Schlegel L (2022)
Publication Type: Journal article, Original article
Publication year: 2022
Book Volume: 77
Pages Range: 421-431
Journal Issue: 4
Emotions affect how humans relate to others and define their place in the world. They thus shape responses to socio-ecological problems like climate change. In spite of the overwhelming knowledge and concern about climate change, a lack of appropriate moral and political consequences prevails in most contemporary societies. Instead of trying to explain climate inaction as a result of (un)awareness, this paper introduces a new perspective by conceptualising climate inaction as an active social process animated by emotions. Drawing on an interdisciplinary and radically relational perspective, I grasp climate inaction as a product of more-than-human intra-action and explore the affective role of emotions within this production. To illustrate how emotions energise climate inaction, I sketch how fear, grief, and hope animate current climate responses.
APA:
Schlegel, L. (2022). Between climates of fear and blind optimism: the affective role of emotions for climate (in)action. Geographica Helvetica, 77(4), 421-431. https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-77-421-2022
MLA:
Schlegel, Lena. "Between climates of fear and blind optimism: the affective role of emotions for climate (in)action." Geographica Helvetica 77.4 (2022): 421-431.
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