Title: Propaganda as an environmental justice issue

Authors: M. Joseph Aloi

Addresses: Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies, University of North Texas, Environmental Science Building, Room 225, 1704 West Mulberry, Denton, TX 76201, USA

Abstract: Propaganda has a long history in the industrialised North as a disreputable method of communication and persuasion. I adopt the definition of 'propaganda' elaborated by Ross (2002). The people of Kivalina are being forced to relocate their village due to the effects of climate change. This is an instance of environmental injustice. They maintain that certain actions of fossil fuel companies, amounting to civil conspiracy, are at least in part responsible for these effects. I argue that these actions of the fossil fuel companies are propaganda. Accordingly, understanding propaganda is crucial for the environmental justice movement

Keywords: propaganda; environmental justice; climate change; Kivalina; population relocation; United States; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2014.063648

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2014 Vol.15 No.2/3, pp.105 - 113

Received: 15 Jun 2013
Accepted: 23 Nov 2013

Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

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