ABSTRACT
This chapter defines what is meant by environmental discourse analysis. The science of human-generated climate change is pretty settled, though there is enough uncertainty to accommodate two competing narratives within public discourse. Discourse analysis examines the way that discourse-driven narratives are created and used strategically in a variety of public and social realms. The chapter formalizes the discussion, illustrated with specific environmental examples such as ozone depletion, acid rain, pesticides, and state regulations on flame retardant chemicals. In Ozone Discourses, Karen Litfin was interested in the discourse surrounding international negotiations over ozone depletion in the late 1980s, which culminated in the enactment of the Montreal Protocol in 1987. In Politics of Environmental Discourse, Maarten Hajer examined the public discourse surrounding acid rain regulation in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s. Proponents of environmental discourse analysis argue that it provides a more realistic and complete picture of how scientific and economic ideas get incorporated into environmental policy.
