“Telling the truth about climate change, even if it hurts”

This article looks at how environmental activists raise awareness of climate change by employing both the objectivist approach of science, and the emotional charge of eco-anxiety, attachment to nature, and anger towards that which is destroying it. It begins by examining the way in which two pedagogical devices used by activists mobilise both science and emotion. Sensitisation to the cause can be seen as a process of emotional socialisation undertaken by the activist institution and by the activists themselves, who embrace a form of self-sensitisation based largely on their cultural dispositions. Thus, raising awareness of environmental issues, and the emotional labour that accompanies it, contribute to shaping a cause that stems from the innermost self of those involved, that is, from their reason and personal sensibilities. Ultimately, the author shows that investment in this type of strategy is grounded within the academic dispositions and sensitivity to nature of the class segments involved in these struggles.