A linguistic and discursive view on climate change discourse

Abstract

Dans les débats sur le changement climatique, une multitude de voix se font entendre : différents acteurs s’attellent aux défis, définissent les priorités pour de nouvelles connaissances et fournissent un cadre pour les questions et actions clés. À qui appartiennent ces voix ? Comment traduisent-elles leurs connaissances respectives ? Afin de répondre à ces questions, il est nécessaire d’étudier comment le changement climatique, qui a son origine dans un discours scientifique « objectif », est transposé en un discours argumentatif et orienté vers l’action. Comment les acteurs construisent-ils linguistiquement leur agenda climatique ? Le projet interdisciplinaire auquel cet article est lié a pour but de dévoiler ce discours polyphonique. Dans la présente contribution sera entreprise une analyse portant sur un document produit par le Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), « Summary for policymakers », contenant les résultats principaux de l’IPCC de 2007. Ce document prend les résultats scientifiques comme point de départ et porte une attention particulière à la nécessité de l’adaptation et de l’action politique.

Narratives in climate change discourse

“…One reason is that the IPCC should be policy-neutral, even though the Panel should also be policy-relevant. 4,46 However, the future perspective is present in discussions of possible consequences related to climate change, through expressions such as 'millennial' and 'century time scales,' which indicates some implicit risks: In a later study of IPCC Summaries for policymaker (from the Fifth Assessment Report), the analysis shows that, even though the IPCC uses the term 'narrative' about its own texts, there is no 'full story' being told, due to the lack of a clear reaction component. 46 The analysis of the two UN reports, HDR and WDR, observes a common starting point in the texts: the recognition that those who have contributed least to climate change are the ones who are most vulnerable to the consequences, which may be interpreted as both the initial situation of a narrative and a moral component.…”

Linguistic mediation of climate change discourse

“…14 We know that the climate debate in general is particularly multi-voiced or polyphonic, and there are many important questions related to the voices participating in this debate, at different levels and in different contexts: Which voices are present, explicitly or implicitly, which ones are dominating, and which voices are absent (Fløttum 2010)? In order to understand what is at stake, for scientists as well as for non-scientists, it is important to know who says or believes what.…”

“…Multiple voices are introduced in the climate change debate, at a macro-level by the different institutions, actors and stakeholders, but also at a micro-level by different voices within the particular narratives. There is explicit or implicit inclusion of many and different viewpoints (Fløttum 2010;Fløttum & Dahl 2011;Fløttum & Gjerstad 2013a, b). This represents a specific dilemma for the IPCC, which is expected to reflect differing viewpoints and at the same time present one consensual view.…”

“…In my analyses, I focus primarily on the aspects of uncertainty and complexity, inherent traits of climate knowledge, through questions related to the status of the claims which have been selected for inclusion in the Summary (see also Fløttum 2010;Fløttum & Dahl 2011). Further, since this text represents a very condensed form of current knowledge, a relevant question is to what extent there are claims which can be posited with a high degree of confidence.…”

Klimanarrativer i ulike sjangrer

“…Siden de første rapportene ble publisert av FNs klimapanel (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -IPCC), etablert i 1988, har kommunikasjon om klima vaert betraktet som en stor utfordring. Etter en periode hvor klimafremstillinger ble studert innen psykologi (Capstick et al 2015) og sosiologi/samfunnsvitenskap (Grundmann & Stehr 2010;Nerlich et al 2010), ble de første lingvistisk orienterte tilnaermingene utviklet fra begynnelsen av 2000-tallet (Fløttum 2010;Grundmann og Videre i denne artikkelen vil jeg først diskutere narrativ-begrepet ved å peke på utviklingen fra tekstlingvistikk til det vi har kalt klimanarrativer (del 2), deretter vise Deretter, med tekstlingvistikkens gjennombrudd, inntok det narrative perspektivet tekstforskningen for fullt gjennom forskere som Werlich (1976), van Dijk (1980 og Adam (1985Adam ( , 1992Adam ( , 2008. For det nordiske sakprosamiljøet fikk Berges bok…”