ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the environmental communication literature that analyzes global environmental conferences like the two Earth Summits. It examines the environmental communication literature that utilizes Habermasian approaches and sets out an updated Habermasian theory to explain how conferences like the Earth Summits. To interpret the environmental discourse produced by important Northern and Southern actors at Earth Summit +5, the cognitive discourse analysis method is used. The official statements presented by representatives of the United States, Malaysia, the Third World Network, and Greenpeace International are analyzed and interpreted to determine how these actors seemed to construct their understanding in the wake of the North-South debate at the first Earth Summit. The chapter considers impact of the discourse produced by these actors. The four actors used their microframes differently and symbolically packaged their frames in unique ways; they all put forth a common mesoframe of global responsibility.
