Motivating Climate Activism through Framing: Hope, Fear, Injustice, and Sacrifice

Document Type

Article

Authors

Josiah Gregg, University of Minnesota MorrisFollow

Abstract

Climate Change is considered by many scientists to present a dire threat to world through its catastrophic potential. When this potential is combined with a political reality where political climate action seems impossible, citizens concerned by climate change are often paralyzed from climate activism through despair. It would thus be useful to discover how citizens can frame climate change in order to motivate themselves to action. In this project, I explore how political theorists have linked fear, hope, injustice, sacrifice, and the economic theories that have caused climate change, to their ability to inspire climate activism. I argue that political climate activism is best inspired by an understanding of climate change as a yet avertible slide toward an apocalypse that will sacrifice the future of mankind and thus do great injustice on future generations.

Recommended Citation

Gregg, Josiah (2019) "Motivating Climate Activism through Framing: Hope, Fear, Injustice, and Sacrifice," Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal: Vol. 6: Iss. 2, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.61366/2576-2176.1077
Available at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/horizons/vol6/iss2/2

Primo Type

Article