From climate-activism to climate-terrorism? The threat of a self-fulfilling prophecy

Across the globe, government officials, politicians, and law enforcement agencies increasingly label or treat climate activists as criminals or terrorists. Employing theoretical insights from terrorism studies this contribution discusses the potential counterproductive effects of this approach. It investigates the likelihood that climate activists might eventually adopt violent methods to advance their political goals and argues that the trend to criminalize climate activists and label them as terrorists could potentially become a self-fulfilling prophecy.