Carbon gold rush and carbon cowboys: a new chapter in green mythology?

Nerlich, Brigitte; Koteyko, Nelya

Abstract

Individual and collective efforts to mitigate climate change in the form of carbon offsetting and emissions trading schemes have recently become the focus of much media attention. In this paper we explore a subset of the UK national press coverage centered on such schemes. The articles, selected from general as well as specialized business and finance newspapers, make use of gold rush, Wild West and cowboy imagery which is rooted in deeply entrenched myths and metaphors and allows readers to make sense of very complex environmental, political, ethical, and financial issues associated with carbon mitigation. They make what appears complicated and unfamiliar, namely carbon trading and offsetting, seem less complex and more familiar. A critical discussion of this type of imagery is necessary in order to uncover and question tacit assumptions and connotations which are built into it and which might otherwise go unnoticed and unchallenged in environmental communication.

Citation

Nerlich, B., & Koteyko, N. (2010). Carbon gold rush and carbon cowboys: a new chapter in green mythology?. Environmental Communication, 4(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/17524030903522389

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 25, 2010
• Journal: Environmental Communication
• Print ISSN: 1752-4032
• Electronic ISSN: 1752-4040
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17524030903522389
• Keywords: carbon offsetting, emissions trading, gold rush, cowboys, metaphors, frames
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1012128
• Publisher URL: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a919923382
• Additional Information: Author Posting. (c) 'Copyright Holder', 2010.; This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of 'Copyright Holder' for personal use, not for redistribution.; The definitive version was published in Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, Volume 4 Issue 1, March 2010.; doi:10.1080/17524030903522389 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17524030903522389)