ABSTRACT
The relationship between petroculture, faith, and fossil fuel production, invites new ways of considering the spiritual temporalities of climate change. In particular, it offers novel perspectives on the varied negotiations of life, labour, and identity that surround the Canadian oil sands. Through a series of one-on-one interviews with faith leaders and a two-year mainstream media analysis, this chapter explores how the lived experiences of faith are constituted by, and also challenge, dominant narratives in Canada’s legacy media in regards to extraction and the environment. Of particular focus are the ways in which high-carbon living are reflected in national news discourses of economy, well-being, and time. Importantly, this is not intended to be a work of theology, but rather an examination of the way that particular religious identities and subjectivities express and mediate understandings of climate change in Canadian petro politics.
