Changing Terrains of Carbon and Climate

Abstract

While hurricanes, fires, floods, and droughts threaten much of the planet, the oil, gas, and coal industries are changing so rapidly that interpretation struggles to keep pace. Changes to extractive industries are in some cases linked to the climate crisis, but are also driven by global market perturbations, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other forces. In some interpretations, pressures on fossil fuel companies are opening up space for alternative technologies and lower-carbon imaginaries. From other perspectives, rapacious companies are finding ways to position themselves favorably in these rough waters, heeding the adage of "never let a good crisis go to waste." In this paper session, we intend to address several questions about these processes of change.

How are fossil fuel companies adapting to climate change, and even sponsoring climate adaptation initiatives?

What are the dynamics of climate justice activism at the sites of fossil fuel production?

How are the technosocial relations of fossil fuel extraction changing at different sites along the production chain in response to climate change and related crises?

What new forms of expertise are authorized to deal with these industries?

How do both experts and laypeople create knowledge that can help them understand and navigate the intersecting changes to the climate and the industries upon which they depend?

How can crisis in the oil and gas industry be capitalized upon, not by industry actors but by those seeking more just and sustainable energy relations?

Individual Presentations

• Conflicted Transitions: Actors, Tactics, and Outcomes of Energy Infrastructure Opposition and Community Mobilization in Carbon-intensive Regions - Roberto Cantoni, University of Sussex

• Envisioning “The Just Transition:” The Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Energy Workers - Diane Sicotte, Drexel University; Kelly Joyce, Drexel University; Arielle Hesse, Drexel University

• Factualities of carbon data and imaginaries of oil in Stavanger, Norway - Anne-Sofie Lautrup Sørensen, IT University of Copenhagen

• Grassroots Coalitions and Energy Justice in North America: Strategy, Knowledge, and Pipeline Opposition - David J Hess, Vanderbilt; Kaelee Belletto, Vanderbilt University, Sociology Department

• Inert and Uneven Geologies – Carbon Dioxide Removal and Geological CO2 Storage in the Anthropocene - Inge-Merete Hougaard, Lund University

• Making Carbon Matter? Climate Politics and the Governing of Norwegian Oil Resources - Bård Lahn, CICERO Center for International Climate Research Oslo

Session Organizers

• Abby Kinchy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• Jessica Lehman, Durham University