What is it about?
This paper examines how United States journalists reported on the aftermath of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico. This paper finds that news images and stories following the hurricane were often constructed through the lens of war. Through descriptions of death, destruction, and decay a distinct discourse and image of a 'climate death-world' is forged. Puerto Rico is repeatedly cast as an island lost in purgatory following the storm and its people are represented as wayward souls awaiting their final fate of whether they will be 'saved' by the US or lost forever in the 'death-world' with the 'Others' who are cast as inevitable victims of the climate crisis. Each of the stories analyzed in this paper conversely paint a portrait of a future in which primarily wealthy people living in the US will be 'saved' from climate disasters. This binary representation / division of the inevitably saved from the inevitably doomed portrays a future separated into a climate 'life-world' and 'death-world' and thus casts transformative actions to address the climate crisis as essentially pointless.
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Why is it important?
This paper is important because it contributes key insights into how and why certain climate responses are deemed legitimate or not. In this paper, I show how discursive processes of 'worlding' & claims of 'inevitability' through the binary construction of climate 'life-worlds' and 'death-worlds' can effectively delegitimize calls for climate justice by casting these actions as a lost cause.
Perspectives
This article provides a critical analysis of climate media and politics. I hope readers find this paper's findings and insights useful when grappling with the question of why and how transformative climate actions are repeatedly obstructed in the US and also at international climate negotiations such as the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COPs).
Hanna Morris
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Purgatory islands and climate death-worlds: Interrogating the journalistic imperative to witness the climate crisis through the lens of war, Journal of Environmental Media, October 2022, Intellect,
DOI: 10.1386/jem_00073_1.
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