Scales of Environmental Engagement in an Industrial Town: Glocal Perspectives from Gladstone, Queensland.

Gladstone, Queensland, is one of Australia’s largest coal ports and the site of many industries. Few of the 65,000 residents of the region are socially and economically independent of the fossil fuel industry. Environmental engagement is fragmented. The city epitomises, in a striking way, the double bind of growth and sustainability. The Australian environmental movement is generally seen as distant and irrelevant to local concerns. The article analyses conditions for, forms of and implications of environmental engagement in a city where coal, gas and industry are taken for granted as necessary conditions for prosperity and economic security. To what extent are ecological relevant to the residents; and how can they be dealt with within the parameters that define their lifeworlds? What can the Gladstone experience teach us about possible solutions to the double bind of growth and sustainability? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]