Who’s afraid of the ecological apocalypse? Climate change and the production of the ethical subject

Abstract

Contemporary representations of environmental futures often feature apocalyptic scenarios, particularly in film and popular culture. However, these dire warnings have seemingly been ineffective at motivating action on climate change. In response, there has been a call for specifically ethical engagement to provide an alternative means of motivation. This article offers an analysis of the effects of ecological apocalypse narratives on the (re)production of the ethical subject of climate change. The article illustrates the intertextual production of the ethics and apocalypse discourses in order to argue that rather than providing an alternative, the ethical motivation approach in fact (re)produces the assumptions and effects of apocalyptic narratives in a way that sediments a non-relational logic of the ethical subject, in both spatial and temporal terms. Such a logic makes responsive ethical or political engagement with ecological futures very difficult and limits possibilities for thinking progressively about climate change.