Creative self-destruction: corporate responses to climate change as political myths

Despite the dire implications of anthropogenic climate change, societies have failed to take comprehensive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A major reason for the lack of social and political engagement on this issue is the way in which political myths function to overcome the contradiction of environmental degradation and endless economic growth. Through a qualitative analysis of Australian business responses to climate change, we outline how the myths of corporate environmentalism, corporate citizenship, and corporate omnipotence absorb and adapt the critique of corporate capitalism while enabling ever more imaginative ways of exploiting nature - a process of 'creative self-destruction'. Rather than seeking to falsify these myths, we explore how they are supported and what they seek to achieve - the work of myths. Revealing the nature of current political myths in relation to climate change is, we argue, a necessary first step to constructing alternative imaginaries.