Queers Hug Trees
Allegra and Amalie are two queers tree huggers. Our podcast is a collaborative exploration of the links between queerness and environmental justice. We’re asking what it means to be queer in the environmental justice movement, how we can address barriers to queer environmentalism, and what the environmental movement can learn from queer justice struggles. Join our disruptive knowledge journey to create resources for queering conversations about climate, biodiversity, and other environmental issues.
Queers Hug Trees
Individual Climate Action? Carbon Footprint Calculators and other Climate Cons
Carbon footprint calculators have become a popular way of measuring an individual's impact on the climate. If you were in elementary school within the past two decades, carbon footprint calculators probably even made it into your curriculum. But did you know these calculators were actually invented by British Petroleum in the early 2000s?
This week, we are diving into the discourse around individual climate action and how the fossil fuel industry has manufactured concepts like our 'carbon footprint'. We engage with queer perspectives that can deconstruct this thinking around capitalist individualism. Amalie talks about the popularization of BP's carbon footprint calculator, and dives into the importance of collective action. Allegra clarifies what we mean by individualism and how this thinking negatively affects the climate movement, in light of the recent Carbon Majors report. Tune in for more info and to hear Allegra struggle to say 'individualism' at multiple points throughout the episode!
Resources cited throughout the episode:
[3:15] Article by Bryan Turner on Individualistic Capitalism
[7:30] Article from the Guardian by Martin Lukacs
[9:00] Article in the Guardian written by Rebecca Solnit
[14:15, 17:30] Article by Geoffrey Supran and Maomi Oreskes on ExxonMobil
[16:00] Drilled by Amy Westervelt
[19:30, 21:45] Carbon Majors Report
[24:45] Joshua Russell’s book Queer Ecopedagogies
[25:30] Inside Climate News Article and quote from Adwoa Addae
[26:30] Thesis by Mo Fox