Climatization and Declimatization

Abstract

Climate change forces a reckoning with the ecological side effects of fossil-fuel-based industrial development, requiring an incorporation of climate issues into the mainstream structures of society. In this perspective article, we address this as a “climatization” process directed at aligning society with climate imperatives. We focus on the contingent dynamics of “climatization” and show how contention may be avoided by “declimatizing” climate action. Here, we emphasize the immediate co-benefits of climate action as against more distant climate benefits. “Declimatization” is therefore a strategic move: it is distinct from the “anti-climatization” backlash, though it is often figured as a reflexive response to it. We draw on climate anthropology, climate advocacy, and climate movement theory, and provide brief insights into de/climatization in Germany, India, and Australia.