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The use of wood-burning stoves as a source of household heating is increasing in Denmark, a development that is leading to considerable levels of particle pollution in residential neighbourhoods. This article reports from a sociological study of woodburning stove users, the results of which are interpreted in relation to broader discussions regarding social preconditions for integrating environmental considerations into household energy consumption. Wood-burning stove users enjoy a decentralized and also more tangible and visible form of heating supply, one that is not part of wider energy supply systems. Moreover, stove users alter infrastructural conditions in order to pursue personal strategies for domestic heating and comfort, personal strategies that may be rooted in economic considerations or in the desire for homeliness and sensuous pleasure, referring in turn to broader socio-cultural values regarding the ideal home. A de-central and tangible form of heating, with visible environmental impact, does, however, not necessarily lead to integration of environmental concerns into domestic practices for energy consumption.

Environmental degradation and unsustainable development were addressed on a global scale at the UN Summits in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Johannesburg in 2002. This chapter presents analyses of Danish television coverage of these two summits and related topics viewing the media stories as exemplary cases of wider public conceptions of the environment. Over a decade rhetoric about the summits and the environment changed, the agenda changed, and key environmental issues were repackaged. These changes are further interpreted in relation to ecological modernisation and discussed as a possible development towards post-environmentalism. Already ecological modernisation can be perceived as post-environmentalist, but this article wants to suggest a downfall also for ecological modernisation as a prominent discourse and a more direct challenge to the legitimacy of environmental concern and thus a further break with environmentalism.