Living with Disappointment in the Face of Environmental Crisis

While the impacts of climate change become increasingly severe, efforts to prevent them suffer one blow after the other, as seen in the rise of far-right populist parties in Western democracies. Why does denialism thrive when blatantly contradicted by the realities before our very eyes, be it wild-fires, floods, drought, and melting glaciers? Should we abandon the assumption that the more solid the knowledge about climate change, the more eager will ordinary people as well as political leaders be to take action?

This book sets out to explain the contradiction witnessed between knowledge and action. Inspired by Clive Hamilton’s claim that “denial is due to a surplus of culture rather than a deficit of information”, the book critiques the focus on “cognitive disso-nance” in individual agents advocated by climate psychology as well as the individualistic bias in liberal political theory. To get out of the current theoretical as well as political impasse, the author suggests three moves are necessary: from knowledge to first-hand experience, and so to feelings; from the tension within the individual to the social organization of denial; and from the obsession with personal responsibility – nowadays in the guise of building resilience – to exposing the complicity of the culture of neoliberalism in the intimately intertwined crisis of politics and the climate alike.

A highly timely and sharp analysis of the roots of inaction and denial and possible strategies for resistance, the book will appeal to scholars and upper-level students with interests in social, political, and environmental philosophy and psychology; political theory; and environmental studies.