Environmental communication, global trade and being here

This chapter explores environmental communication as it occurs within the shifting conditions of mediatisation and of global trade and politics. It asks how communities form to inhabit – consciously if not physically – the places that are pressured and threatened by human activity and the transnational movement of resources, goods, people and ideas. It provides an overview of the concept of mediatised environmental conflict and offers three examples drawn from the Australia-Asian region concerning water extraction, timber procurement and the fate of the Great Barrier Reef. It concludes by asking how mediatised environmental conflict might become a more effective catalyst for supporting sustained positive change for environments, places and people.