Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper addresses the lack of climate change discussion in Poland amid an air pollution crisis in the country.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper addresses the issue of a lack of climate change discussion in Poland amid an air pollution crisis in the country. The air pollution, largely caused by state subsidized coal heating, has been one of the major topics in the past years. At the same time, there has been very little attention towards climate change and the CO2 emissions in the public discourse, with some international NGOs actively altering their communication strategies to avoid emphasizing climate issues in Poland. This is often interpreted as a result of a lack of spectacular catastrophic events in the country and a widespread perception that the weather is actually getting 'better'. Moving beyond such assumptions, the paper argues that it is rather due to a conviction of being left out of global histories and unwillingness or inability to locate oneself within global processes. As such, it enables to not only get to gloss over the detrimental effects of climate change, but also avoid feeling any possible responsibility for co-producing the crisis. At the same time, focusing on a local pollution crisis that is not caused by the industry allows for victim-blaming strategies against the poor households instead of tackling the more systemic issues that would inevitably touch the middle and upper class citizens as well as businesses.