Critical Approaches to the Climate Crisis

This essay turns to theories developed in critical rhetoric and cultural studies to give us an alternate understanding of what is at stake in the climate crisis and offer tools to respond to the crisis. Scholars from those fields, especially decolonial scholars, help us access alternate scales of both time and geography by shifting our perspective from universal to specific, from dominant to insurgent, and, even from human to more-than-human. This article focuses on examples that can expand our understanding of who can combat climate change, what counts as climate activism, and our epistemological understanding of the climate crisis. Through an attention to power and the centering of those most marginalize and, consequently, those most affected by the climate crisis, Communication studies can give us the tools to address climate anxiety and envision a better, more sustainable, and more sustaining future.