Abstract
This chapter analyses the thriller Pionér (Pioneer 2013) and the TV series Okkupert (The Occupied, 2015–) to show how the two examples depict Norway’s dependence on fossil fuels. The analysis starts with the events presented in Pionér, when Norway laid the first oil pipeline in the North Sea in the 1980s and prepared for the installation of a gas pipeline. It then moves to the images of gas and oil production from the nearest future depicted in Okkupert. Through these two examples, the chapter investigates the intricate connection between the use of fossil fuels and climate change. It claims that humanity’s dependence on oil and natural gas not only defines the era of modernity but has also formulated the toxic politics of today’s world. This politics manifests itself in the toxicity of burning fossil fuels on the one hand, and the toxicity of human nature on the other, for human avarice continues to be one of the major obstacles on the way to a greener and healthier environment. To illustrate the complexity of capitalist petrodependency, the chapter utilises the concepts of eco-guilt and eco-shame.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ali, U. (2019). Top ten countries by oil production. Offshore Technology. Retrieved July 29, 2019, from https://www.offshore-technology.com/features/oil-production-by-country/.
Bruhn, J. (2018). Ecology as pre-text? The paradoxical presence of ecological thematics in contemporary Scandinavian quality TV. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 10(2), 66–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2018.1438729.
Cavert, W. M. (2016). The smoke of London: Energy and environment in the early modern city. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chen, F. F. (2011). An indispensable truth: How fusion power can save the planet. New York: Springer.
Cuomo, C. J. (2011). Climate change, vulnerability, and responsibility. Hypatia, 26(4), 690–714. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01220.x.
Devlin, D. (Dir.). (2017). Geostorm. USA: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Duvall, J. A. (2017). The environmental documentary: Cinema activism in the 21st century. New York: Bloomsbury.
Exports of oil and gas. (2019). Norwegian petroleum. Retrieved July 29, 2019, from https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/production-and-exports/exports-of-oil-and-gas/.
Emmerich, R. (Dir.). (2004). The day after tomorrow 20th century fox, USA.
Emmerich, R. (Dir.). (2009). 2012. USA: Columbia Pictures.
Glover, L. (2006). Postmodern climate change. London: Routledge.
Goldberg, R. (2014). Understanding contemporary social problems through media. New York: Routledge.
Guggenheim, D. (Dir.). (2006). An inconvenient truth. USA: Paramount Classics.
Ilyushina, M. (2019). Russia plans to tow a nuclear power station to the Arctic. Critics dub it a ‘floating chernobyl’. CNN. Retrieved July 29, 2019, from https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/28/europe/russia-arctic-floating-nuclear-power-station-intl/index.html.
Keane, S. (2006). Disaster movies: The cinema of catastrophe. London: Wallflower.
Kirchick, J. (2017). The Norwegian TV series that’s enraged the Kremlin. And why you should watch it. Politico. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from https://www.politico.eu/article/occupied-norwegian-tv-series-thats-enraged-the-kremlin-norway-russia-occupation/.
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2012). Disaster film. In A. Kuhn & G. Westwell (Eds.), Oxford dictionary of film studies (p. 123). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
LeMenager, S. (2014). Living oil: Petroleum culture in the American century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mallett, R. K. (2012). Eco-guilt motivates eco-friendly behavior. Ecopsychology, 4(3), 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2012.0031.
Marsden, W. (2011). Fools rule: Inside the failed politics of climate change. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf.
Morton, T. (2016). Dark ecology: For a logic of future coexistence. New York: Columbia University Press.
Murray, R. L., & Heumann, J. K. (2014). Film and everyday eco-disasters. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Northcott, M. S. (2013). A political theology of climate change. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Okkupert [The Occupied]. K. Lund, J. Nesbø, & E. Skjoldbjaerg (Creators) (2015). Yellow Bird, Norway.
Parker, G. (2017). Global crisis: War, climate change and catastrophe in the seventeenth century. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Pionér [Pioneer]. E. Skjoldbjaerg (Dir.). (2013). Nordisk Film, Norway.
Poushter, J., & Huang, C. (2019). Climate change still seen as the top global threat, but cyberattacks a rising concern. Pew Research Center. Retrieved July 26, 2019, from https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/02/10/climate-change-still-seen-as-the-top-global-threat-but-cyberattacks-a-rising-concern/.
Szeman, I. (2010). The cultural politics of oil: On lessons of darkness and Black Sea files. Polygraph, 22, 33–45.
Szeman, I. (2012). Crude aesthetics: The politics of oil documentaries. Journal of American Studies, 46(2), 423–439. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875812000151.
Szeman, I. (2017a). Energy, climate, and the classroom: A letter. In S. Siperstein, S. Hall, & S. LeMenager (Eds.), Teaching climate change in the humanities (pp. 46–52). London: Routledge.
Szeman, I. (2017b). System failure: Oil, futurity, and the anticipation of disaster. In I. Szeman & D. Boyer (Eds.), Energy humanities: An anthology (pp. 55–70). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Trump, D. (2012, November 6). The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. Twitter post. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/265895292191248385.
Waldman, S. (2019). Trump officials deleting mentions of ‘climate change’ from U.S. Geological Survey press releases. Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved July 26, 2019, from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/trump-officials-deleting-mentions-climate-change-us-geological-survey-press-releases.
Wilson, S., Szeman, I., & Carlson, A. (2017). On petrocultures: Or, why we need to understand oil to understand everything else. In S. Wilson, A. Carlson, & I. Szeman (Eds.), Petrocultures: Oil, politics, culture (pp. 3–20). Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Workman, D. (2010). Crude oil exports by country. Worldʼs Top Exports. Retrieved July 29, 2019, from http://www.worldstopexports.com/worlds-top-oil-exports-country/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prorokova-Konrad, T. (2021). Toxicity, Fossil Fuels, and Climate Change in Pionér and Okkupert. In: Mišík, M., Kujundžić, N. (eds) Energy Humanities. Current State and Future Directions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57480-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57480-2_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57479-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57480-2
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)