Post-Apocalyptic Environmentalism : The Green Movement in Times of Catastrophe

This book analyses how the environmental movement has developed three overarching narratives that co-exist and compete within it. The first is the narrative of green progress, which has been prominent from the start in environmentalist thought and which is today expressed in the idea of sustainable development and in eco-modernism. The second is the apocalyptic narrative, which urges us to act in order to avert a future catastrophe and which rose to prominence with Rachel Carson and other classics of post-war environmentalism and experienced a renaissance with the climate activism of the 2000s. The third is the postapocalyptic narrative according to which catastrophe is already an unavoidable fact. The centrepiece of the book is its discussion of the postapocalyptic narrative, which has become influential in the recent decade, especially in the wake of the disillusionment following the failed climate summit in Copenhagen 2009. Climate change, resource exhaustion, pollution and species extinction signal that catastrophes have already become realities here and now for an enormous number of people and other lifeforms. The book probes the possibilities and limitations of the environmental movement in grappling with these issues and turning them into relevant action. Carl Cassegard is Professor of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Hakan Thorn is Professor of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden Preface Contents About the Authors Chapter 1: Narrative and Nature Interest The Environmental Movement as a Movement of Movements Ideology and Utopia in Social Movement Narratives Second Nature Second Nature as ‘Environment’, Ecology, and Anthropocene Nature Interest Critique of the Instrumental Nature Interest Varieties of Nature Interest Structure of the Book References Chapter 2: Green Progress Between Certainty and Hope Nature Conservation in the Early Twentieth Century: The Birth of the Narrative of Green Progress The Aesthetic and/or Recreational Values of Nature Nature as a Resource for Electricity From Conservation to Nature Engineering Nature as a Source of Moral Development: The Life Reform Movement Nature as an Economic System: Sustainable Development and the Global Consolidation of Neoliberalism Nature and Social Justice: The Green New Deal Debates and Criticism References Chapter 3: Apocalypse Introduction From Extinction to Apocalypse The Apocalypse as a (Post-)war Experience The Doomsday Debate ‘The Rumblings of an Avalanche’ Closing the Circle 1972: The Birth of an Apocalyptic Global Environmental Movement Critique of the Apocalyptic Narrative References Chapter 4: Postapocalypse From the Environmentalism of the Poor to Post-Copenhagen Grief Struggling for Justice Mourning and Preparing for Collapse Calling for Emergency Hope and Morality The Paradox of Hope Morality and Dignity Loyalty to the Dead Permanent Catastrophe and Utopia Conclusions and Critique References Chapter 5: Towards a Critique of the Environmental Movement Utopia and Catastrophe Limitations of the Three Narratives Beyond Capitalism References Index