Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Climate Justice and the Challenges of Alliance Building in Fossil Fuel Extraction Communities
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Fossil fuel-extraction communities, such as the coal-mining region of Central Appalachia, have been referred to as “ground zero” for climate change, particularly in the United States. In these communities, where the easy-to-reach supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas have become largely depleted, increasingly remote and difficult-to-access seams of these resources are being extracted, often at great costs to local communities. The consequences of this quest for “extreme energy” include ecosystem destruction, an increased risk of environmental disasters, and threats to public health. At the same time, the movement for climate justice has been growing and gaining strength. Social movement organizations, such as 350.org, have organized hundreds of thousands of people across the globe to demand a new energy future that is not reliant on fossil fuels. Building alliances across those groups who suffer the consequences of climate change at the extraction phase and those who suffer at the warming and weather disruption phase could greatly strengthen the movement for climate justice. However, building this much-needed alliance between fossil fuel extraction communities and climate change-affected communities has proven difficult. Drawing on data collected for my recent book, Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia, I argue that one of the biggest barriers to this alliance-building is a lack of what social movement scholars term “identity correspondence” between fossil fuel extraction communities and the larger climate justice movement. I articulate how this problem has emerged in Central Appalachia and offer some ideas about how this problem could be addressed.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Shannon Elizabeth Bell is Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of Kentucky. She is author of two books: Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia (MIT Press 2016) and the award-winning Our Roots Run Deep as Ironweed: Appalachian Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice (University of Illinois Press 2013).
Climate Justice and the Challenges of Alliance Building in Fossil Fuel Extraction Communities
Fossil fuel-extraction communities, such as the coal-mining region of Central Appalachia, have been referred to as “ground zero” for climate change, particularly in the United States. In these communities, where the easy-to-reach supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas have become largely depleted, increasingly remote and difficult-to-access seams of these resources are being extracted, often at great costs to local communities. The consequences of this quest for “extreme energy” include ecosystem destruction, an increased risk of environmental disasters, and threats to public health. At the same time, the movement for climate justice has been growing and gaining strength. Social movement organizations, such as 350.org, have organized hundreds of thousands of people across the globe to demand a new energy future that is not reliant on fossil fuels. Building alliances across those groups who suffer the consequences of climate change at the extraction phase and those who suffer at the warming and weather disruption phase could greatly strengthen the movement for climate justice. However, building this much-needed alliance between fossil fuel extraction communities and climate change-affected communities has proven difficult. Drawing on data collected for my recent book, Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia, I argue that one of the biggest barriers to this alliance-building is a lack of what social movement scholars term “identity correspondence” between fossil fuel extraction communities and the larger climate justice movement. I articulate how this problem has emerged in Central Appalachia and offer some ideas about how this problem could be addressed.
