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The climate change counter-movement (CCCM) was created in 1989 immediately following the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Brulle 2014) and has only deepened its public influence efforts since the Paris Agreement (Besley & Peters 2020). Striving to spread alternative climate change narratives, the CCCM deploys what we characterize as Information and Influence Campaigns (IICs), multimedia campaigns executed by public relations (PR) contractors designed to influence public discourse toward specific conclusions – often by using certain value-laden rhetorical frames. In this paper, we identify the dominant objectives, activities, and rhetorical messaging frames constituting four major IICS surrounding the Waxman-Markey bill debates: one representing each of the three major fossil fuel industries along with the one significant "green" campaign of the era. By tracing the implementation of rhetorical frames across a diverse array of campaign activities to achieve discrete objectives, we demonstrate these fossil actors' clear intentions to steer public opinion toward anti-environmental viewpoints through the use of strategic PR. When considered together with the significant resource advantage held by those that propagate these discourses, the stakes are enormous for both climate policy outcomes and the integrity of the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One enduring question in social movements research is the relationship between cultural representations and organizational structure. In this article, we examine the development of different discursive frames over time, and how such frame shifts affect movement structure and practices. This approach seeks to illuminate the dialectical interplay between the movement community's discursive frame and its practices, and thus expand our understanding of the process of social movement growth and change. Through a close qualitative and historical analysis of a discursive shift within the hunting community of the United States in the 1930s from a focus strictly on game protection to a more expanded discursive frame of wildlife management, we show how this cultural shift led to major changes in both the organizational structure and advocacy goals of this social movement. We conclude with a discussion of how this process can be further studied. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)

Ever since climate change became a political issue in the late 1980s, a number of industry coalitions have formed to oppose mandatory carbon emissions reductions. One key coalition was the Global Climate Coalition (GCC). This paper conducts a historical and empirical review of the activities of this coalition. This review shows that the GCC engaged in four distinct activities to obstruct climate action: 1) monitoring and contesting climate science, 2) commissioning and utilizing economic studies to amplify and legitimate their arguments, 3) shifting the cultural understanding of climate change through public relations campaigns and 4) conducting aggressive lobbying of political elites. Through these activities, the GCC played an important role in obstructing climate action, both in the U.S. and internationally. Further analysis of similar coalitions can aid in our understanding of the organized opposition to climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate change countermovement (CCCM) in the United States has exerted an important influence on delaying efforts to address climate change. Analyses of this countermovement have primarily focused on the role of conservative think tanks. Expanding this research, this article initiates an examination of the structure of key political coalitions that worked to oppose climate action. In conjunction with their allied trade associations, these coalitions have served as a central coordination mechanism in efforts opposed to mandatory limits on carbon emissions. These coalitions pool resources from a large number of corporations and execute sophisticated political and cultural campaigns designed to oppose efforts to address climate change. Through an analysis of twelve prominent CCCM coalitions from 1989 to 2015, I show that over 2,000 organizations were members of these coalitions and that a core of 179 organizations belonged to multiple coalitions. Organizations from the coal and electrical utility sectors were the most numerous and influential organizations in these coalitions. The article concludes with suggestions for further research to expand understanding of complex social movements and countermovements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of societies to respond in a concerted, meaningful way to climate change is a core concern of the social science climate literature. Existing explanations of social inertia display little coherence. Here, a theoretical approach is suggested that integrates disparate perspectives on social inertia regarding climate change. Climate change constitutes a potential cultural trauma. The threat of cultural trauma is met with resistance and attempts to restore and maintain the status quo. Thus, efforts to avoid large-scale social changes associated with climate change constitute an effort to avoid cultural trauma, and result in social inertia regarding climate change at individual, institutional, and societal levels. Existing approaches to social inertia are reviewed. An intellectual framework utilizing the work of Pierre Bourdieu is proposed to integrate these different levels of social interaction. Social processes that maintain social order and thus avoid cultural trauma create social inertia regarding climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examines the influence of media exposure and social psychological variables on belief in anthropogenic climate change. The results show that after taking education and income into account, both moderate and strong democrats are over four times more probably to believe in anthropogenic climate change compared to strong Republicans.

We address the long-standing debate between elite theorists and pluralists about the priorities and scale of foundation funding for social movements by examining systematic data on foundation grants to environmental movement organizations (EMOs) between 1961 and 2000. By combining these data with a comprehensive inventory of EMOs that operated in this period, we show that foundation giving favored conservative mainstream environmental discourses, EMOs that avoided protest, older EMOs, and those located in the northeastern seaboard. Despite major growth in the constant dollar value of foundation giving to EMOs, this remains a highly concentrated system of philanthropy with over half of all foundation grants going to the top 20 grant recipients, a third of which have been leading recipients for over five decades. Nonetheless, there is evidence of change in that alternative discourses, especially environmental justice, received over 5% of these grants in 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To analyze the factors affecting US public concern about the threat of climate change between January 2002 and December 2013, data from 74 separate surveys are used to construct quarterly measures of public concern over global climate change. Five factors should account for changes in levels of concern: extreme weather events, public access to accurate scientific information, media coverage, elite cues, and movement/countermovement advocacy. Structural equation modeling indicates that elite cues, movement advocacy efforts, weather, and structural economic factors influence the level of public concern about climate change. While media coverage exerts an important influence, it is itself largely a function of elite cues and economic factors. Promulgation to the public of scientific information on climate change has no effect. Information-based science advocacy has had only a minor effect on public concern, while political mobilization by elites and advocacy groups is critical in influencing climate change concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One central determinant of global environmental change is the continued expansion of personal consumption levels. In order to more fully understand the relationship between consumption and environmental degradation, the determinants of consumption must first be identified. Prior research in this area has focused on economic factors, primarily personal disposable income and population demographic characteristics. The role of cultural factors, including advertising, has been actively mentioned in theoretical analyses of the driving forces of individual consumption. However, this has not been empirically tested. In this article, we conduct an analysis of the impact of advertising on consumption levels in the United States. We start with a theoretical discussion of the literature on advertising and consumption. Based on this literature, we establish three hypotheses regarding the relationship between advertising expenditure and personal consumption. These hypotheses are then tested using time series analysis over the time period 1900–2000. The results show that advertising significantly impacts overall consumption and that these effects vary by type of consumption. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this analysis for further research into the driving forces of global environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this review, we provide an introduction to the topics of environmental justice and environmental inequality. We provide an overview of the dimensions of unequal exposures to environmental pollution (environmental inequality), followed by a discussion of the theoretical literature that seeks to explain the origins of this phenomenon. We also consider the impact of the environmental justice movement in the United States and the role that federal and state governments have developed to address environmental inequalities. We conclude that more research is needed that links environmental inequalities with public health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has been a well recognized environmental issue in the United States for the past ten years, even though scientists had identified it as a potential problem years before in 1896. We find debate about the issue in the United States media coverage while controversy among the majority of scientists is rare. The role that media plays in constructing the norms and ideas in society is researched to understand how they socially construct global warming and other environmental issues. To identify if the U.S. Media presents a biased view of global warming, the following are discussed 1) the theoretical perspective of media and the environment; 2) scientific overview and history of global warming; 3) media coverage of global warming, and 4) research findings from the content analysis of three countries' newspaper articles and two international scientific journals produced in 2000 with comparison of these countries economies, industries, and environments. In conclusion, our research demonstrates that the U.S. with differing industries, predominantly dominated by the fossil fuel industry, in comparison to New Zealand and Finland has a significant impact on the media coverage of global warming. The U.S's media states that global warming is controversial and theoretical, yet the other two countries portray the story that is commonly found in the international scientific journals. Therefore, media, acting as one driving force, is providing citizens with piecemeal information that is necessary to assess the social, environmental and political conditions of the country and world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the rhetorical and historical perspective of different types of environmental organizations in United States. Environmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, are virtually synonymous with the idea of the environmental movement in the United States. They are central to the environmental movement, since they serve as developers and carriers of its identity. These organizations are also major actors in environmental politics. Finally, the messages they develop have an important influence on the formation of individual attitudes and behaviors toward the natural environment. While the importance of these organizations is generally recognized in social movements research, the study of environmental organizations remains underdeveloped. There are two major groupings of studies of these social movement organizations. The first group uses a qualitative examination of one or two movement organizations. These analyses provide in-depth knowledge of the discourse and practices of a subset of environmental organizations. The second major group of studies examines the aggregate patterns of organizational behavior. Focused on the top ten to twenty national environmental organizations in a country, these studies examine the patterns of environmental collective action.

The authors reflect on Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change and his vision on environmental movement. Topics include application of social sciences in addressing climate change; resemblance of Pope's speech with Baptist missionary Martin Luther King; and importance of discursive "framing" in social movements.