Inklings: Unforgetting our watery bodies

Introduction Conservation education in the form of information and knowledge-building is generally insufficient to motivate people to pro-environmental behaviour. Rather than behaving according to principles of reason and consequence, people are largely motivated by emotions and personal connections with a place or issue. Connection and care are therefore the precursors to pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Speculative design and design fiction have a role to play in encouraging this sense of connection, care, and critical thinking about environmental issues. We humans are currently in a state of general dissociation from the natural world. The value and significance of water, essential to all life, has been disregarded, other than as a commodity or site for recreation. Our neglect of water’s fundamental importance means that rivers, groundwaters, and oceans are bearing the brunt of poor agricultural practices, careless waste disposal and the effects of carbon emissions. This chapter argues the need to refigure human relationships with water through speculative imaginings, to engage people in a sense of connection with water and the natural world, as a precursor to engaging in pro-environmental behaviour. I present an excerpt of my multi-form project Inklings and draw on diverse fields of knowledge to support this proposition.