ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on the interim findings of computer-assisted analyses of texts by business people dealing with ecological concern. Together with the work reported on in chapters 2, 4 and 5 the study was part of a project which focuses on the dialectical relationship between language and ecology. (See Alexander 1993 and 1996 and Fill 1993 and 1996.) It is argued that environmental discourse and ecological thinking are severely constrained within the frame of economic discourse and thinking. We are dealing here with a specific model of economics with a firmly established institutional base. The rich and powerful business corporations, in particular, but also their acolytes in politics and the media, employ discourse to channel tolerance for further environmental degradation. But all is not lost. Fair trading and more considerate commercial relationships between ethically motivated companies of the North and the peoples of the South do exist. Consumers as thinking citizens are able to make an impact by buying products of such businesses.
