Competing Visions of Climate Populism
2019, Summit Confronting the Disinformation Age, Media + Information, Climate + Environment
How does the rise of populism shape debates about climate and energy in Canada? Can left visions of ecological populism combat disinformation and challenge the forces of extractive populism?
Populism has become an increasingly prominent force in Canadian political life, with significant implications for how the public engages with the intersecting politics of climate change and energy. In a panel discussion featuring Shane Gunster, Bob Neubauer, and Paul Saurette, these three authors of a forthcoming book will discuss how competing visions of extractive and ecological populism are shaping political debate in Canada.
While governments, the fossil fuel industry and conservative media and think-tanks have aggressively mobilized populist rhetoric to position tar sands expansion and pipelines as part of the ‘national interest’, the resistance to extractivism has also drawn upon populist themes to describe the democratic rights of Indigenous nations, local communities and citizens to defend their lands – and the common good – from those forces which threaten it.
What dangers and opportunities does populism hold for Canadian climate politics? How does it enable new forms of climate denial? Does it also open up new possibilities for mobilization and engagement beyond debates over climate science?
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. (PT)
SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue - Room 320
580 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C.
We respectfully acknowledge that this event takes place on the Unceded, Traditional, Ancestral Territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm First Nations.
About Confronting the Disinformation Age
SFU Public Square’s 2019 Community Summit considered how the proliferation of disinformation is impacting society and challenging our capacity to make informed decisions about our economic, social, and political lives. Together, we co-created strategies to ensure stronger and healthier information ecosystems and stimulate more connected and resilient communities.
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The Disinformation Age
Information is fundamental to our existence. Without it, we cannot understand or effectively respond to the events that shape our world. Throughout history, campaigns to deliberately spread false information to influence public opinion or obscure the truth have been launched by individuals, organizations, and governments. But today, we’re living in a new age of information facilitated primarily by digital technology. These advancements offer us extraordinary access to facts and data but also allow for harmful, inaccurate, and manipulated information to be created and disseminated at an unprecedented speed, scope, and scale. Falsehoods are pitted against facts in competition for our attention and technology is used to exploit our cognitive functioning without repercussion. In what is being called the “post-truth” era, the distortion of our information landscape is eroding our trust in institutions, political systems, the media, and each other.
Shannon Daub
Shannon Daub is the Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - BC Office. Shannon has worked with the CCPA-BC since its early days, helping to grow the organization from a scrappy DIY outfit to a widely recognized source of progressive research and policy ideas.
Shannon's work mixes her expertise in both research and communication. Her research interests include social movements, framing, environmental communication, and democratic capacity. She co-directs the Corporate Mapping Project with Bill Carroll at the University of Victoria. The project is investigating the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry in Canada, and is jointly led by UVic, the CCPA's BC and Saskatchewan offices, and the Alberta-based Parkland Institute.
Outside her day-to-day work life at CCPA, Shannon has taught in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University and volunteered on the boards of organizations like the Wilderness Committee, CCEC Credit Union and the Vancouver Public Library. She is also a co-founder of Media Democracy Day
Shane Gunster
Shane Gunster teaches in the School of Communication at SFU, is a research associate with the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, and his work focuses upon the intersection of climate and energy politics in news media and advocacy communication. His latest co-authored book is Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives (Routledge 2017).
Bob Neubauer
Robert Joseph Neubauer is a Lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He researches the political economy of energy development, resource industry-funded civil society networks, and the media strategies of environmentalist and pro-oil advocacy groups.
Paul Saurette
Dr. Paul Saurette is a professor at the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa where he researches and teaches on a variety of topics including ideology and rhetoric, political communication, populism, the conservative and progressive movements in North America, and a wide range of social and political theory. The recipient of several teaching and research awards and currently a research fellow with the Broadbent Institute, his books include The Kantian Imperative (2005) and The Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement in Canada and the US (2015, with Kelly Gordon). He is currently writing a new book titled Climate Populism with Mat Patterson, Shane Gunster, Simon Dalby and Bob Neubauer.
Join us! Registration is free. We’ll also send an email recap to everybody who RSVPs, even if you can’t make the event.
Summit trailer
Confronting the Disinformation Age | Resources
Books, articles, videos and other resources on disinformation.
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Fabricating Meaning
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When Facts Fail | City Conversations
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Philosophy of Fake News
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Youth Take Action
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Confronting the Disinformation Age | Keynote
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Face to Face(book) with Christopher Wylie
The New Yorker calls him “a pink-haired, nose-ringed oracle sent from the future". Best known for his role in setting up – and then taking down – the cyberwarfare firm Cambridge Analytica, Chris has been listed in TIME100 Most Influential People in the World, Forbes’ 30 Under 30, Politico’s 50 Most Influential People in Politics and Business Insider’s 100 Coolest People in Tech.
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Media, Misinformation, and What Can Be Done About It
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Working Towards an Inclusive Digital Society
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Is Social Media Destroying Democracy?
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Innovations in Research: Confronting the Disinformation Age
Hosted by Joy Johnson, Vice-President, Research and International at SFU, this event features rapid-fire presentations, in-depth discussions, and interactive demonstrations by faculty, staff, students and alumni from across SFU’s faculties, departments, programs and campuses.
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Competing Visions of Climate Populism
Populism has become an increasingly prominent force in Canadian political life, with significant implications for how the public engages with the intersecting politics of climate change and energy. In a panel discussion featuring Shane Gunster, Bob Neubauer, and Paul Saurette, these three authors of a forthcoming book will discuss how competing visions of extractive and ecological populism are shaping political debate in Canada.
Read More →
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A Special Philosopher's Cafe: Confronting the Disinformation Age
Lies and mistruths have always been used to sway people’s beliefs, and people have always created false personas. Plato wrestled with how to tell appearance from reality, and suggested that those in “the cave” might choose shadows and reflections over being truly enlightened. Are current times different and, if so, why and how? For example, does the Internet make it easier to create and disseminate persuasive lies? Are snark and falsehood now rewarded with more attention and money than ever before? Or is there nothing new under the sun?
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Fake News, Real Talk
In a digital age of fake news, alternative facts, media echo chambers, confirmation bias, and algorithm-fuelled virality, how can we as students navigate our way around our distorted media landscape?
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