THE LANGUAGE OF BRITISH RADICAL ECO-ACTIVISTS (BASED ON ONLINE PUBLICATIONS OF THE «JUST STOP OIL» GROUP)

Abstract

The present article is devoted to the study of the language of online publications on the website of radical eco-activists from the British climate group «Just Stop Oil». The publications in question are of great interest to linguists since specialists have noticed that the activities of green politicians and eco-activists significantly affect the language of ecological discourse: it is becoming less scientific and more emotional. The conducted study enables us to conclude that the publications of radical eco-activists occupy a special place in the already heterogeneous ecological discourse. They are the complete opposite of scientific ecological discourse, but they are also far from popular scientific environmental journalism. They are closest to political discourse. In essence, the publications of radical eco-activists constitute political discourse in an environmental «framework». They do not introduce or discuss new scientific facts, nor do they popularize knowledge about the environment. Instead, we find in them apocalyptic descriptions of the future that awaits humanity; the division of people into US and THEM with the accusation of the latter (we, humanity, are the victims; they (politicians and oil tycoons) are the criminals responsible for the current situation) and calls for immediate action (See you on the streets). The lexical basis of the analyzed texts is made up of commonly used vocabulary with a significant share of commonly understood environmental terms, which the authors skillfully juggle without resorting to specifics (global warming, climate change, energy transition, carbon footprint, zero waste, decarbonisation, climate denial, environmental integrity, green future). The argumentation of ecoactivists appeals not to the readers’ reason, but to their emotions. The obvious goal of the authors of the publications is to sow fear of the future in the audience, to instil hatred for individual politicians and other figures and thereby encourage the addressees to take aggressive actions in the interests of the leaders of the radical environmental movement. The authors try to achieve this goal by abundantly sprinkling their speech with vocabulary units with negative denotative and connotative meaning (untold suffering and death, stark threat, climate criminals), resorting to hyperbole (billions of people, entire nations), antithesis (reassuring words – horrifying fact), writing on behalf of everyone (we, our planet) and addressing the readers directly (See you on the streets).