Green Backlash Research Articles

The Green Backlash against Economic Globalization

AbstractDespite the steady increase in environmental provisions being included in trade agreements to address potential environmental risks associated with increased trade, growing public concern about environmental issues has given rise to major public protests against various trade agreements. However, facing the widespread backlash against the liberal international economic order, pro-trade leaders have yet to respond adequately to the public's concern over the potential implications of trade on the environment. A review of European Union (EU) officials’ public communication on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership shows that trade advocates narrowly focus on the economic benefits of trade in their trade-related communication while paying little attention to the environmental impacts of the trade deal. This ignores an important aspect of the public discontent with economic globalization. This article argues that the pro-trade camp's failure to engage the public in an inclusive and transparent debate about the environmental effects of trade presents a missed opportunity that has triggered widespread resistance to trade liberalization. By studying the communication channel, this essay highlights the important role of information and dialogue as a potential response to the current public backlash against economic globalization.

Environmental SLAPPs in the UK: threat or opportunity?

abstractStrategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) brought against the environmental movement in the UK since the 1990s are examined. SLAPPs, a form of Green backlash, have been mobilised across a wide range of policy areas that have seen vigorous campaigning and protest by the movement, including roads, GMOs and, more recently, climate change. SLAPPs are typically regarded as a threat, designed to close down democratic free speech and protest. However, in the UK, there are some notable cases where the environmental movement has been able to use agency to convert what may appear as a legal threat into a positive legal or media opportunity.

Reversing the green backlash in services: credible competitors help large companies go green

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to first demonstrate a “green backlash” effect whereby evaluations of a large service organization decrease after the organization announces a new green practice and second, explore how the presence of green competitors might moderate this effect.Design/methodology/approachThe approach includes one exploratory in‐depth interview study and three follow‐up experiments.FindingsThe results indicate that consumers percieve large companies to be lacking in credibility and that when a large service organization announces the adoption of a green practice, evaluations of that firm may actually decrease, i.e. a green backlash. Additionally, it is observed that the opposite is true when consumers are aware of a credibly green competitor. In these circumstances, large players are significantly worse off if they do not also adopt green practices. Initially it was hypothesized that the large company would need to imitate the credibly green competitor. However, the results suggest that a reversal of the backlash effect can occur even if the companies are engaged in very different green activities.Research limitations/implicationThe context of the experiments is limited to the food service industry.Practical implicationsThe practical implication for large service organizations is that in markets where there is no green competitor, they should consider not promoting their green practices. However, these organizations need to have programs in place when a cedible competitor inevitably arrives. The practical implication for environmentalists is the finding that large companies can be forced to go green simply via the existence of a small credibly green competitor.Social implicationsThe social implications of this research is that small green service providers are an important catalyst and necessary ingredient in the transition to a more sustainable service economy.Originality/valueThis article is the first to empirically demonstrate a green backlash effect and identify conditions under which this effect might be reversed.

The Green Backlash: Scepticism or Scientism?

Speakers of the “green backlash” movement frequently advertise their approach as one of rigorous scepticism, and themselves as defenders of scientific method. In reality, their use of scepticism is often highly flawed and inconsistent; this is clearly seen in case examples focusing on Philip Stott’s arguments on climate change, and Julian Simon’s arguments on physical limits to growth. What this discourse illustrates is that sceptical language is often used as a rhetorical tool for advancing an underlying political philosophy that is based on an ideal of modern science as bestower of unlimited material power. In order to understand, and to criticise this discourse effectively, one needs to recall the criticisms made by the likes of Hayek and Arendt of “scientism”—the misuse of the language of science, and its aura of predictive certainty, to portray certain political visions as being inevitably true and triumphant.

Historicism and the green backlash: a study of Julian Simon and Bjorn Lomborg

Popper described the core of 20th century ideologies of the far right and left as 'historicism' – the false belief that social development is literally determined by material factors and that every seemingly contingent sequence of historical events can be explained by a scientific 'law' of historical development. This concept can valuably be applied to present-day environmental 'sceptics' who argue that our historical experience of material progress was produced by underlying economic laws, which will inevitably ensure that humankind will surmount obstacles such as resource depletion and global warming. This essay focuses on the writings of Simon and Lomborg, while drawing attention to the ideas on which they draw and the influence which they have enjoyed.

Growthism and the Green Backlash

Recent years have seen the growth of a ‘green backlash’ movement which has argued against ‘the myths of environmentalism’. Many environmentalists have pointed out the political motivation and factual errors in much of these arguments. But what has not been given much attention is their underlying philosophy. To look at this is to find an ideology, related to neoliberalism, which we might call ‘growthism’; based on a utopian faith in the inevitability of endless material growth, this is animated by a revolt against the very idea of limits. This faith has a potent influence on contemporary politics, which we can best see in relief: as today the only serious challenge to the neoliberal hegemony over electoral politics comes from environmentalism, so we can see revealed in the green backlash the utopianism of that unquestioned principle at the heart of all mainstream political debate ‐ the commitment to economic growth.

Eco-politics beyond the paradigm of sustainability: A conceptual framework and research agenda

This contribution sketches a conceptual framework for the analysis of the post-ecologist era and outlines a research agenda for investigating its politics of unsustainability. The article suggests that this new era and its particular mode of eco-politics necessitate a new environmental sociology. Following a review of some achievements and limitations of the paradigm of sustainability, the concept of post-ecologism is related to existing discourses of the ‘end of nature’, the ‘green backlash’ and the ‘death of environmentalism’. The shifting terrain of eco-politics in the late-modern condition is mapped and an eco-sociological research programme outlined centring on the post-ecologist question: How do advanced modern capitalist consumer democracies try and manage to sustain what is known to be unsustainable?

Law and Natural Resources - Donald J. Pisani. Water, Land, and Law in the West: The Limits of Public Policy, 1850–1920. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996. Pp. xii, 273. $29.95. - Jacqueline Vaughn Switzer, Green Backlash: The History and Politics of Environmental Opposition in the U.S. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997. Pp. xviii, 323. $55.00 cloth; $21.00 paper.

Law and Natural Resources - Donald J. Pisani. Water, Land, and Law in the West: The Limits of Public Policy, 1850–1920. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996. Pp. xii, 273. $21.00 paper. - Volume 10 Issue 4

Green Backlash: The History and Politics of Environmental Opposition in the United States. By Jacqueline Vaughn Switzer. Notes, historical timeline, index Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environmental Movement. By Andrew Rowell. Illustrations, bibliography, index

<i>Green Backlash: The History and Politics of Environmental Opposition in the United States.</i> By Jacqueline Vaughn Switzer. Notes, historical timeline, index <i>Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environmental Movement.</i> By Andrew Rowell. Illustrations, bibliography, index

Green backlash: the history and politics of environmental opposition in the U.S

This work explores the historical, ideological, and social foundations of environmental opposition movements in the USA. Employing a theoretical framework, the book provides an investigation of the connections between corporate interests, private individuals and advocacy groups.

Green backlash: global subversion of the environmental movement

Green backlash: global subversion of the environmental movement