RESILIENCE, RESISTANCE, AND DENIAL

By Arne Johan Vetlesen / Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo.

For Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 1962-2024.

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“DRILL, BABY, DRILL”

Recent years have seen the emergence of a correlation that has taken many by surprise: the more visible the consequences of climate change, the greater the popular support for political parties that promise to “drill, baby, drill”. Donald Trump’s successful bid for a second term as U.S. President may well be the most prominent case in point, but it is part of a broader trend that includes my own country, Norway. The message seems to be that the more indisputable the warnings of climate science turn out to be before our eyes, meaning here and now, not elsewhere and in the future, the more stubbornly is the present trajectory, that of fossil fuels based economic growth, held on to.

    To point out the correlation between two phenomena is not to explain anything; it is to invite questions about why they occur, either simultaneously or in a sequence, questions about cause and effect. What is the correlation I mentioned essentially about?

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