Fuel and Faith: a Spiritual Geography of Fossil Fuels in Western Canada
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Fuel and Faith: a spiritual geography of fossil fuels in Western Canada by Darren Fleet M.J., University of British Columbia, 2011 B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2005 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Communication Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology © Darren Fleet 2021 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2021 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Declaration of Committee Name Darren Fleet Degree Doctor of Philosophy Title Fuel and Faith: a spiritual geography of fossil fuels in Western Canada Committee Chair: Siyuan Yin Assistant Professor, Communication Shane Gunster Supervisor Associate Professor, Communication Enda Brophy Committee Member Associate Professor, Communication Stephen Collis Committee Member Professor, English Am Johal Examiner Director, Vancity Office of Community Engagement Imre Szeman External Examiner Professor, Communication Arts University of Waterloo ii Ethics Statement iii Abstract With the acceleration of climate change, Canada's commitment to action on carbon emissions faces several vital contradictions. These tensions have economic, social, and communicative dimensions. This research seeks to investigate some of these manifestations by looking at how energy is understood and articulated through the lens of faith. Unique to the Canadian cultural/petrol landscape is that the physical geography of extraction and transport often overlaps with the cultural and spiritual geographies of protestant Christian faith. To date, few scholars have tackled this subject through this specific lens. While some scholars and Christian leaders have begun to address the overlapping relations of climate change, fossil fuels, and belief (Marshall, 2020; Dochuk, 2019; Jenkins, Berry, & Kreider, 2018; Hayhoe, 2018; Ghosh, 2017; Taylor, Van Wieren, & Zaleha, 2016; Franics, 2015; McDuff, 2012; Wilkinson, 2012; Peterson, 2010; Yergin, 2008), this has yet to be explored significantly within Canadian communications and energy scholarship. With the third largest proven oil reserves in the world, much of it located and transported through Western Canada’s Christian and Evangelical heartlands, (rural Alberta and the BC Fraser Valley and Okanagan), this research has much to add to a growing conversation around fossil fuels. In particular, it offers novel perspectives on the varied negotiations of labour, care, and identity that surround energy production, consumption, and transition. To do this, the thesis conducts a review of Canadian English language mainstream legacy media coverage of faith-based fossil fuel news stories, from 2016- 2018, a period of significant public and discursive contestation over pipelines in Canada. This analysis is then paired with a series of one-on-one interviews and focus group conversations with faith leaders and believers in communities primarily along the Trans Mountain Pipeline route. These conversations explore how lived experiences of faith are constituted by, and also challenge, dominant narratives in Canada’s legacy media. Of particular focus is the way in which high carbon living is reflected in national news discourses of economy, wellbeing, and nation. Importantly, this is not intended to be a work of theology, but rather an examination of the way that particular religious identities and subjectivities mediate understandings of climate change and fossil fuels. Keywords: Petroculture; Christianity; Environmental Communication; Fossil Fuels. iv Dedication This PhD is for all of the kids (current and grown) who grow up poor, who are told they’ll get nowhere in life, who get kicked out of elementary school, who see the inside of shelters and food banks, who work as dishwashers, line cooks, and day labourers, who get paid minimum wage, who can never forget where they come from, who have to fight, scratch, and claw to find their way. v Acknowledgements There is a long list of people to recognize in the creation and fruition of this project. First and foremost, I would like to thank my life partner, Dr. prOphecy sun, and my children, Owl and Haäkens, for their support, kindness, and laughter in the making of this thesis. Kids, you are an excellent writing crew and I smile every time that I find drawings, crayon scribbles, and pages missing from my books. This work would not have been possible without the incredible support, knowledge, and intellectual engagement of my committee, Dr. Shane Gunster, Dr. Enda Brophy, and Dr. Stephen Collis. A special degree of gratitude is owed to Dr. Gunster who reviewed countless versions of this draft and who has steered me away from many intellectual cliffs over the duration of this degree. Your patience, kindness, and belief in me over the years has been a guiding light to the finish line. Likewise, Dr. Collis and Dr. Brophy, thank you for your careful and insightful considerations and reflections on this work, as well as your collegial encouragement and support. To my internal examiner, Dr. Am Johal, and my external examiner, Dr. Imre Szeman, thank you for your critical engagement with this work and for bringing your esteemed perspectives and thoughts to this discussion. To the entire committee, your scholarship has informed and inspired much of my intellectual journey and I am honoured to have all of you review this dissertation. I would also like to thank to all of the staff at the SFU School of Communication for their support and encouragement over the years, in particular Jason Congdon. Jason, you have been a constant throughout my time at SFU and have helped in more ways than I can count. To the many colleagues and friends I have made during the course of this degree, thank you for the stimulating conversations and companionship on this journey. Tara Mahoney, Dugan Nichols, Alli Massie, Bob Neubauer, Pippa Adams, Sibo Chen, Byron Hauck, Jennesia Pedri, Itrath Syed, Alberto Lusoli, Stephen Li, Charlotte Gravert, Benjamin Anderson, Camille Jasinski, and numerous others. To all the students whom I have TA’d for and instructed at SFU. Students of 120, 210, 220, 223W, 323W, and 349, go forth and change the world! It has been a privilege to be part of your educational journey. Thank you for inspiring and encouraging me in the most amazing and unexpected ways. Dr. Jody Baker, thank you for helping me to be the best vi and most compassionate educator that I can be. Dr. Zoë Druick, thank you for your graduate course on affect, forever informing my thinking. Dr. Allison Beale, thank you for encouraging me to apply to the program many years ago. I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who participated in this research and for adding to the rich conversation about the future of our shared country, and the future of our shared planet. And most important of all, Wendy Fleet, my mom. vii Table of Contents Declaration of Committee .................................................................................................. ii Ethics Statement ............................................................................................................... iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iv Dedication ......................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ viii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xi List of Acronyms .............................................................................................................. xii Preface ............................................................................................................................ xiii Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 1.1. Conversations ......................................................................................................... 9 1.2. Faith and the Environment .................................................................................... 12 1.3. Thesis chapters ..................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2. Literature review ...................................................................................... 22 2.1. Environmental Communication ............................................................................. 22 2.1.1. Cynicism, values, norms, and the belief in politics ........................................ 27 2.1.2. Religion and environmental communication ................................................. 31 2.1.3. Contested meanings of climate religion ........................................................ 33 2.1.4. Science, floods, and limitations ..................................................................... 36 2.2. Energy Humanities ................................................................................................ 39 2.2.1. Oil relations in the Anthropocene .................................................................. 40 2.2.2. Fuel,