Living with Disappointment in the Face of Environmental Crisis: Resilience, Resistance, and Denial [Hardcover]

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.

In an era where governments ignore scientific knowledge on the severity of the nature and climate crises in their decisions and politicians outright rejecting such knowledge gain strong popular support, Vetlesens book?Living with Disappointment in the Face of Environmental Crisis: Resilience, Resistance, and Denial?is a highly timely and sharp analysis of the roots of inaction and denial and possible strategies for resistance.?- Petter N?ss, Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Introduction: Drill, baby, drill 1. No way out: varieties of a perfect moral storm  2. Killing the conversation: the social organization of denial  3. Building resilience in a neoliberal society  4. Resistance: activism, whistleblowing, and leadership

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 Hamiltons 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 cul³+