Article Title
Abstract
As industrial civilization confronts the realities of devastating global climate change and the local environmental catastrophes precipitated by coal, oil, and natural gas extraction, this paper moves away from mainstream analyses of demand-side choices and instead considers how miners and rig workers make decisions surrounding the ethicality of their work. This article considers corporate publications including investor and sustainability reports and company-sponsored employee magazines, industry magazines, and news sources in top-producing fossil fuel producing localities in the United States. A discursive analysis of this set of publications uncovers a dense rhetorical lattice of misinformation and disinformation surrounding fossil fuel workers. This essay finds that company publications develop a foundation for engendering positive feelings and loyalty towards one’s employer and that industry magazines construct a sense of identity centrally determined by being a fossil fuel extractor, but no relationship is found in local newspapers.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Walter, Henry
(2018)
"Fossil-Fueled Discourse,"
Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship:
Vol. 3:
Iss.
1.
https://doi.org/10.4148/2373-0978.1047
Included in
Behavioral Economics Commons, Energy Policy Commons, Environmental Policy Commons, Organizational Communication Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons
