Table Of Content

“Efforts to obstruct climate action are a major factor in delaying meaningful reductions in carbon emissions. This new book cap- tures the latest peer reviewed literature and weaves an entertain- ing, easy to read and chilling narrative about how a number of concentrated efforts by vested economic and ideological interests have successfully worked to imperil the planet. Read this book carefully when you develop new measures to advance climate action.” Robert J. Brulle, Brown University, USA “Climate Obstruction: How Denial, Delay and Inaction are Heating the Planet is an authorative introduction laying out the key defini- tions and components of climate obstruction. To a lay reader and an audience familiar with the topic they encapsulate a clear sum- mary of what obstruction is usefully using a three-part typology to identify and help understand the complexity of climate obstruction and why it manifests. A fantastic text and well-needed read to help understand the history of and continuing role that climate obstruction plays in delaying the required changes to mitigate the climate crisis.” Ruth E. McKie, De Montfort University, UK Climate Obstruction In Climate Obstruction: How Denial, Delay and Inaction are Heating the Planet, Kristoffer Ekberg, Bernhard Forchtner, Martin Hultman and Kirsti Jylhä bring together crucial insights from environmental history, sociology, media and communication studies and psychology to help us understand why we are failing to take necessary measures to avert the unfolding climate crisis. They do so by examining the variety of ways in which meaningful climate action has been obstructed. This ranges from denial of scientific evidence for human-induced climate change and its policy consequences to (seemingly sincere) acknowledgement of the scientific evidence while nevertheless delaying meaningful climate action. The authors also consider all those actions by which often well-meaning individuals and collectives (unintendedly) hamper climate action. In doing so, this book maps out arguments and strategies that have been used to counter environmental protection and regulation since the 1960s by, first and foremost, corporations supported by conservative actors but also far-right ones as well as ordinary citizens. This timely and accessible book provides tools and lessons to understand, identify and call out such arguments and strategies, and points to actions and systemic and cultural changes needed to avert or at least mitigate the climate crisis. Kristoffer Ekberg is a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology. His work focuses on the political history of climate change and the environment, corporate anti-environmentalism as well as social movements and utopian thought. Bernhard Forchtner is Associate Professor at the School of Media, Communication and Sociology and member of the Institute for Environmental Futures, University of Leicester, UK. He works on the far right and environmental communication. Martin Hultman is Associate Professor in science, technology and environmental studies at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He leads Center for Studies of Climate Change Denial (CEFORCED), as well as research groups analyzing Gender & energy and Ecopreneurship. Kirsti M. Jylhä is a researcher at the Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm, Sweden. Her work focuses on psychological obstacles and drivers of climate engagement (e.g., climate change beliefs and emotions) as well as sociopolitical attitudes and ideologies. Climate Obstruction How Denial, Delay and Inaction are Heating the Planet Kristoffer Ekberg, Bernhard Forchtner, Martin Hultman and Kirsti M. Jylhä Cover image: © Shutterstock First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Kristoffer Ekberg, Bernhard Forchtner, Martin Hultman and Kirsti M. Jylhä The right of Kristoffer Ekberg, Bernhard Forchtner, Martin Hultman and Kirsti M. Jylhä to be identified as authors of this work 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 ISBN: 978-1-032-01925-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-01947-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-18113-2 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003181132 Typeset in Times New Roman by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive) Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 2 The foundations of climate obstruction 21 3 Organised climate obstruction 44 4 The far right and climate obstruction 69 5 The public and climate obstruction 95 6 Conclusion 118 Index 137 Acknowledgements While writing these final lines of Climate Obstruction: How Denial, Delay and Inaction are Heating the Planet, we not only look back at a difficult period characterised by lockdowns, home-schooling, summer droughts and illness but also of fulfilling collaboration as we laboured through the various stages of a manuscript so important to all of us. Indeed, although the topic was seldom uplifting, we benefited from and enjoyed the opportunity this project afforded. As such, we want to thank Routledge for enabling us to work together, coming from differ- ent disciplines and knowledge backgrounds. Collaboration was most intense as we set the scene and synthesised our findings in Introduction and Conclusion, respectively, but was at least as intriguing in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 (which were initially drafted by Ekberg, Hultman, Forchtner and Jylhä, respectively). We hope that the outcome of this work will speak not just (not primarily!) to academia but to interested individuals, social movements, churches, labour unions and others. That said, we want to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all those who helped us with this project. Formas, the Swedish Energy Agency, the Swedish Research Council, the division of Science, Technology and Society, the Centre for Studies of Climate Change Denial, and the Institute for Futures Studies for funding and institu- tional support. The international network of CSSN has provided fer- tile intellectual ground. We furthermore thank David Larsson Heidenblad, Björn Lundberg, Balša Lubarda and Niklas Olsen for providing crucial feedback to individual chapters, as well as Kjell Vowles and Magnus Linton, who have extensively commented on the entire manuscript. First and foremost, however, we want to thank Lise Benoist who, for several months, was a central part of this book project in her role as Chalmers research assistant. Lise not only dealt with Acknowledgements ix images, typos, endnotes and the review of key literature but became an integral part of the collaborative effort. We want to thus thank her for her essential contribution; moreover, as Lise takes up a PhD position at Uppsala University, we also want to wish her all the best as her research career fully unfolds. Most importantly, however, we want to thank our loved ones for their support in this endeavour into the short- comings of humanity and hope that this book can make a tiny contribution to their and other (non-)humans’ quality of life on this planet.