Environmental Movement Interventions in the Oil-Tourism Interface

Offshore oil extraction and nature-based tourism offer alternative development paths across the North Atlantic. Offshore oil promises economic benefits from employment and royalty payments, but involves fossil fuel-intensive resource extraction. Nature-based tourism promotes the experience of natural environments and encounters with wildlife, including whales, seals, or seabirds. These modes of development come into contact when there is a disaster or conflict over extending oil exploration into new regions. Using a relational approach, we compare Denmark, Iceland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Norway, and Scotland and examine the role of environmental movements in the “oil-tourism interface.” First, we examine environmental movement discourse using a discourse network approach. Second, we examine how environmental movement intervention happens by looking at repertoires of contention and forms of collective action. Third, we examine how environmental movements fit into broader networks of contention and collaboration. Environmental organizations are often involved in conflict with offshore oil companies around resource extraction. By contrast, they are more often involved in collaborative relationships with the tourism sector around sustainability practices and environmental education projects. Environmental groups and tourism actors also align against specific oil development projects.