Evolutions in hegemonic discourses of climate change: An ecomodern enactment of implicatory denial

Abstract

We analyze public media talk that illustrate Norgaard’s spectrum of climate denial discourse. While these are theorized by Norgaard, our analysis of specific instances of media talk examines how speakers enact this spectrum of discourses to justify delay of immediate action on climate change. The analysis suggests there is an evolving public talk on climate where overt denial of climate science is increasingly seen at the political extreme and the more mainstream discourse, described here as an ecomodern discourse, appears aligned with climate science but delays the necessary immediate action to address climate change by among other things using fearful scenarios to argue against disrupting the status quo and appealing to technology to solve climate change.