Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life

This is an original and extremely important intellectual contribution. The analysis of social responses to climate change information has primarily focused on individual values and beliefs. Norgaard's work moves beyond this individualistic focus and brings a social dimension to the analysis of climate denial. She demonstrates that climate denial is a social process in which collective actions are taken to restore a sense of equilibrium and social stability. This book advances our understanding of climate denial and lays the ground for new approaches to climate change communication. --Robert J. Brulle, Professor of Sociology and Environmental Science, Drexel University "Living in Denial is particularly interesting because of the ethnographic research methods employed, which are unusual in such a field as global climate change. We gain a rich understanding of how people react to information about climate change. This book shows why information-rich programs are inadequate to get the general populace to take action to address this most serious of issues." --Randolph Haluza-DeLay, Department of Sociology, The King's University College, Edmonton; co-editor of Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada "Kari Norgaard has written a rigorous and insightful account about a subtle and profound social problem that confronts the mitigation of climate change--namely, the cognitive and social tools used to deny or ignore a problem even when the populace agrees it should be addressed. The population of Bygdaby holds a solid national image of itself as a humanitarian, egalitarian, nature-loving people who love their snow. Yet they fail to even think coherently about climate change. This startling mismatch makes the storyline of the book quite engaging, and it will undoubtedly be recognized for making an important contribution by explaining how this mismatch is socially produced." --Peter Jacques, Department of Political Science, University of Central Florida

Kari Marie Norgaard is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon.