Tipping Points and Climate Change: Metaphor Between Science and the Media |
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Authors: | Sandra van der Hel Iina Hellsten Gerard Steen |
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Institution: | 1. Environmental Governance Group, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands;2. Amsterdam School of Communication Research, ASCoR, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;3. Department of Dutch Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Over the past decade, scientists and journalists have prominently utilized the metaphor of a tipping point for drastic, irreversible and dangerous climate change. This paper shows how the tipping point metaphor became a multi-purpose bridge between science and the news media, describing how its meaning and use developed and diversified in interaction between these two domains. Within the scientific domain, the metaphor developed from a rhetorical device conveying a warning of drastic, irreversible and dangerous climate change to a theoretical concept driving empirical research. The news media soon picked up the tipping point metaphor for abrupt and dangerous climate change, turning it into a common part of the journalistic lexicon. Moreover, both science and the news media developed another, societal use of the tipping point metaphor, calling for radical societal change to avoid climate change catastrophe. The tipping point metaphor is hence not a monolithic notion but a highly versatile concept and expression, allowing it to be used for various communicative purposes by distinct stakeholders in different contexts. |
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Keywords: | Metaphor tipping point climate change climate science news media |
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