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CLIMATE CRISIS: ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR THROUGH WORDS?
Abstract
The present paper deals with one of the world’s most pressing problems, climate change or, more realistically put “climate crisis”, debated at the conference known as COP26 that took place at Glasgow, at the beginning of November, 2021. This global summit (also referred to as the “planet saving” summit) attended by 200 countries was seen as crucial if climate change is to be brought under control. Opening this conference, the British Prime Minister at that time, Boris Johnson, said the world is “at one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now.” The aim of the study is to analyse how metaphors, analogies and cultural allusions in Boris Johnson’s address can contribute (or not) to conveying and reinforcing ideas and thoughts, changing attitudes and behaviours. The research questions relate to the role of contextual factors that may explain the shaping of a personal style that sometimes has been labelled as “strangely unsuited to the grave occasion and to his non-British audience”. Thus, one of the issues to be addressed is “to what extent is the understanding of a text dependent upon a particular cultural background?” The theoretical framework for the analysis has been provided by Zoltan Kovecses [1] book, published in 2015, “Where metaphors come from?”, as well as Ritva Leppihalme’s [2] 1997 work on allusions. Equally useful for climate change communication was Anne Armstrong, Marianne Krasny and Jonathon Schuldt (2018) who explain the greenhouse effect: gases in the atmosphere such as CO2, nitrous oxide, and methane trap heat radiated from the earth just as the panes of a greenhouse trap the sun’s heat.
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References11
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Boris Johnson's address at COP26 World Leaders Summit Opening Ceremony (https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-address-at-cop26-world-leaders-summit-opening-ceremony
Boris Johnson's address to the COP26 Forests & Land-use event: 2 November 2021 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-boris-johnsons-address-to-the-cop26-forests-land-use-event
Polychroniou C.J. ed. 2020. Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet by Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin. London and New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2519-climate-crisis-and-the-global-green-new-deal
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