Abstract

The Social Nature of Animals in the ‘Staging’ of Climate Change

The paper aims to open a discussion on the social nature of nonhuman animals in climate change, investigating how human communication practices interfere with how animals are conceived in the climate change debate and with their ability to deal with the upcoming challenges. Thus, in the first part, the work investigates how different animals, especially wild fauna, are used in communicating climate change, focusing on polar bears. In the second part, a focus on farm animals is provided, and in particular on pigs. This requires going beyond an anthropocentric perspective on climate change and identifying an integrative approach to the solutions to adopt.

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