Sydney Environment Institute

‘Thinking space’ is an established hour-long seminar series, held throughout the semester by the School of Geosciences. This interdisciplinary series aims to provide a generative space where new research from academics of all stages can be shared within the school as well as to a wider audience. Come along for some lunch time food for thought! All welcome.

This week

Rehabilitating Ranger Uranium Mine: Scientific Uncertainty, Deep Futures and the Regulatory Abyss

This presentation will discuss contestations surrounding the rehabilitation of the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. I explore how particular technical knowledges are privileged, but only so long as the rehabilitation problems at hand are deemed manageable. I also argue that the implications of the immense time scales of impacts are being ignored, and the question of monitoring, remediation, and regulation thousands of years into the deep future constitutes a kind of “uncomfortable knowledge”.

Rebecca Lawrence is a Research Affiliate at Sydney Environment Institute, a Research Associate at Stockholm Environment Institute, and a Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. Rebecca has a research collaboration with Australian Research Foundation regarding the rehabilitation of the Ranger Uranium mine.

For information, updates and RSVP, contact: nicola.perry@Sydney.edu.au or elizabeth.duncan@sydney.edu.au