Abstract
This chapter places the concept of sustainability in the context of recent debates about the environment, particularly climate change, as a ‘post-political’ issue. Exploring this concept, especially in relation to contemporary discussions of climate communication, the chapter suggests that the broad acceptance of sustainability can be understood as exemplifying the post-political condition identified by critics as foreclosing debate about possible alternative futures. The chapter argues that at the core of the problem of the post-political is a failure of agency – that the apparent difficulty of imagining large-scale social and political transformation results from a diminished view of the human subject. Ecological perspectives, whether advanced by conservatives or radicals, are hostile to attempts to master or control nature rather than respecting natural limits, and therefore tend to give expression to this anti-humanist viewpoint rather than challenging it.
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Notes
- 1.
UK becomes first major economy to pass net zero emissions law, www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-becomes-first-major-economy-to-pass-net-zero-emissions-law. All urls cited in notes and references were last accessed on 2 September 2019.
- 2.
UK net zero emissions target will ‘cost more than £1tn’, Financial Times, 5 June 2019, www.ft.com/content/036a5596-87a7-11e9-a028-86cea8523dc2.
- 3.
In the run-up to the 2015 UK general election, for example, all three of Britain’s main political parties signed a joint pledge to fight climate change regardless of who won. See: Party leaders make joint climate commitment, BBC News, 14 February 2015, www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31456161.
On the issue of quangos, see: Quangos: key issues for the 2010 Parliament, www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/key-issues-for-the-new-parliament/decentralisation-of-power/quangos/.
- 4.
On the failure of the summit, see for example: Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure, Guardian, 19 December 2009, www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-deal.
- 5.
UK Parliament declares climate change emergency, BBC News, 1 May 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48126677.
- 6.
Climate emergency declarations in 935 jurisdictions and local governments cover 206 million citizens, Climate Emergency Declaration, 7 August 2019, https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/climate-emergency-declarations-cover-15-million-citizens/. Other like-minded activists joined Salamon’s emergency call and claimed their share of the credit for it. See: Margaret Hender, Climate Emergency Declaration Timeline, Cedamia, May 2019, www.cedamia.org/ced-timeline/.
- 7.
The Guardian noted that the lexicon of other organisations had also shifted, including the adoption of the term ‘climate crisis’ by United Nations secretary general António Guterres. See: Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment, Guardian, 17 May 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment.
- 8.
Extinction Rebellion rushes activists’ handbook This Is Not a Drill into print, Guardian, 26 April 2019, www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/26/extinction-rebellion-rushes-activists-handbook-this-is-not-a-drill-into-print; V&A to display collection of Extinction Rebellion artefacts, Guardian, 26 July 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/26/va-to-display-collection-of-extinction-rebellion-artefacts; Extinction Rebellion: Last Chance to Save the World? BBC1, 17 July 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07fvjfs/extinction-rebellion-last-chance-to-save-the-world. Salamon herself promoted Extinction Rebellion’s international expansion from autumn 2018 – see: Extinction Rebellion Goes Global With Call For Net Zero Emission By 2025, The Energy Mix, 26 November 2018, https://theenergymix.com/2018/11/26/extinction-rebellion-goes-global-with-call-for-net-zero-emission-by-2025/.
- 9.
Tomorrow – Extinction Rebellion to meet BBC management, Extinction Rebellion, 17 July 2019, https://rebellion.earth/2019/07/17/tomorrow-extinction-rebellion-to-meet-bbc-management-friday-requiem-for-a-dead-planet-protest-to-call-on-uk-newspapers-to-tell-the-truth.
- 10.
‘Our house is on fire’: Greta Thunberg, 16, urges leaders to act on climate, Guardian, 25 January 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate; Greta Thunberg urges MEPs to ‘panic like the house is on fire’, Euractiv, 16 April 2019, www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/greta-thunberg-urges-meps-to-panic-like-the-house-is-on-fire/; Climate change activist Greta Thunberg: ‘Listen to climate scientists’, BBC News, 23 April 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-48018034/climate-change-activist-greta-thunberg-listen-to-climate-scientists.
- 11.
Climate Neutral Now, UNFCCC, 2019, https://unfccc.int/climate-action/climate-neutral-now; I am a Citizen, UNFCCC, 2019, https://unfccc.int/climate-action/climate-neutral-now/i-am-a-citizen; Reducing Emissions: Individuals, UNFCCC, 2019, https://unfccc.int/climate-action/climate-neutral-now/i-am-a-citizen/reductions-ind.
- 12.
Greens on Trial, Newsnight, BBC2, 14 October 2009.
- 13.
Extinction Rebellion founder Gail Bradbrook: ‘We’re making people’s lives miserable but they are talking about the issues’, Times, 19 April 2019, www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-re-making-people-s-lives-miserable-but-they-are-talking-about-the-issues-d9hxcp53z.
- 14.
The site was at https://xrbusiness.org/ but was later taken down, apparently in response to exposés by other environmentalists who saw it as compromising Extinction Rebellion’s integrity. See, for example, Rebellion Extinction: A Capitalist Scam To Hijack Our Resistance, Winter Oak, 23 April 2019, https://winteroak.org.uk/2019/04/23/rebellion-extinction-a-capitalist-scam-to-hijack-our-resistance/; and Cory Morningstar, Extinction Rebellion Training, Or How To Control Radical Resistance From The ‘Obstructive Left’, Wrong Kind of Green, 6 May 2019, www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/05/06/extinction-rebellion-training-or-how-to-control-radical-resistance-from-the-obstructive-left/.
- 15.
US philanthropists vow to raise millions for climate activists, Guardian, 12 July 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/12/us-philanthropists-vow-to-raise-millions-for-climate-activists.
- 16.
Speech to the Royal Society, 27 September 1988, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346.
- 17.
See, for example, Mike Hulme, Climate Change is 25 Years Old, Climate News Network, 27 September 2013, www.climatenewsnetwork.net/tag/margaret-thatcher/.
- 18.
Speech to United Nations General Assembly, 8 November 1989, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107817.
- 19.
Speech at 2nd World Climate Conference, 6 November 1990, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108237.
- 20.
Speech to United Nations General Assembly, 8 November 1989, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107817.
- 21.
Speech at 2nd World Climate Conference, 6 November 1990, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108237.
- 22.
1992 VP Acceptance DNC, New York, July 16 1992, Speeches USA, www.speeches-usa.com/Transcripts/al_gore-1992dnc.htm.
- 23.
Is Travelling to Google’s Climate Change Conference by Private Jet Hypocritical?, Euronews, 1 August 2019, http://www.euronews.com/living/2019/08/01/is-travelling-to-google-climate-change-conference-by-private-jet-hypocritical.
- 24.
Speech to United Nations General Assembly, 8 November 1989, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/1078.
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Further Reading
Hammond (2018) Climate change and post-political communication. Routledge, London
Hulme (2009) Why we disagree about climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Phillips (2015) Austerity ecology and the collapse-porn addicts. Zero Books, London
Wilson and Swyngedouw, eds (2014) The post-political and its discontents. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh
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Hammond, P. (2021). Post-political Communication and Sustainability. In: Weder, F., Krainer, L., Karmasin, M. (eds) The Sustainability Communication Reader. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-31883-3_4
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