Author's personal copy Conspicuous redemption? Reflections on the promises and perils of the ‘Celebritization’ of climate change Maxwell T. Boykoff a,1, * , Michael K. Goodman b,1 a Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom b Department of Geography, King’s College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom article info Article history: Received 17 July 2007 Received in revised form 1 April 2008 Keywords: Climate change Celebrity Science–policy Consumption Framing Media Discourse abstract With rising public awareness of climate change, celebrities have become an increasingly important com- munity of non nation-state ‘actors’ influencing discourse and action, thereby comprising an emergent cli- mate science–policy–celebrity complex. Some feel that these amplified and prominent voices contribute to greater public understanding of climate change science, as well as potentially catalyze climate policy cooperation. However, critics posit that increased involvement from the entertainment industry has not served to influence substantive long-term advancements in these arenas; rather, it has instead reduced the politics of climate change to the domain of fashion and fad, devoid of political and public saliency. Through tracking media coverage in Australia, Canada, the United States, and United Kingdom, we map out the terrain of a ‘Politicized Celebrity System’ in attempts to cut through dualistic characteriza- tions of celebrity involvement in politics. We develop a classification system of the various types of climate change celebrity activities, and situate movements in contemporary consumer- and spectacle- driven carbon-based society. Through these analyses, we place dynamic and contested interactions in a spatially and temporally-sensitive ‘Cultural Circuits of Climate Change Celebrities’ model. In so doing, first we explore how these newly ‘authorized’ speakers and ‘experts’ might open up spaces in the public sphere and the science/policy nexus through ‘celebritization’ effects. Second, we examine how the celeb- rity as the ‘heroic individual’ seeking ‘conspicuous redemption’ may focus climate change actions through individualist frames. Overall, this paper explores potential promises, pitfalls and contradictions of this increasingly entrenched set of ‘agents’ in the cultural politics of climate change. Thus, as a form of climate change action, we consider whether it is more effective to ‘plant’ celebrities instead of trees. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction: Industry without smokestacks ‘Polar bears are imperiled by the melting of the Arctic ice. The Bush administration, which has yet to decide whether to list the polar bear as a threatened species, understands the power of symbols, and has warned government scien- tists not to speak publicly about polar bears or climate change at international meetings. Knut, the cub on our cover, was born in the Berlin Zoo. We brought him together with Leonardo DiCaprio the only way we could, in a photomon- tage. Knut was photographed by Annie Leibovitz in Berlin. DiCaprio, no stranger to icebergs, was photographed by Leibovitz at the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, in Iceland. Yes, we know, there are no polar bears in Iceland. If current trends continue, there won’t be any in Canada either.’  Pre- face to the Second Annual Green Issue of Vanity Fair maga- zine, May 2007. That Vanity Fair—the magazine of record for Hollywood haute couture politics and culture—can un-ironically present investiga- tive journalism on the privatization of water and the ‘gasping’ Amazonian environment amidst meteorically-expensive designer clothing, watches, and sunglasses advertisements is at the heart of this paper. Clearly, as the opening selection highlights, it seems now that both celebrities, who are more often crossing the bound- aries of ‘stardom’ and politics, and the environment have found powerful cultural symbols in each other. Indeed, as we argue here, the extent to which these connections are being made is unprece- dented in their sheer number and intensity of media exposure. This increase in media coverage of celebrities and climate change/global warming illustrates a need for an understanding of the new and changing connections of the celebritization of climate change where media, politics and science intersect. We thus wish to build on the somewhat disparate literatures on global environ- mental discourses (e.g. Taylor and Buttel, 1992; Hajer, 1995; Adger et al., 2001), work on the commodification of nature (e.g. Castree, 0016-7185/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2008.04.006 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: maxwell.boykoff@eci.ox.ac.uk (M.T. Boykoff), michael.k.good- man@kcl.ac.uk (M.K. Goodman). 1 Both authors contributed equally to this paper. Geoforum 40 (2009) 395–406 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geoforum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum