Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere

Robert Cox is Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His principal research areas are environmental and climate change communication and strategic studies of social movements. A internationally-recognized leading scholar who helped found the field of environmental communication, Cox is coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (2015; second edition forthcoming), editor of the four-volume reference series Environmental Communication (Sage, 2016), and the author of numerous studies of environmental and climate change campaigns. He has served three times (1994-1996; 2000-2001; 2007-2008) as president of the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots U.S. environmental organization, and was also on the board of directors for Earth Echo International, whose mission is “to empower youth to take action that restores and protects our water planet.” Cox also continues to advise environmental groups on their communication programs. He regularly participates in environmental and climate change initiatives and has campaigned with former vice president Al Gore, singer Melissa Etheridge, and other public figures. He also enjoys hiking and trekking in the Himalayas, Europe, and the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States. Phaedra C. Pezzullo is Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a dual citizen with the US and Italia. Her interdisciplinary background informs her research on environmental justice, climate justice, just transition, public advocacy, and tourist studies. Her book, Toxic Tourism (University of Alabama Press, 2007), won four awards, including the Jane Jacobs Urban Communication Book Award and the National Communication Association’s Environmental Communication Division Book Award. Among other publications, she coedited Green Communication and China (Michigan State University Press, 2020) and Environmental Justice and Environmentalism (MIT Press, 2007). She was a founding editor of the journal Environmental Communication and serves on its editorial board. She has volunteered on the Sierra Club’s national Environmental Justice Committee and Affinity Group Working Group, consulted with cities and counties on a just transition, and was a delegate at COP21 in Paris. Pezzullo is a founding co-director of the Center for Creative Climate Communication and Behavior Change (C3BC) on her campus. She also enjoys outdoor recreation and cooking a plant-based diet.

Introduction: Speaking for/About the Environment
PART I: COMMUNICATING FOR/ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT
Chapter 1. Studying/Practicing Environmental Communication
The Study of Environmental Communication
Nature, Communication, and the Public Sphere
Diverse Voices in a “Green” Public Sphere
Global Study of Environmental Communication
Chapter 2. Contested Meanings of Environment
Learning to Love Nature
Wilderness Preservation Versus Natural Resource Conservation
Public Health and the Ecology Movement
Environmental Justice: Linking Social Justice and Environmental Quality
Movements for Sustainability and Climate Justice
PART II: CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Chapter 3. Symbolic Constructions of Environment
A Rhetorical Perspective
Communication Frames
Dominant and Critical Discourses
Chapter 4. The Environment in/of Visual and Popular Culture
The Environment and Popular Culture
Looking at the Environment
Moving Images of Disasters
Green Art, Marketing, and Graphic Design
Chapter 5. News Media and Environmental Journalism (Old and New)
Growth and Changes in Environmental News
News Production and the Environment
Media Effects
Digital Technologies and the Transformation of Environmental News
PART III: COMMUNICATING IN AN AGE OF ECOLOGICAL CRISES
Chapter 6. Scientists, Technology, and Environmental Controversies
Science, Technology, and Symbolic Legitimacy
The Precautionary Principle
Early Warners: Environmental Scientists and the Public
Science and the Trope of Uncertainty
Communicating Climate Science
Chapter 7. Environmental Risk Communication and the Public
Dangerous Environments: Assessing Risk
Communicating Environmental Risks in the Public Sphere
Citizens Becoming Scientists
Mainstream News Media and Environmental Risk
PART IV: ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNS AND MOVEMENTS
Chapter 8. Advocacy Campaigns and Message Construction
Environmental Advocacy
Environmental Advocacy Campaigns
The Campaign to Protect Zuni Salt Lake
Message Construction
Chapter 9. Digital Media and Environmental Activism
Grassroots Activism and Digital Media
Environmental NGOs and Digital Campaigns
Multimodality and Networked Campaigns
Scaling Up: The “Peoples Climate March”
Chapter 10. Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Movements
Environmental Justice: Challenging a Place Apart
Challenging Indecorous Voices and Sacrifice Zones
The Global Movement for Climate Justice
Chapter 11. Sustainability and the “Greening” of Corporations and Campuses
Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Free Market Discourse and the Environment
Corporate Sustainability Communication: Reflection or Deflection?
Greenwashing and the Discourse of Green Consumerism
Communicating Sustainability on and Through Campuses
PART V: CITIZEN VOICES AND ENVIRONMENTAL FORUMS
Chapter 12. Public Participation in Environmental Decisions
Right to Know: Access to Information
Right to Comment
SLAPP: Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation
Growth of Public Participation Internationally
Chapter 13. Managing Conflict: Collaboration and Environmental Disputes
New Approaches to Environmental Disputes
Collaborating to Resolve Environmental Conflicts
Limits of Collaboration and Consensus
Common Criticisms of Collaboration
Chapter 14. Citizens’ (and Nature’s) Standing: Environmental Protection and the Law
Right of Standing and Citizen Suits
Landmark Cases on Environmental Standing
Global Warming and the Right of Standing
Do Future Generations and Non-Human Nature Have a Right of Standing?