Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The climate crisis is escalating, yet political and societal attention is drifting away from it. In this contradictory moment, the aim of this thesis is to examine and compare how three prominent climate movements, Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future and Greenpeace, frame the urgency and severity of the climate crisis and how these framings shape their proposed solutions and calls to action. Following frame theory, a document analysis of organisational websites across Austrian, German and international umbrella organisations was conducted. This was supplemented by four semi-structured interviews. The analysis is structured along the three core framing tasks: diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing.

The findings show that all three organisations share a broadly convergent diagnostic frame, describing the climate crisis as a present and escalating reality rather than a future threat. Their diagnosis can be described as partly postapocalyptic, where parts of the crisis are seen as irreversible, while future catastrophic outcomes are still considered preventable through urgent action. This shift in their framing, from preventing the climate crisis to mitigating the worst outcomes, reflects a broader transformation within the climate movement and poses challenges to how these organisations communicate, motivate and mobilise. The failure of the 1.5°C-goal is discussed as a key moment of frame transformation that illustrates this shift.

In their prognostic framing, the organisations diverge significantly, reflecting their distinct organisational identities. Greenpeace emphasises concrete sector-specific measures, Fridays for Future focuses on demanding political action and Extinction Rebellion is the most explicit in calling for a system change. Despite these differences, the organisations recognise their mutual dependence within the broader movement. The organisations’ motivational framing largely overlaps, grounded in urgency, community, hope and persistence. The framing of persistence is particularly significant given the context of declining movement participation and political drawbacks. How organisations maintain motivated and mobilise under these conditions emerges as a central tension of this thesis.
The thesis contributes to the literature on climate movement communication by demonstrating how framings are adapted to changing scientific and political realities at a moment when the crisis the movement has long warned about is already unfolding.