Student: Frances Swanson
Graduation date: August 2017
Capstone type: Thesis
Capstone project:
Bush Whacking: The Wicked Attempt to Mobilize Climate Action
Capstone file(s): Show file | Show file
The broadest goal of my thesis is to contribute to the body of scholarly research that questions and reimagines how we might meaningfully address climate change. My approach is grounded in analyzing scale and the individualization of problem-solving. It is with the salience of scale and the critique of individualization and consumerization of many environmental problems that I ask the overarching question guiding this thesis: In the multi-scaled context of climate governance, how might individuals mobilize to meaningfully address climate change? Grounded in the situated context of the United States during the George W. Bush Presidential Administration (2001-2009), I examine how two of the most prevalent climate action organizations, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, used their mainstream publications to send messages about how one can engage in climate action. It is in the present day context of the Donald Trump Presidential Administration that I ask my framing question, how did the climate action organizations attempt to mobilize civic engagement during the Bush Era? I found that these organizations could improve by providing more consistency and clarity in their messaging to individuals, though not doing so by excluding the nuance and complexity of their subject.