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.
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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
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