Researcher(s):
McKenzie Southworth
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2013 Completed: May 2014 Go to project site
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Media representations have vast potential to catalyze social change. However, popular media representations of controversial issues are volatile, and can take on a life of their own. Insofar as we are concerned about global climate change, we should also be concerned with how climate change is represented, how the story unfolds. This thesis is an attempt to gain perspective on one particular story, of extreme weather as caused by climate change. I argue that climate change has been increasingly associated with extreme weather events. While this may increase saliency of climate change or feelings of urgency around climate action, I problematize this strategy, arguing that it has other less clear or intended effects, which may help to reinforce rather than deconstruct ways of thinking that detract from long-term goals for climate change mitigation and adaptation.