ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the social perceptions of and policy reactions to environmental issues regarding the Russian Arctic by using the method of environmental discourse analysis as an analytical framework for an empirical study. It describes discourse analysis as a theoretical framework. The chapter gives an overview of the climate change discourses of major countries, focusing particular attention on the Russian approach. It demonstrates the Arctic environmental discourse in Russia, relying mainly on the speeches and interviews of key persons of influence and textual units obtained from the Russian domestic mass media. The chapter summarizes the major findings. It also aims to explore how environmental issues in the Russian Arctic are acknowledged in Russia's domestic mass media, and then in what way the domestic discussion leads to specific policy measures to protect the Arctic environment in this country. The chapter concludes with a discussion of ecological modernization rhetoric against the Russian Arctic.
