Metaphors We Die By? Geoengineering, Metaphors, and the Argument From Catastrophe

Nerlich, Brigitte; Jaspal, Rusi

Abstract

Geoeengineering the climate by reflecting sunlight or extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has attracted increasing attention from natural scientists, social scientists, policy makers and the media. This article examines promotional discourse related to geoengineering from the 1980s to 2010. It asks in particular how this option for dealing with the problems posed by climate change were framed through the use of conceptual and discourse metaphors and whether one can argue that these are metaphors we ‘live by’ or metaphors we might ‘die by’. Findings show that an overarching argument from catastrophe was bolstered by three conceptual master-metaphors, namely The Planet is a body, The Planet is a machine and The planet is a patient/addict, linked to a variety of discourse metaphors, older conceptual metaphors and clichés. This metaphorical landscape began to shift while the article was being written and will have to be closely monitored in the future.

Citation

Nerlich, B., & Jaspal, R. (2012). Metaphors We Die By? Geoengineering, Metaphors, and the Argument From Catastrophe. Metaphor and Symbol, 27(2), 131-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2012.665795

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Apr 12, 2012
• Publication Date: 2012-04
• Deposit Date: Sep 27, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 27, 2014
• Journal: Metaphor and Symbol
• Print ISSN: 1092-6488
• Electronic ISSN: 1532-7868
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 131-147
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2012.665795
• Keywords: Linguistics and Language; Experimental and Cognitive Psychology; Communication
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1009013
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926488.2012.665795
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Metaphor and Symbol on 12/04/2012, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10926488.2012.665795