fiveyearsMtWellington'ssnowfallshavegota lotless!![Anglo-Australianmale,32,SouthHobart] Hulme's argument about the need to recognise meanings of climate change as locally contingent.Weather is felt locally, through everyday embodied practices, which in turn contextualise-or 'ground'-the cultural values associated with (changing) climatic conditions.I want to juxtapose twoinstancesofclimate-cultureconnectivity-anobservationInoted,subsequently reworkedbythefocusgroup-tohighlighttheimportanceoflocalmeaningswhen thinking about the challenges posed by climate change.In Hobart I visited Wrest PointCasino,andwalkedthroughacorridorof'representative'imagesofTasmania.Over half the photographs featured snow-covered landscapes or wintery alpine mountaintops.It seemed through these images that snow conditions were integral toTasmanianimaginaries.Irelatedthisduringthefocusgrouptoaskdiscussantsif they thought snow conditions were an important aspect of Tasmanian identity whichdifferedfrommainlandAustralia,andifclimatechangewoulddetrimentally affect this 'snowy' Tasmanian identity.While they agreed that such images commonly symbolised Tasmania, they saw these as a 'marketing construct', not a reflection of how snow conditions shape the everyday meanings and cultural practices of Tasmanians themselves.Rather than climate change and diminishing snow compromising symbolic images of Tasmania, discussants were more concernedwiththeimpactonlocalculturalvaluesandpractices.Forinstance,John said: I think for me it's very much a problem for us as locals that that snow experience is becoming less frequent and to some extent non-existent.I justlovetakingpeopleintothesnowifIcan.Ilovetakingmykidsintothe snowbecauseIknewthey'dlikeit.IhavealotofvisitorstoTasmaniaand ifIgotanopportunityIwouldtakethemintothesnow,particularlyifthey come from countries where they don't get snow experiences-or even if theycomefromAdelaide.In describing accessible snow experiences, John hinted at a key way snow conditions entwine with local cultural practices and values.While Tasmania's southerly latitude compared to mainland Australia means snow is more likely, simultaneously the small size of the island-state-again, compared with mainland states-means that Tasmanians have tangible interactions, rather than simply imaginativeassociations,withsnowconditions.Indeed,discussantsreflectedonthe roleofscaleandaccessibilityinTasmania'ssnowculture: Susan:Geographically,it'sasmallarea.Itwouldbeinterestingtoknowby statewhatlevelofpopulationlivedwithinhalfaday'sdriveofsnowwhen it does happen.Here [in Hobart] we've got half-50 per cent of the population-atthebaseofMtWellington.That'sprettysignificant,Ithink.BeingaTasmanian,it[snow]ispartoftherichtapestryoflife.Ithinkofit asbeingdistinctivefrommainlandAustralia.Linda:EventhoughI'veonlybeeninTasmaniatwelveyears,snowispart of my photo album, my history of where I recreate [take recreation] and liveandplay.It'sabackdrop.It'sbeautiful.AlltheparticipantsagreedthatthegeographicalsizeofTasmaniameantthatmore people were proximate to and regularly experienced snow conditions as part of theireverydaylivesthanmostotherAustralians.Dan,forinstance,providedhisown observationonsnow'sroutineplaceinlocallives: I was at the supermarket this morning and I overheard three conversations about the weather and they all ended with, 'The snow will bedownlowtoday.'Thatwastheirconversations.'IbetthesnowisdownatFerntree',or'Peoplewillbefightinghardtogettoworkthismorning.'In this vignette, Dan, like Susan, referred to the common presence of snow onMtWellington,Hobart'smountainbackdrop,whichrises1271metresabovesea level. 38Duringwinter,asSusannoted,snoweasilyfallsinhigherelevationsuburbs at the foot of the mountain, such as Ferntree.Indeed, while I was there the snow reacheddowntofivehundredmetresabovesealevel(Figure1).Butmoreover,both surveyandfocusgroupparticipantsindicatedthatsnowcanbeayear-roundevent on the mountain; as one survey respondent (Anglo-Australian male, 32, South Hobart)wrote: OnMtWellingtonthesnowcanfallanytimeoftheyear.Ihaveseensnow settle as low as 600m in summertime, and just this February [2008] we hadabouta10-12cmfallonthemountain.The constant possibility and presence of snow on Mt.Wellington embeds snow conditionsinlocalHobartianculturesandvalues.Moreover,thislocallycontingent climate-culture relationship has a crucial emotional register as well.John evocatively expressed this emotional connection to local weather patterns, and particularlydiminishingsnowconditions,catalysedthroughMtWellington: WhenyouliveinHobart,peopletalkaboutthemoodsofthemountain,and snow is one of the important moods of the mountain.And we're not getting that particular mood as often as we feel we perhaps ought to be gettingitandthatisadisappointingthing…Ifyou'renotgettingsnowas part of that experience for very long periods of time you do notice that somethinghaschanged.Itprobablyhitsalotofpeopleinthefacethatthat is no longer a mood which we're experiencing and we can't take it for grantedanylonger.Throughevokingthe'moodsofthemountain',Johnnotonlyreinforcedtheclimate change impact on locally contingent cultural meanings of snow conditions, but demonstrated that these local climate-culture connections have a powerful emotionalresonancewhichisbeingupsetbytheeffectsofglobalwarming.Indeed, emotive language permeated discussants' speech, articulating underlying senses of angst,disappointmentanddisorientationassociatedwithdiminishinglocalsnowfall.Thesenseofemotionalconnectionanddissonancewithebbingsnowcover extends beyond the vicinity of Hobart, into the wider Tasmanian countryside as well.Accessibilitytorural,mountainousandwildernessareasmeans,asSusansaid, 'we've got such an outdoor culture down here.There are so many people that go bushwalking and cross-country skiing.'The discussants focused on cross-country skiing as a Tasmanian cultural practice-and emotive experience-seriously affectedbysnowloss.Inwinter,muchofthecountrysidewasaccessibleforcross-

An Australian Feeling for Snow Towards Understanding Cultural and Emotional Dimensions of
Cultural Studies Review volume 16 number 1 March 2010 http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/csrj/index Andrew Gorman-Murray 2010 -CARING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE: DO AUSTRALIANS HAVE 'A FEELING FOR SNOW'?

Table 1 :
Regions and cities associated with snow conditions in Australia, from seventy-six 35ATIAL CONTINGENCIES: IMAGINATIVE AND MATERIAL GEOGRAPHIES OF AUSTRALIAN SNOWIn the survey I specifically asked respondents: What is your knowledge of snow conditionsinAustralia?Writeinasmuchdetailasyoulikeabouttheplaceswhereit snows.The seventy-six respondents who answered this question indicated that particular geographical patterns were associated with Australian snow conditions.This, in turn, reveals some of the cultural meanings about snow in Australia, and how they differ from other countries.The results, listed in frequency of mentions, arecontainedinTable1.What taken-for-granted geographical connections are evident through the responses?Table1indicates that Australian snow conditions are overwhelmingly associatedwithruralareas.Outoftwenty-threediscretelocalitiesnamed,fourteen are rural regions-including those making up the top thirteen responses.Overall, rural regions across the country were mentioned 266 times, while urban centres (withpopulationsmorethan20,000people)werementionedonlytwenty-seven Melbourne) noted, 'Very few Australians live above the snowline, or in fact anywhere near it.Australian snow coverage is all remote.'Indeed, the only major cities that receive (a few centimetres of) snow every few years are Hobart and Canberra,asthesurveyresultsintimated.33This configuration of the Australian snow country within an urban-rural binarycanbefurtherrefined.Asrecentgeographicalworkinruralculturalstudies stresses, the meaning of 'the rural' in Australia is highly differentiated, spanning pastoral, bush, outback and other imaginaries in a multi-scalar fashion.34Applyingthisdiversity to the present case, Table1shows that cultural understandings of Australian geography predominantly link snow conditions with mountainous terrainacrossthecontinent-theGreatDividingRange,FlindersRangesandStirling Ranges,forinstance-andinparticular,withalpineandsubalpinemountainareas, notably the Snowy Mountains, the Victorian High Country and the Tasmanian Highlands.These are particular 'ideal-types' of rurality: to adapt Bell's terms, 'wildscapes',associatedwithwildernessandpristinenature,and'adventurescapes', groomed for outdoor sporting activities.35Bell'sthird 'species' of rural space, the agrarian-pastoral 'farmscape', is almost absent from associations with Australian snowconditions;theonlynotedregionthatreallyfitsistheCentralWestSlopesof the Dividing Range in New South Wales.Ecologically speaking, the connections between alpine and subalpine mountain terrain and snow conditions is not surprising.Snow is, after all, one of the defining weather patterns of alpine environments.ButwhatthisdoesindicateisthatAustralians'understandingsofthe geographical range of snow conditions is much more contained than that of residents of overseas countries, where non-alpine snow cover across lower-lying climatic conditions.Second, Tasmania is one of the few regions where snow is not purely linked with alpine highlands: thirteen of these respondents invoked Tasmania-as a state, in its entirety-with snow conditions (no other state or territorywaslinkedthus,noteventheAustralianCapitalTerritory);afurthereleven people specifically mentioned snowfall on the Tasmanian lowlands.Third, of those few cities noted as snowy places, Hobart ranked highest with seven mentions, almosttwiceasmanyasthenexttwocities,OrangeandCanberra.