Climate activism and its effects

Abstract

As activism including climate strikes have become a common occurrence around the world, it is important to consider the growth in climate change‐focused activism and participation in social movements as a specific type of civic engagement. Although studies have analyzed climate activism and the climate movement, there is limited research that integrates it into the broader literature on civic engagement and which considers how these forms of engagement are related to specific climate outcomes. Here, we take a first step in understanding the material outcomes of these efforts. Specifically, we provide an overview of climate‐related activism as a form of civic engagement, paying particular attention to the targets of this activism and its environmental outcomes in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Then, we focus on one of the most common tactics to gain momentum in recent years: the school strike, which has mobilized a growing number of participants around the world. We discuss how the Coronavirus pandemic has changed the climate movement with much activism moving online. We conclude by discussing the overall state of the knowledge about the outcomes of climate activism, as well as highlighting the need for careful research to measure its effects across scale. This article is categorized under Policy and Governance > Private Governance of Climate Change The Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Climate Science and Social Movements

A climate resilience research renewal agenda: learning lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for urban climate resilience

“…In Vietnam, enhanced demand for sand from urban construction has stimulated large-scale sand mining in the Mekong River compounding existing hazards of riverbank erosion and flooding (Hackney et al, 2020). Norms for crisis management established during the COVID-19 pandemic have constrained climate change activism (Fisher & Nasrin, 2020). The use of surveillance and denying of mass gatherings may have long lasting implications for civil liberty (Honey-Rosés et al, 2020) including climate activism and protest around specific climate change related events.…”

Shifting Coalitions within the Youth Climate Movement in the US

“…Although there is scant evidence that these individuals were central to decisionmaking around the national climate strikes, future investigation can help us understand what roles they may be playing in coordinating climate activism in their communities and sustaining activism at the local level. Finally, following the recommendations from Fisher and Nasrin (2020), research should aim to connect this climate activism to its broader effects on the individuals and organizations involved, the policies they are aiming to influence, and the material outcomes of these efforts in terms of actual environmental changes.…”

“…Although participation in these climate strikes and the broader youth climate movement expanded over the past two years, there is limited research on the movement to date (cf. de Moor, De Vydt, Uba, & Wahlström, 2020;Evensen, 2019;Fisher, 2019b;Fisher & Nasrin, 2020;Martiskainen et al, 2020).…”

Sociology for sustainability science

“…Sociological analyses in this realm are constructive for producing a richer understanding of when and why different forms of collective action emerge and persist (or not), and what factors help explain and shape their relative successes or failures in mobilization and achievement of specific outcomes [114]. Here, micro-, meso-, and macro-sociological approaches and their established sets of methods all have much to offer.…”

“…Other scholars examine notable mobilization efforts, for example, to understand the relationship between different activist tactics and tangible environmental outcomes [114]. Linking back to the discussion on social construction, it is further shown that social movements-whether "reactionary" or "progressive"-are also sites of knowledge production and contestation around contentious issues, such as the long-standing discussion on rural development and more recent debates on climate change [125,126].…”