ABSTRACT
One of the criteria for working in Critical Discourse Analysis is, according to van Dijk (1993: 252), ‘solidarity with those who need it most. Their problems are real problems, that is, the serious problems that threaten the lives or well-being of many’. Critical Discourse Analysts therefore tend to take the perspective of oppressed groups in society, working against exploitation and towards a more equitable society. Increasingly, however, the problems faced by oppressed groups are not just social but ecological, as climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion and chemical contamination make it difficult for them to achieve well-being or even meet their basic needs for survival. It is no longer enough to work towards an equitable society, since if that society consumes more than can be replaced by nature and produces more waste than can be absorbed by nature, then it will be unsustainable and on a pathway to collapse. Mary Midgley (2011: 111) claims that ‘the Marxist account entirely ignored factors outside the human species… Marx was not concerned about the exploitation of natural resources… he saw capitalist imperialism simply as the oppression of one set of humans by another, not as a source of ecological disaster’. The same could be said for much work in Critical Discourse Studies in the past, although, as this chapter will describe, that has started to change.
