Yogi H Hendlin
Yogi Hale Hendlin is Assistant Professor in the School of Philosophy, and core faculty in the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He also is a Research Associate in the Environmental Health Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco.
Hendlin is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics, and academic director for the Sustainability Transitions MA program at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
His edited books include Food & Medicine: A Biosemiotic Perspective (2021, Springer), and Being Algae: Transformations in Water, Plants (2022, Brill).
Address: Department of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
530 Parnassus Ave., Suite 366
San Francisco, CA
94143-1390
Hendlin is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics, and academic director for the Sustainability Transitions MA program at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
His edited books include Food & Medicine: A Biosemiotic Perspective (2021, Springer), and Being Algae: Transformations in Water, Plants (2022, Brill).
Address: Department of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
530 Parnassus Ave., Suite 366
San Francisco, CA
94143-1390
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Papers by Yogi H Hendlin
Norway’s role in Norsk Hydro’s polluting activities in Barcarena, Brazil from 1967 to 2024. Foreign corporations
have long exploited Brazil’s natural resources, with Norwegian enterprises increasingly involved. Norsk Hydro’s
operations, particularly at the Alunorte alumina refinery, have caused severe ecological damage. Using state-
corporate crime theory and Southern green criminology, this study analyses leaks, toxic waste disposal in rivers and
asymmetrical mining standards. To assess environmental standards, this study conducted interviews, document
analyses, site visits and literature reviews. Our findings indicate that Norwegian public and private interests are
intertwined, with profit motives undermining environmental aspirations and stated policies. This tendency to
subordinate environmental protection abroad to financial expediency domestically is generalized through the concept
of polluters by proxy. This concept attempts to represent types of activities where state actors produce environmental
harm abroad and benefit economically while distancing themselves from direct responsibility by taking advantage
of corporate structures.
denial’ urges reassessing the mechanisms and networks of actors involved in anti-environmentalism.
One high-level tactic which harnesses evolutionary psychology and
organizational self-protective tendencies to willfully overlook negative outcomes involves
compartmentalization. Segmented judgment applies to multiple domains, including
highlighting commitments, declarations, and philanthropy as a mask for continuing
unsustainability. Selective accounting gives the impression that states and companies are
doing enough on climate, that things are not as bad as they seem, and that much-touted
sustainable actions compensate for continuing environmental harms–in effect reducing the
impetus for responsible action and diverting attention from climate change’s primary driv-
ers. This bait-and-switch strategy fragments climate accounting by avoiding including both
sustainable and unsustainable initiatives in the same ledger. This study categorizes strat-
egies of compartmentalization according to sectoral, narrative, political, behavioral, and
structural perspectives, with examples among agrochemical, fossil, and mining industries.
Each of these facets is evaluated through examples of actions undertaken by corporations
and public agents, often exploiting Global North-South dynamics. In spite of these aspects
having different spheres of influence, acts of compartmentalization are interconnected and
represent a core background frame enabling the climate denial machine.