This fifth SDUK broadsheet examines the multifaceted meanings of ACCOUNTING in the age of climate change. This issue considers accounting in its colloquial sense, pertaining to investment and economics, but also moves beyond the ledger book to consider what remains uncounted, and what is consciously left out. Throughout this issue, we find slippery concepts, things, and actors that pose a challenge to accounting as a means of representation and understanding.
Beginning with economics, one might ask: What are the basic tools and assumptions on which accounting is based? In his ongoing unsettling of fundamental economic concepts, D.T. Cochrane looks at how prices are set and upheld. Meanwhile, in Randy Lee Cutler’s An Elemental Typology, the familiar grid format of a balance sheet is reimagined to consider how minerals and stones have been given value and significance.
As many contributors to this issue suggest, decisions about what does and doesn’t get counted are entangled in our sociopolitical worlds. Kristen Simmons’ Settler Atmospherics queries how toxic atmospheres are created and maintained at Standing Rock, North Dakota. Kelly Wood’s Fugitive Pollutions extends these concerns to Southern Ontario, photographing industrial air pollution that is often posited as an unavoidable by-product of business activity. Fraser McCallum’s column explores the elusiveness of dust, taking up the concept of externality examined throughout this issue.
Readers who are policy-minded may wonder: How are industries and regulators holding one another accountable in light of a changing climate? A profile of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance by Kristen Schaper provides a case study, while the regulatory frameworks of aviation industry emissions are addressed by Laurel Besco, and a profile of Musket Transport considers what can be done to mitigate pollution in the freight trucking industry.
How can accountability be upheld and demanded? Several contributions address this question by looking at institutions: Camille-Mary Sharp interrogates museum sponsorship practices; Regan de Loggan and Maria Hupfield of the Indigenous Womxn’s Collective demand accountability of the Whitney Museum’s Board of Directors through performative protest; and James K. Rowe and Alexis Shotwell address the investments made by the Canada Pension Plan on behalf of Canadian citizens. Finally, Steve G. Hoffman shines light on the often-overlooked field of Disaster and Emergency Management, while calling for greater community accountability in that profession.
Some readers may wonder: How can we think about value without the need to quantify and enumerate it? Through close attention to subtle weather patterns, and the emotional states they provoke, J.R. Carpenter’s poetry records natural phenomena that are felt, but rarely recorded. Adam Dickinson’s image-poems perform a similar gesture; in his case, examining the unseeable worlds of microbial cultures.
Finally, this broadsheet closes with profiles of organizations throughout the GTHA, whose diverse work—from poverty alleviation to energy retrofitting—creates valuable local change in ways that can’t always be quantified. Likewise, our glossary builds a set of terms whose meanings are multiple and complex, highlighting how accounts are also narrative stories.