Climate Change Denial and Public Relations: Strategic Communication and Interest Groups in Climate Inaction

269 Pages·2019·3.805 MB·English

by  Núria Almiron and Jordi Xifra

Climate Change Denial
and Public Relations
This is the first book on climate change denial and lobbying that combines
the ideology of denial and the role of anthropocentrism in the study of interest
groups and communication strategy.
Climate Change Denial and Public Relations: Strategic Communication and Interest
Groups in Climate Inaction is a critical approach to climate change denial from
a strategic communication perspective. The book aims to provide an in-depth
analysis of how strategic communication by interest groups is contributing
to climate change inaction. It does this from a multidisciplinary perspective
that expands the usual approach of climate change denialism and introduces
a critical reflection on the roots of the problem, including the ethics of the
denialist ideology and the rhetoric and role of climate change advocacy. Topics
addressed include the power of persuasive narratives and discourses constructed
to support climate inaction by lobbies and think tanks, the dominant human
supremacist view and the patriarchal roots of denialists and advocates of climate
change alike, the knowledge coalitions of the climate think tank networks,
the denial strategies related to climate change of the nuclear, oil, and agrifood
lobbies, the role of public relations firms, the anthropocentric roots of public
relations, taboo topics such as human overpopulation and meat-eating, and the
technological myth.
This unique volume is recommended reading for students and scholars of
communication and public relations.
Núria Almiron is an Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University,
Barcelona. She studies the ethics and political economy of communication,
interest groups and strategic communication, critical animal studies, and
environment. Her work has appeared in journals such as Journalism Studies,
Environmental Communication, and the European Journal of Communication.
Jordi Xifra is a Professor at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. He studies
public relations from history, philosophy, and filmic perspectives. His work has
appeared in journals such as Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations
Research, and American Behavioral Scientist. He is founder of Public Relations
Inquiry.
Routledge New Directions in Public Relations
and Communication Research
Edited by Kevin Moloney
Current academic thinking about public relations (PR) and related commu-
nication is a lively, expanding marketplace of ideas and many scholars believe
that it’s time for its radical approach to be deepened. Routledge New Directions in
PR & Communication Research is the forum of choice for this new thinking. Its
key strength is its remit, publishing critical and challenging responses to con-
tinuities and fractures in contemporary PR thinking and practice, tracking its
spread into new geographies and political economies. It questions its contested
role in market-orientated, capitalist, liberal democracies around the world, and
examines its invasion of all media spaces, old, new, and as yet unenvisaged. We
actively invite new contributions and offer academics a welcoming place for
the publication of their analyses of a universal, persuasive mind-set that lives
comfortably in old and new media around the world.
Books in this series will be of interest to academics and researchers involved
in these expanding fields of study, as well as students undertaking advanced
studies in this area.
Protest Public Relations
Communicating Dissent and Activism
Edited by Ana Adi
Public Relations in the Gulf Cooperation Countries
An Arab Perspective
Edited by Talal M. Almutairi and Dean Kruckeberg
Public Relations as Emotional Labour
Liz Yeomans
Climate Change Denial and Public Relations
Strategic Communication and Interest Groups in Climate Inaction
Edited by Núria Almiron and Jordi Xifra
For more information about the series, please visit www.routledge.com/Routledge-
New-Directions-in-Public-Relations-Communication-Research/book-series/
RNDPRCR
Climate Change Denial
and Public Relations
Strategic Communication and
Interest Groups in Climate Inaction
Edited by Núria Almiron
and Jordi Xifra
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Núria Almiron and Jordi Xifra;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Núria Almiron and Jordi Xifra to be identified as the authors
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Xifra i Triadâu, Jordi, editor. | Almiron, Nâuria, editor.
Title: Climate change denial and public relations : strategic communication
and interest groups in climate inaction / edited by Nâuria Almiron and
Jordi Xifra.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Series: Routledge new directions in public relations and communication
research | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019009032| ISBN 9780815358831 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781351121798 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Climatic changes—Social aspects. | Global warming—
Social aspects.
Classification: LCC QC903 .C55767 2019 | DDC 304.2/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019009032
ISBN: 978-0-8153-5883-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-12179-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of illustrations vii
About the editors ix
Notes on contributors x
Introduction 1
NÚRIA ALMIRON AND JORDI XIFRA
PART I
Ethics and anthropocentrism in climate change denial
and public relations 7
1 Rethinking the ethical challenge in climate change
lobbying: a discussion of ideological denial 9
NÚRIA ALMIRON
2 The anthropocentric roots of public relations:
a (pre)historical approach and ontological consideration 26
JORDI XIFRA
3 An ecofeminist analysis of worldviews and climate
change denial 43
LISA KEMMERER
4 Why environmentalism cannot beat denialism: an
antispeciesist approach to the ethics of climate change 59
CATIA FARIA AND EZE PAEZ
5 The elephant in the room: the role of interest groups
in creating and sustaining the population taboo 74
KARIN KUHLEMANN
vi Contents
PART II
Theorizing the story line of climate change denial 101
6 Talking about climate change: the power of narratives 103
MIQUEL RODRIGO-ALSINA
7 Climate change countermovement organizations
and media attention in the United States 121
MAXWELL BOYKOFF AND JUSTIN FARRELL
8 Think tank networks and the knowledge-interest
nexus: the case of climate change 140
DIETER PLEHWE
PART III
Lobbying for denial in climate change 157
9 The climate smokescreen: the public relations
consultancies working to obstruct greenhouse gas
emissions reductions in Europe – a critical approach 159
LUCY MICHAELS AND KATHARINE AINGER
10 “Cowgate”: meat eating and climate change denial 178
VASILE STANESCU
11 “This nagging worry about the carbon dioxide issue”:
nuclear denial and the nuclear renaissance campaign 195
NÚRIA ALMIRON, NATALIA KHOZYAINOVA, AND LLUÍS FREIXES
PART IV
Advocating against climate change denial 215
12 Fighting climate change denial in the United States 217
LUIS E. HESTRES
13 A wicked systems approach to climate change advocacy 233
ANA FERNÁNDEZ-ABALLÍ
Index 251
Illustrations
Figures
7.1 Network mapping of climate countermovement organizations
and individuals in the United States. 125
7.2 Monthly media coverage over thirty years (1988–2017)
(ABC News, CBS News, CNN News, Fox News, MSNBC,
NBC News, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York
Times, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times) of the Cooler
Heads Coalition, the Global Climate Coalition, the Science
and Environmental Policy Project, Americans for Prosperity,
the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the
Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Committee for
a Constructive Tomorrow, the George C. Marshall Institute,
and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. 127
7.3 Media coverage year-to-year 1988–2017 of the Cooler
Heads Coalition, the Global Climate Coalition, the Science
and Environmental Policy Project, Americans for Prosperity,
the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the
Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Committee for
a Constructive Tomorrow, the George C. Marshall Institute,
and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. 127
7.4 Media coverage year-to-year 1988–2017 of the eleven CCM
organizations on ABC News, CBS News, CNN News,
Fox News, MSNBC, and NBC News. 128
7.5 Media coverage year-to-year 1988–2017 of the eleven CCM
organizations in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal,
New York Times, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times. 129
7.6 Proportions of media coverage year-to-year 1988–2017
of the eleven CCM organizations across ABC News,
CBS News, CNN News, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC News,
the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times,
USA Today, and Los Angeles Times. 130
viii Illustrations
Tables
3.1 False value dualisms. 46
3.2 Comparison of farmed anymal suffering based on sex. 50
8.1 Stockholm Network member think tanks that have
published climate change skeptical publications. 150
13.1 Epistemological and methodological underpinnings of
emancipatory ethics (ethics of integration). 239
13.2 Eco-symbolic systems categories, variables, and variable
clarification questions. 242
About the editors
Núria Almiron is an Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Bar-
celona. Her main research topics include the political economy of com-
munication, the ethics of communication, interest groups and strategic
communication, critical animal studies, and environment. Her work has
appeared in journals such as Journalism Studies, Environmental Communication,
International Journal of Communication, and European Journal of Communication.
She has contributed to thirty books and is Director at the THINKClima
research project, Co-Director of the UPF-Centre of Animal Ethics, and
Director of the MA in International Studies on Media, Power and Differ-
ence. She is a member of the UPF-CRITICC research group.
Jordi Xifra is Full Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. His
research focuses on public relations history (intellectual history included),
philosophy of public relations, and filmic public relations. He is a member
of the CRITICC-Critical Communication research group at UPF. He has
published more than fifteen books on public relations and public affairs in
Spain and South America, some chapters in international books, and his
articles have been accepted for publication in Public Relations Review, Journal
of Public Relations Research, and American Behavioral Scientist, among others.
He is the Founder, and former Co-Editor, of Public Relations Inquiry (Sage).