ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates representations of climate change at public aquariums, focussing on the Oceanário de Lisboa’s effort to inform visitors about nature and to encourage more environmentally friendly behaviours. This is analysed using Labov and Waletzky’s theory of narratives of personal experiences and Bakhtin’s chronotope concept. The study presents two primary chronotopes: the habitat, which conveys a cyclical time, emphasising stability and continuity; and a second, globally anchored chronotope, characterised by environmental threats and human alterations of the oceans. Together, they form an environmental chronotope, representative for public aquariums, characterised by the interplay between habitat/balance and environmental threat/unbalance.
