It’s a complex topic, but relevant to alarmism and denial. "Eco Porn" has at least three variants: Soft porn images shot in devastated forests help to raise money for environmental causes. Verbal and visual depictions portray the tree climbers who like to camp, even traverse between trees and have sex, hundreds of feet up in the redwood "canopy." And there’s the pornography of advertising that uses images of pristine wilderness to sell SUVs, gas, coal, drugs and beer.
"Climate Porn" on the other hand refers to apocalyptic warnings of the unimaginable, inevitable ecological devastation right around the corner. It turns “pornographic” when it gives the impression it's too late. Nothing can be done to avert it. Go shopping.
Hysteria, denial, and responsible, urgent warnings collide in almost every conversation. It’s taboo publicly to discuss the worst case scenarios, no matter how realistic, no matter how fixable. But it’s "hysterical" to discuss the real economic and lifestyle changes that will be necessary to have any effect on climate change. And it’s wildly "alarmist" to suggest that climate change is only one of a dozen urgent eco- crises we face. But then it's also taboo to use "eco-terrorist" to describe the corporations and warmongers whose actions are meta-pornographic.
It’s cynical at best, subversive at worst, to call Obama a harbinger of “false hopes,” or the voices of change “unrealistic." It's the status quo that reeks of false hope and self-deception. Once again, without irony, “What’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding?”
