Translating the environment

A challenge between environmental

awareness and apocalypse fatigue
ELEONORA FOIS (UNIV. OF CAGLIARI)

AIA 30 Experiment and Innovation: Branching Forwards and Backwards

Catania, 15-17 September 2022
Climate change

 IPCC: “a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by
changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended
period, typically decades or longer […] climate change may be due to natural internal
processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes” (Solomon et al. 2007,
667).
 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): climate change refers to
a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity (2011, 2).
Climate change in the press

 The mass-media are key actors in the identification and interpretation of environmental issues
(Boykoff and Boykoff 2007, 1192).
 Lack of studies on environmental communication in popular science magazines:
1. Remillard (2011): tension between conceptions of nature as a resource and as a sublime entity
in National Geographic;
2. Whitley and Kalof (2014): National Geographic’s portrays of animals in remote regions
reinforce the interpretation of climate change as remote problem.
3. Born (2019) scrutinizes the way National Geographic transformed the polar bear into an icon of
climate change.
Italy? 12 August 2022 Climate Media Center Italia published an appeal on the daily newspaper
Domani, to push media to talk more about climate change.
Climate change in the press :
the problems (1)
1. Scientists’ «lexicon of caution» and «language of probability» do not translate smoothly «into
the crisp, unequivocal commentary that is valued in the press» (Boykoff and Boykoff 2007,
1192).
2. The level of advocacy in environmental journalists’ work is «an uncomfortable issue» (Neuzil
2008, 127, and Bodker and Neverla 2013).
3. The concept is more difficult for non-climate experts: a) statistical nature; c) invisible causes
and distant impacts (Asplund 2011); c)the number of interconnections involved: politics,
business, technology, nature, culture and consumer issues. With the exception of extreme
weather events, global warming is hard to put in concrete terms.
Climate change in the press :
the problems (1)
5. The norms of journalistic writing:
a) «the tendency to downplay the big social, economic, or political picture in favor of the human
trials tragedies» (Bennett 2002, 45)+ News should be about individuals and personalities rather
than group dynamics or social processes (Gans, 1979) = The episodic frame.
b) «news dramas emphasize crisis over continuity (= The conflict frame), the present over the
past or future, conflicts» (Bennett, 2002, p. 46.
Climate change in the press

The climate change frame: global warming is a significant social problem caused by human
activity through the emission of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere (Shehata and Hopmann 2012,179).

If global warming is made scarier, it might become more salient.

The emotional reception of climate-related news and apocalypse fatigue: increasing the sense of
urgency either deliberately or inadvertently often produce undesirable outcomes (Moser 2007, 65).
Climate change in the press

Premise:
 The dependence on journalistic translations of scientific knowledge (Bodker and Neverla 2013,
2);
 The overlooked link between ecocriticism and news translation (Alexander 2020).

Corpus: Digital texts produced to be read in digital format, with digital affordances (Trimarco
2017);
ONLY TRANSLATED ARTICLES from Internazionale and National Geographic Italia
From Jan 2021 to Aug 2022
Climate change in the press

Research questions:
1. Are environmental news translated differently in specialized and non-specialized magazines?
2. Is there any manipulation deriving from text interpretation? What role do images play?

Method: Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis - MCDA (Machin & Mayr, 2012);
CDA (Fairclough 1995; Meyer & Wodak, 2015); Ecostylistics (Douthwaite at al. 2017).
 Search Results
CAMBIAMENTO
CLIMATICO
Articles Translated articles (with English ST Published
ST) between 2021 and
Keyword: cambiament* climatic*;
2022 riscaldamento globale; crisi climatica
National
Geographic Italia
66 41 (40)* 26 (necessary to improve the corpus of
articles from Internazionale).
Internazionale 16 3 3 1
RISCALDAMENT Articles Translated articles (with English ST Published between
O GLOBALE ST) 2021 and 2022
Gatekeeping in non-specialized press
National Geographic 44 28 28 16**
Italia Recurring authors: NGI: Alexandra
Internazionale 12 5 4 0 Borunda (7 articles), Kieran Mulvaney and
Christina Nunez(4 articles each).
CRISI CLIMATICA Articles Translated articles (with English ST Published between
ST) 2021 and 2022 INT: Gwynne Dyer (3 articles)
National Geographic 66 41 40 26***
Italia

Internazionale 71 38 30**** 15

*1 subscription only; 1 photogallery; 12 tag only; ** 13 overlapping with cambiamento climatico. only 3 new articles;

*** same as cambiamento climatico; ****2 crisi climatica only tag; 3 markedly political; 5 subscription only = 25;
Analysis

 FOCUS ON HEADLINES
1) a text type in their own right (Jaki 2014, 36);
2) their function: to catch attention and draw the reader into the story (Reuters 28); sharp and
informative;
 FOCUS ON CROSS-HEADS: break the mass of copy into more «digestible morsels» (Reuters
82); simple, informative and unbiased.
 FOCUS ON IMAGES:
1) Photography always represent a certain “gaze”, i.e. a certain perspective that influences their
content and statements (O’Neill & Smith 2014).
2) Images facilitate climate change communication by creating a tangible idea of this abstract issue
(O’Neill & Nicholson-Cole 2009) + emotionally anchor the issue (Höijer 2010, 719).
National Geographic Italia

1a) lexical choices related to threat/urgency in cross-heads: mostly direct translation

ST: Ocean acidification, explained (August 7, 2019) TT: Che cos’è davvero l'acidificazione degli oceani?
(July 4, 2022)
1 Carbon is the culprit; Il carbonio è il colpevole
2 Oceans acidify in the blink of a geologic eye Gli oceani acidificano in un batter d'occhio geologico
3 The future is not bright Il futuro non è roseo

With some exceptions (see next)

 ST and TT:
National Geographic Italia
With some exceptions
ST: Climate anxiety is widespread among youth— TT: L’ansia climatica” dilaga tra i giovani:
can they overcome it? riusciranno a superarla?
CROSS HEADS: CROSS HEADS:
1 Climate anxiety is widespread. 1 L’ansia da crisi climatica è diffusa
2 Not your mother's doomsday. 2 Emergenze diverse
3 Turning ‘eco-anxiety’ into action. 3 Trasformare l’angoscia ecologica in azione
4 Young and engaged. 4 Giovani e impegnati.
5 Hope is the thing with diapers. 5 La speranza è determinante.

Neutral style (2); omission that generalizes the content (5).

National Geographic Italia

1b) Lexical choices related to threat/urgency in the headlines: interesting shifts/amplifications

ST: June 29, 2022 TT: July 11, 2022

Climate anxiety is widespread among youth—can they L’ansia climatica” dilaga tra i giovani: riusciranno a
overcome it? superarla?

ST: September 30, 2021 TT: October 12, 2021

'We just need more hands': Climate experts weigh in Due esperte analizzano il futuro dei cambiamenti
on what we can save climatici: “Ogni scelta è determinante”

However…
National Geographic Italia

ST: February 28, 2022 TT: March 13, 2022

Climate change already worse than expected, says Il cambiamento climatico ha effetti peggiori del
new UN report previsto secondo il nuovo report dell’ONU
Omission of ‘already’ softens the idea of urgency and damage in the present;
ST: June 8, 2022 TT: June 20, 2022
Humpback whales face a major setback from climate La ripresa delle megattere potrebbe essere arrestata
change dal cambiamento climatico

Ripresa: claryfing amplification + nominalisation and agency de-emphasized;

Modal added, from certainty to hypothesis.
ST: July 2, 2021 TT: July12, 2021
Heat waves kill people—and climate change is Le ondate di caldo possono essere letali. E il
making it much, much worse cambiamento climatico peggiora la situazione
 National Geographic Italia
2) Interactivity
ST TT
1 Ocean acidification, explained (August 7, 2019) Che cos’è davvero l'acidificazione degli oceani? (July
4, 2022)
2 Renewable energy, explained (January 30, 2019) Cambiamenti climatici: quali sono le energie
rinnovabili? (April 21, 2022)

3 Sea level rise, explained (February 15, 2022) Il livello del mare aumenta: che cosa succederà nei
prossimi 30 anni? (March 1, 2022)

4 How extreme heat affects our pets—and how to help Come possiamo aiutare gli animali domestici ad
them affrontare il caldo estremo? (August 1, 2021)

1: Implication of true explanation.

2: Explicit connection between climate change and renewable energy.
3: Different agency and Prediction;
Internazionale
1) The keyword in the 2022 headlines: search engine optimisation (Mc Kane 2014)
ST
Political planet (dawn.com, May 18, 2022)
India’s extreme heatwaves show the need to adapt to a
warming world (New Scientist 10 May 2022)
Droughts in Somalia are partly our fault. We could at
least let more migrants in (The Guardian, Apr 27,
2022)
How climate inaction is driving a mental health crisis
in children (news.trust.org, Sep 14, 2021)
TT
Per risolvere la crisi climatica bisogna avere un
pensiero globale (May 23, 2022)
In India la crisi climatica aggrava il problema delle
ondate di calore (May 12, 2022)
L’occidente deve aprire le porte ai migranti in fuga
dalla crisi climatica (May 5, 2022)
Ragazze e ragazzi fanno i conti con l’ansia per la crisi
climatica (Sep 24, 2021)
Internazionale
The 2021 headlines:
ST
How cement may yet help slow global warming (The
Economist, November 4, 2021)
COP26 news: US-China climate pact is important but
largely symbolic
(New Scientist, November 11, 2021)
What’s the point of this year’s UN climate summit in
Glasgow?(The Conversation, October 6, 2022)
Earth will hit 1.5°C climate limit within 20 years, says
IPCC report(news.trust.org, Sep 14, 2021)
TT
Come intrappolare l’anidride carbonica nel
cemento(November 23, 2021)
Il patto sul clima tra Stati Uniti e Cina è importante
ma simbolico(November 12, 2021)
I nodi del vertice Cop26 sul cambiamento
climatico(October 18, 2021)
La Terra è sempre più calda e la colpa è degli esseri
umani(Sep 24, 2021)
Internazionale

2a) Regategorization/rewriting and obligation/urgency/duty

ST
1 Droughts in Somalia are partly our fault. We could
at least let more migrants in (The Guardian, Apr 27,
2022)
2 Earth will hit 1.5°C climate limit within 20 years,
says IPCC report (New Scientist, August 9, 2021)
TT
L’occidente deve aprire le porte ai migranti in fuga
dalla crisi climatica (May 5, 2022)
La Terra è sempre più calda e la colpa è degli esseri
umani (August 10, 2021)

Clear focus; We/our vs Occidente; Modals: epistemic implying deontic interpretation (Saeed 2003) vs deontic;
at least: stress on the minimum acceptable effort.

Epistemic modal + time frame vs rewriting and amplification; material vs relational process, events vs
characterization.
Internazionale

2a) Regategorization/rewriting and obligation/urgency/duty

ST
1 Political planet (dawn.com, May 18, 2022)
2 New IPCC report: over 3bn people face rising
climate-change threat. But some adaptation is likely
to help (The Economist, February 28, 2022)
TT
Per risolvere la crisi climatica bisogna avere un
pensiero globale (May 23, 2022)
Il riscaldamento climatico minaccia tre miliardi di
persone (March 4, 2022)

Another deontic modal

Different agency and focus + omission of ‘solution’
Internazionale

ST TT
Why the climate movement must do more to mobilise La lotta alla crisi climatica non mobilita solo i giovani
older people (The Conversation, June 2, 2021) (June 17, 2021)

Opposite meaning
Images: National Geographic Italia

 Same images in ST and TT;

 Not the classic repertoire of climate crisis- related images:
the icon of the globe, also called the “blue marble,” + the depiction of flooded areas (with or without humans.
Manzo, 2010); drought, smoking chimneys, and melting glaciers or polar regions with or without polar bears
(Carey, 2007).

“Ora o mai più”: i 4 punti chiave del rapporto delle Nazioni Unite sul clima (‘It’s now or
never’: UN climate report’s 4 urgent takeaways) (2022)
(Batagaika crater in eastern Siberia)

È ancora possibile evitare alcuni cambiamenti catastrofici del clima

(Some catastrophic changes to the climate can still be headed off)
(2021)
Images: National Geographic Italia

 Not the classic repertoire of climate crisis- related images:

L'Amazzonia contribuisce al riscaldamento globale: ma la colpa è dell'uomo

(First study of all Amazon greenhouse gases suggests the damaged forest is now
worsening climate change) (2021)
Images: National Geographic Italia
 Not the classic repertoire: saturated colours, dramatic angles, rich in details

Perché gli scienziati stanno rimuovendo le alghe dalle barriere

coralline (Why scientists are 'weeding' coral reefs)

Earth Day 2022: il cambiamento climatico potrebbe spingere le

foreste pluviali verso un punto di non ritorno (Climate change may be pushing
rainforests to a breaking point)
Images: National Geographic Italia
 Not the classic repertoire of climate crisis- related images: saturated colours, dramatic angles,
rich in details

Il cambiamento climatico ha effetti peggiori del previsto secondo il nuovo

report dell’ONU (Climate change already worse than expected, says new UN
report)

L’estinzione di massa negli oceani si può evitare riducendo l’uso dei

combustibili fossili (Mass extinction in oceans can be avoided by curbing
fossil fuels)
 Images: National Geographic Italia
The magazine's gaze (Lutz and Collins 1991, 137)

1 A mother humpback and her calf swim […] 2 A humpback whale feasts on fish […]

A humpback whale displays its fluke […]

Images: National Geographic Italia
Human vulnerability (Manzo 2010)

Il cambiamento climatico sta consumando una risorsa preziosa: il sonno

(Climate change is eroding a precious resource: sleep) (2022)

Il livello del mare aumenta: che cosa succederà nei prossimi 30 anni? (Sea
level rise, explained) (2022)
Images: Internazionale

 Different images from the Source Text;

 The repertoire of climate change images:
the icon of the globe, also called the “blue marble,” + the depiction of flooded areas (with or without humans.
Manzo, 2010); drought, smoking chimneys, and melting glaciers or polar regions with or without polar bears
(Carey, 2007).

Il patto sul clima tra Stati Uniti e Cina è importante ma simbolico

COP26 news: US-China climate pact is important but largely symbolic

Images: Internazionale

 Different images in every TT;

 The repertoire: the icon of the globe + the depiction of flooded areas (with or without humans.
Manzo, 2010); drought, smoking chimneys, and melting glaciers or polar regions with or
without polar bears (Carey, 2007).

La Terra è sempre più calda e la colpa è degli esseri umani (2021)

Earth will hit 1.5°C climate limit within 20 years, says IPCC report
Images: Internazionale

 Different images from the Source Text;

 The repertoire: the icon of the globe + the depiction of flooded areas (with or without humans.
Manzo, 2010); drought, smoking chimneys, and melting glaciers or polar regions with or
without polar bears (Carey, 2007).

L’occidente deve aprire le porte ai migranti in fuga dalla crisi climatica(2022)

Droughts in Somalia are partly our fault. We could at least let more migrants
in(2022)
To conclude
 Climate Media Center Italia’s appeal is justified by the discrepancy between National
Geographic and Internazionale.
 The climate change frame is confirmed
 Apocalypse fatigue: sense of urgency generally amplified
 The «lexicon of caution» (Boykoff and Boykoff 2007, 1192): ambiguous in National
Geographic Italia, almost erased in Internazionale (compensation?)
 Different role of images. National Geographic inspires by showing the beauty of nature (NO
POLAR BEARS); Internazionale employs the classic repertoire.
What to do next

 Check whether the strategies in the headlines match those in the article;

 Widen the corpus chronologically;

 Widen the corpus quantitatively: daily newspapers in which the presence of translation is more
blurred;
Thank you for your attention