Stories Told to Hide the Truth: Climate Disinformation, Animal Behaviour and the Nature of Narratives

In her recent article Overcoming Climate Breakdown Denial and Neglect through the Aesthetics of Nature (2023), philosopher Marta Tafalla argues for the possibility that one can learn about global climate change (GCC) if one listens to animals and stories nature itself tells us. Contrary to Tafalla, I argue that her suggestion is overly optimistic. In my paper, I first demonstrate that Tafalla assumes the link between cause and consequence always corresponds to findings in environmental science, and that this assumption is unfounded. Second, I examine the strategies and narratives employed by anti-environmentalists and demonstrate that they utilise the same narrative structures as Tafalla when telling animal stories. Accordingly, I claim that one can learn about GCC from animals’ stories if and only if one already acknowledges it.