Climate no future? Picturing imaginaries of climate activists between hope and violence

This visual essay adds to current research on climate futures, violence and conflict by presenting findings from ‘Security Imaginaries of Climate Movements’ (SECIMA), a citizen science project with climate activists conducted between 2022 to 2024. Combining elements of photovoice and photo elicitation, the project engaged activists from Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion and The Last Generation to explore how activists imagine (violent) futures in the global climate crisis. The authors present a condensed account of how these activists balance fears of climate catastrophe and related violence with images of hope, solidarity and resilience. Through the eyes of the activists, the essay explores three alternative and interconnected imaginaries of climate-changed futures: as a major catastrophe which can be acted upon, as an open horizon to be shaped by political action and as a projection of present injustices and violences. These imaginaries crucially shape contemporary forms of climate activism and the conflicts surrounding them.