Greening Animal Defense? Examining Whether Appealing to Climate Change and the Environment Is an Effective Advocacy Strategy to Reduce Oppression of Nonhumans

Abstract

Animal advocates are uncertain about whether it is effective to use environmental or climate change messages emphasizing the impact on global warming of factory farming along with, or even in place of, more radical and ideological messages emphasizing justice, abolition, and cruelty toward other animals. Particularly, the real, long-term effectiveness of environment-based arguments in general, and climate change arguments in particular, is unclear. This article attempts to contribute to this discussion by examining some of the reasons that best support or refute the use of an environmental frame for the defense of nonhuman animals from a nonspeciesist and abolitionist perspective. The conclusion is that there are strong arguments for both stances, though, at least for long-term behavioral change, the use of green arguments seems to have more drawbacks.