“Old Dogs, New Tricks”
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“Old dogs, new tricks” An exploration of local climate activism in Norway and Denmark Eivind Trædal Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Culture, Environment and Sustainability Centre for Development and the Environment University of Oslo, Blindern, Norway 2.05.2013 I II Acknowledgements Many thanks to Maria, who kept my spirits up, gave good advice, and endured my short crises and long monologues during my writing. Thanks to Karen and Hilde for engaging guidance, to Mom and Dad, and to all the fellow students I’ve had the pleasure to get to know during my two years at SUM. Last, but not least, thanks to all the respondents who gave me their time. III Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 1.1 The structure of this thesis ................................................................................. 2 1.2 Climate change – from global to local ............................................................... 4 1.3 What is the environmental movement? ............................................................. 7 1.4 The development of environmentalism ........................................................... 10 2.0 Method ................................................................................................. 15 2.1 Choice of cases ................................................................................................ 15 2.2 Approaching the organizations ........................................................................ 17 2.3 Primary sources ............................................................................................... 19 2.4 Theoretical perspectives .................................................................................. 23 2.5 Methodical challenges ..................................................................................... 25 2.6 On my own role ............................................................................................... 28 3.0 The organizations ................................................................................. 29 3.1 DN - a gentle giant ......................................................................................... 29 3.2 NNV – part of a tumultuous movement ......................................................... 32 3.3 Structure........................................................................................................... 36 3.4 Core goals ........................................................................................................ 39 3.5 Conceptualization of climate change ............................................................... 40 3.6 Budgetary priorities ......................................................................................... 43 4.0 The central level’s vision of climate change ....................................... 47 4.1 Local climate activity as an unpopular product ............................................... 48 4.2 Denmark: Climate Municipalities .................................................................... 51 4.3 Norway: The people’s action ........................................................................... 53 5.0 Local apprehension towards climate change ....................................... 57 5.1 Norwegian local chapters – autonomous and critical ...................................... 57 5.2 Danish local chapters – unsure about their own role ....................................... 61 5.3 Horizontal cooperation on the local level ........................................ 63 Norway: Oil free .................................................................................................... 63 Denmark: The climate Network ............................................................................ 65 Climate change – a top-down issue? ...................................................... 69 5.4 Chapter summary ............................................................................................. 73 IV 6.0 A turn away from local activism? ........................................................ 73 6.1 Professionalization and centralization ............................................................. 74 6.2 Internal division ............................................................................................... 78 6.3 Lack of resources at the local level .................................................................. 82 6.4 Passive activism ............................................................................................... 83 6.5 Chapter summary ............................................................................................. 87 7.0 How do the activists see climate change? ............................................ 88 7.1 Seeing climate change, and making it visible .................................................. 89 7.2 Climate change as a (too) global issue ............................................................ 91 7.3 Climate change mitigation as a danger to nature ............................................. 93 7.4 Climate change as a metaphor for the central level ......................................... 99 7.5 Differing views - the Mejlflak controversy ................................................... 102 7.6 Chapter summary ........................................................................................... 105 8.0 A battle of regimes – or a new synthesis? ......................................... 105 8.1 Proud local experts ........................................................................................ 106 8.2 What forms of expertise counts in climate policy? ........................................ 113 8.3 A battle of regimes? ....................................................................................... 116 8.4 Where should climate activism come from?.................................................. 117 8.5 Emerging forms of cognitive praxis .............................................................. 119 8.6 Chapter summary ........................................................................................... 126 9.0 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 127 Cited sources ............................................................................................ 130 Books and published articles ............................................................... 130 Interviews ................................................................................................. 136 The Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature ..................................... 136 The Society for Nature Conservation in Denmark .............................................. 137 Interview questions .............................................................................. 139 Recordings ........................................................................................... 140 Internal documents ................................................................................... 140 Norway ................................................................................................................ 140 Denmark .............................................................................................................. 141 External documents .............................................................................. 142 V List of tables and figures Figure 1: Venues of climate action in NNV (Norway), sorted by autonomy and number of activists: 73 Figure 2: Venues of climate action in DN (Denmark), sorted by autonomy and number of activists: 74 Figure 1 Gjermund Andersen's chart of organizational structure and choise of focus: 100 Table 1: Overview of climate work in local chapters, NNV, summary of interviews: 61-63 Table 2: Overview of climate work in local chapters, DN, summary of interviews: 64-65 VI 1.0 Introduction Climate change is becoming a part of our reality, both physically, through warming climes, melting ice caps and changing weather, and socially, through new ideas, institutions and political measures. According to the International Panel of Climate Change, our global society must go through deep economic and social changes to effectively mitigate and adapt to climate change (IPCC 2007). In this process, an abstract issue is becoming national and local, an object of governmental and municipal politics, of business decisions, of consumer choices, of voting behavior. The “global” issue of climate change is becoming local. Understanding the way political forces can shape social responses to environmental issues have been described as one of the most important intellectual challenges of our time (Steinberg & Vanderveer 2012, pos 248-250)1. All political actors contribute to transform the abstract issue of climate change into concrete changes or innovations. The environmental movement may play an especially important role through advocacy, information campaigns or direct action, environmental organizations can facilitate the necessary societal changes, both in opposition to, and in cooperation to other political actors. This is a study of what role the environmental movement takes in this process. My main research question is the following: what roles does the environmental movement play in making climate change a local issue? Studies of the environmental movement have largely focused on their impact on national and international