The Earth is currently experiencing an extinction crisis. Unlike previous mass extinctions, this global event is largely caused by us—humans. Through pressures such as climate change, pollution, destruction of habitat, urban sprawl, and the introduction of exotic species, this human-caused crisis exceeds the event that wiped out the dinosaurs. A conservative estimate is that current rates of extinction are at least one hundred times greater than the prehistoric rates unaffected by human intervention.
This project explores what extinction might mean for emotional wellbeing. It seeks to understand our emotional relation to animals. We confront a series of questions as to how people are likely to respond to a coming world where many species will be lost forever. What feelings are elicited by images of threatened species by comparison with those already extinct? What responses do such images prompt, and what do such responses imply for change in people’s everyday practices? How do such images affect the way people imagine their sense of local urban regions, and their place in the wider world?
By answering these questions, we hope to contribute to understanding how we can best communicate ideas about the future of all the species on our planet.
