Hickory smoke

The rich, faintly sweet flavour of Southern hickory wood adds a taste of imminent departure to my traditional Swedish hash (pyttipanna). I listen to the Islamic afternoon prayer – asr – filtering through the walls. It is already that late, and I am still struggling to find a workable structure for my talk in Athens.

Originally, my plan was to base the talk entirely on my newly published article in Environmental Science & Policy. But given the programme’s focus on environmental ethics, I have decided to tilt it more in favour of my recent work on environmental citizenship theory. The main argument will be that environmental citizenship theory instantiates a particular conception of what sustainability is and how it is to be achieved. By shifting responsibility downward from states to individuals, the question of environmental sustainability is not only politically neutralised but also framed as one of great personal sacrifice.

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Searching for a popular-cultural illustration of this survivalism, I came to think of the remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the original film, the aliens come to Earth to warn us about the risk of nuclear cataclysm. In the remake, the threat has of course been updated to – guess what – climate change. And the solution? An outright rejection of instrumental rationality, as all of Earth’s technology is rendered immobile in order to save the environment.

Though perhaps just one movie, I would still argue that its reasoning is symptomatic of the lack of imagination I mentioned in my previous post. If only there were one new episode of Star Trek for every such film…