Burning (and Drowning) in a Hell of Our Own Making

Noting that we have arrived at a crucial juncture for both planet and people, Pule “warms the seats” for a “dinner party” conversation on ecological masculinities. As an Australian scholar and activist living and working in Sweden, he discusses the traumatising effects of his home country’s “Black Summer” as he witnessed that event from afar. These musings are joined by reflections on the Californian and Amazonian fires, coupled with the, at times, puzzling responses to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, which suspended life as we knew it; all in the year that was 2020. These seemingly unrelated and monumental events are tell-tale signs of the precariousness of this moment in global history. Pule introduces the notion that the impacts of these events on life as we knew it are visceral reminders of our current challenges, which have been forged by the inequities of masculine hegemonisation, which is taken throughout this conversation to be a root cause of our global social and environmental problems. They also indicate that broad-sweeping change is afoot, whether we like it or not. It is argued here that ecological masculinities offer us an opportunity to point humanity (men and masculinities in particular) in the direction of broader, deeper, and wider care for the benefit of all life.