ABSTRACT This essay narrates the ‘slow violence’, or creeping environmental harms taking place within contemporary environmental governance. It centres on a tall, dense and highly flammable introduced pasture species Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus), which was listed as a weed across north Australian jurisdictions in 2008. Since this time, it has continued to expand its reach across the Northern Territory (NT). With a potential invasion range of over 380,000 sqkm2, this grass is a serious threat to many more-than-human worlds in the north, including Indigenous-led and Indigenous-owned environmental service economies and multimillion-dollar projects engaged in savanna fire management for carbon credits. Drawing upon fieldwork and interviews with a range of public servants, landholders and researchers in the NT between 2015 and 2018, this essay demonstrates how environmental governance is being undermined through specific institutions and practices. Through an ethnographic reading of weed management documents, including several legal permits to grow Gamba grass within the NT’s ‘eradication zone’, this essay narrates the diverse threads of a pressing ‘slow’ disaster. The unfolding story of Gamba grass, we suggest, is instructive for those seeking to understand the present and future of resource extraction or ‘extractivism’ in Australia and elsewhere.

中文翻译：

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燃烧许可证：杂草、缓慢的暴力和澳大利亚北部的榨取式未来

摘要 本文叙述了在当代环境治理中发生的“缓慢暴力”或逐渐蔓延的环境危害。它以高大、密实和高度易燃的引进牧草品种冈巴草 (Andropogon gayanus) 为中心，该草于 2008 年被列为澳大利亚北部辖区的杂草。 从那时起，它继续扩大其在北领地 (NT) 的影响）。这种草的潜在入侵范围超过 380,000 平方公里，对北部许多超越人类的世界构成严重威胁，包括土著领导和土著拥有的环境服务经济体以及从事热带草原火灾管理的数百万美元项目碳信用。根据 2015 年至 2018 年间对北领地的一系列公务员、土地所有者和研究人员的实地调查和采访，这篇文章展示了环境治理是如何通过特定的机构和实践受到破坏的。通过对杂草管理文件的民族志阅读，包括在北领地“根除区”内种植冈巴草的几项法律许可，这篇文章叙述了一场紧迫的“缓慢”灾难的不同线索。我们建议，冈巴草正在展开的故事对那些寻求了解澳大利亚和其他地方资源开采或“开采主义”的现在和未来的人具有启发意义。