A Green fatwā? Climate change as a threat to the

masculinity of industrial modernity

Martin Hultman, Umeå UniversityJonas Anshelm, Linköping University

Climate skeptics as neo-liberal science deniers

• Denial, doubt and apathy (Segnit and Ereaut 2007; Oreskes and Conway 2010)

• Skepticism primarily U.S. and U.K. Conservative movement (McCright and Dunlap, 2003; Carvalho,

2007) • Much less prevalent in Brazil, China, France and India (Painter and Ashe 2012)

• Act of a few influential men (Gelbspan 2004; Leggett 2001; Rampton and Stauber 2001; Lahsen, 2005)

Our method• 3,500 texts, keywords climate change*

• Discourse analysis• 20–30 interconnected formations

• Climate skepticism 200 editorials, opinion articles, political commentary, interviews and signed major feature articles

Almost only men• Liberal think tanks

• Men successful in academia or the corporate world

Stockholmsinitiativet

Arguments• Anthropogenic climate change is false

• IPCC deliberately construct their models “in an alarmist direction”

• Dissenting voices are silenced

• Climate skeptics as Galileo

• Authority strengthened by references to own academic titles

• Eco-fundamentalist• Destroy the industrial modern system

Challenged industrial modern masculinities

• Overhaul of modern industrial society

• Belief in positivistic science, but towards climate science a constructivist position

• Populist & patriarchal at the same time

• Mission reinstalling a modern industrial structure that overrides ecomodern politics