Literature Review: Global Warming Discourse

On the surface global warming is simple: "the discernible increase in mean global temperatures resulting from the release of greenhouse gases produced by human activity (McCright, Dunlap 2000)." What is less simple, and what is inherently the crux of this issue is the way in which individuals, institutions, and media formats construct truths and meanings in relation to this topic via discourse and representation. What discourses have emerged since the inception of global warming as a key social issue in the last thirty to forty years? And how have media representations of these discourses affected the dynamics of social debate in the public sphere, "the collection and usage of public opinion in relation to critical evaluations of established authority (Allan, 1997:298)." And how has this aided a quest for a definitive truth? The answers to these questions lie in a careful analysis and comparison of the key manifestations of global warming discourse, taking into account their media and social presence and influence, validity, and perhaps most importantly, the basic way in which meaning is constructed and subsequently understood.

In one sense discourse can be said to refer to the "constructions of a particular telling from a vastly larger potential story (Bertand, Hughes 213:2005)," the way in which understanding is given to a narrative via interpretation, selection, omission, and cultural presentation of its elements, or in the case of global warming, an interpretation of scientific evidence, from a number of wide ranging perspectives potentially outside the immediate realm of the science community. Consideration also needs to be given to personal backgrounds, and our cultural stigmas and tendencies, showing discourse as "a system of communicative practices that are integrally related to wider social and cultural practices, and that help to construct specific frameworks of thinking (McDonald 10:2003)." Frameworks, that although they may provide meaning, do not necessarily provide truth or reality, an issue that is at the heart of discourse analysis, and the larger focus of this essay, as it is through an analysis of aligned and conflicting discourse that a search for an ingrained truth can best be executed. As exemplified by French philosopher and historian, Foucault's, perspective, "reality may exist independently of discourse, but... it is only through discourse that we can exchange ideas about it. (McDonald cites Foucault 11:2003)."

Sequential to this idea, it is then through media institutions, in the case of such a large issue as global warming, that discourse will be presented, recognised, and debated on a global scale. Thus, our knowledge of the elements of global warming and our knowledge of dominant, diminishing, or emerging discourses, is gleaned from the media, rendering issues of gate-keeping, where gate-keepers are "the key personnel involved in the decision making process of news production (Hartley 11:2002)," vital. Other considerations also include the importance of media representation, "construction of aspects of 'reality' such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts (Alvarado, Gutch, Wollen 12:1987). And the further idea that media is actively able to construct meaning,

How things are represented and the 'machineries' and regimes of representation... do play a constitutive, and not merely a reflexive, after the event, role (McDonald cites Hall 12:2003).

Potentially, "reality remains profoundly unknowable since our only access to it is through the constructionist prism of discourse (McDonald 17:2003)." The question seems to be: how can a constructed version of reality ever accurately represent reality itself? My argument would be through a careful analysis and deconstruction of a few key discourses an attempt to highlight a basic truth will be possible, focusing not only on "how (the) effects of truth are produced within discourses which in themselves are neither true nor false (McDonald cites Gordon 18:2003)," but rather by adopting a focus that takes into account the process of discourse itself, as defined earlier, not as a single entity, but as stemming from the realm of the non-discursive, "the institutions, political events, economic practices and processes (McDonald cites Foucault 19:2003)," that form the base narrative elements from which discourse is later constructed.

Global warming is an immediate issue for science, and a popular scientific discourse is evidenced via the earlier McCright, Dunlap definition. However, global warming has a far greater power to generate meaning. We can see it as a political concoction aimed at scoring points in the voting polls, a curse on humanity's self-destructive nature, the fault of globalisation, the result of a degradation of big business morality etc. Or as presented in arguably the most popular global warming text of recent times, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, an objective issue of fact irrelevant to debate that will see the destruction of our planet if nothing is done. Yet even this text has a subconscious political discourse omnipresent throughout in the narrative form of Al Gore's election campaign. Clearly this is a complex issue. Furthermore, available literature suggests, that although clearly a recognized and academically examined issue, it is one that is yet to be exhaustively or even adequately explored through discourse analysis.

In the last decade especially global warming has become more widely accepted as an important social problem,

Awareness of this global threat (has) reinforced public concern about environmental problems and thereby provided environmental activists, scientists, and policy makers with new momentum in their efforts to promote environmental protection ( Gelbspan 1997)

In response a sceptical discourse of conservative counter claims has also come to the forefront (McCright, Dunlap 2:2000). Suggesting that past research is ill-guided and poorly executed, one discursive counter-claim suggests that global warming will benefit the health of the planet. Clearly science resides at the forefront of the social consciousness in relation to this issue, yet scientific discourse is in no way a unilateral construction.

The specific scientific framing of global climate change has been reinforced and reinforcedby the technocratic inclinations of global climate management. The social organisation of climate change science and its articulation with the political process raise important questions about trust, uncertainty, and expertise (Demeritt 14:2001).

Clearly we are dealing with a dynamic issue. Scientific discourse can see global warming as a golden opportunity, a lost cause, or even a ticking time bomb, with just as many counter discursive interpretations clearly abounding, meanings of which all are relatively contemporary and just as susceptible to change.

However, while the relevance of scientific research to global warming is hardly debatable, what is more interesting perhaps, is the media's ongoing attention to, or negation of undertaken research. "Scientists' claims about global warming failed to attract much public attention until the extraordinary heat and drought of the 'summer of "(19)88" created a social scare (Ungar 2:1992)." Despite global warming being an academically available theory since the late eighteen hundreds Ungar suggests that "environmental claims are more likely to be honoured-and accelerate demands in the political arena- when they piggyback on dramatic real-world events (2:1992)." This comment highlights the important consideration that a discourse, despite its validity, may often go socially unnoticed in contest with more immediate and attention grabbing news or other textual presentation. Particularly if, as a potential issue of social conscience, it fails to grab the attention of the political arena. Or in the case of political censorship, is simply with-held as an issue, "The United States government has implemented an industry-formulated disinformation campaign designed to actively mislead the American public on global warming and to forestall limits on 'climate polluters' (Schwartz, Randall 9:2003).

Science and politics reside at the foundation of moral discourse and public opinion in regard to global warming. The available literature, although not by nature, discourse analysis, can clearly be used to identify these three key main areas of science, politics, and morality, as some of the key areas of global warming discourse analysis that require attention.

Contradictory interpretations abound in relation to this issue, often reinforced with scientific findings and expert opinion, in which we might yet find a truthful sense of reality? That is the over-riding purpose of this essay, to through a comparison of the more prominent scientific, political, and moral discursive interpretations of global warming, ascertain a sense of reality as informed via discourse. This should be a reality that is independent of media jargon, gate-keeping, and sensationalism, in a realm that is objective as possible, and essentially non-discursive.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alvarado, Manuel, Robin Gutch & Tana Wollen (1987) Learning the Media. London: Macmillan.

Bertrand, I. Hughes, P. (2005). Researching Media Audiences: Audiences, Institutions and Texts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bromley, M. O'Malley, T. Allan, S (1997). News and the Public Sphere. London: Journalism, Media, and Cultural Studies Publications 1997.

McCright, A. Dunlap, E. (2000). Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement's Counter Claims. University of California Press.

Demeritt, D. (2001). The Construction of Global Warming and the Politics of Science. Annuls of the Association of American Geographers.

Gelbspan, R. (1997) The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate. Addison Wesley, Reading.

Guggenheim, D. (2006). An Inconvenient Truth. Lawrence Bender Productions

Hartley, J. (2002)Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts, 3rd Edn, London: Routledge

McDonald, M. (2003). Exploring Media Discourse. London: Arnold

Ungar, S. (1992). The Rise and (Relative) Decline of Global Warming as a SocialProblem. The Sociological Quarterly.

Schwartz, P. Randall, D ( 2003). An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.