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Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere
Seventh
- Phaedra C. Pezzullo - University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
- Robert Cox - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
August 2025 | SAGE Publications, Inc
The Seventh Edition of the award-winning Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere is the best-selling comprehensive introduction in the field of environmental communication. This groundbreaking book focuses on the role that human communication plays in influencing the ways we perceive, transform, and attempt to heal relations with everything we consider to be "the environment" - from microscopic chemicals in cosmetics to the climate we breathe. Authors Phaedra C. Pezzullo and Robert Cox examine how we define what constitutes an environmental problem and how we decide what actions to take concerning the natural world. The updated and revised Seventh Edition explores recent events and research that have emerged since the last edition, including: the latest on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on journalism, climate commitments of Big Tech, global climate justice course cases, mutual aid networking, ultra-processed food policy, anti-plastics advocacy, expanding legal rights of nonhuman animals, and more.
About the Authors
Acknowledgments to the Seventh Edition
Introduction
Part I • Communicating As, For, About, And with The Environment
Chapter 1 • Defining Environmental Communication: On Trees, Wolves, and Plastics
Communication as Symbolic Action: Communicating with and about Trees
Communication Matters: Reintroducing Wolves
A Crisis and Care Discipline
Public Spheres as Democratic Spaces: From Ideals to Scapegoats
Purpose: What Motivates Environmental Communication in the Public Sphere?
Diverse Voices in The Public Sphere: Agents of Change
Ways of Studying Environmental Communication
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 2 • Cultural and Rhetorical Environmental Discourses: From Apples to Zendaya
Rhetorical Perspectives: On Apples
Naming: From “There’s a whale!” to Advocating “Beans for Beef”
Framing: On Plant-Rich Diets, Artificial Turf, and Farmer Backlash
The Rhetorical Situation: Getting Our Feet Wet
Apocalyptic Rhetoric and Melodrama: Silent Spring or Chicken Littles?
Dominant v. Critical Discourses: Revisiting Water and Food
Myth
Eco-Celebrities: Cool or Cruel?
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 3 • Contested Meanings of the Environment: A Brief History
Turtle Island
Learning to Love Nature
Wilderness Preservation versus Natural Resource Conservation
Public Health and the Environmental Movement
Environmental Justice: Linking Social Justice and Public Health
Contemporary Movements
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 4 • Contested Discourses: Communicating Climate Change
Early Awareness of Climate Change and the Technical Sphere
Challenges to Communicating Care in the Climate Crisis
Public Communication about Climate Controversies
Early Climate Symbols: Tipping Points and Footprints
Who is Hit First and Worst?: The Cruel Irony of Climate Change
Climate Action Backlash: Uncertainty, Delay, and Disinformation
Talking about the Climate Crisis
Public Opinion Data: Backlash is a Minority—The Majority Care
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Part II • Environmental Campaigns And Movements
Chapter 5 • Environmental Justice Movement: From Disobedience to Reinvention
The Lifecycle of the Movement for Environmental Justice
The Lifecycle of the Movement for Environmental Justice
Reaffirming and Reinventing Movements for Environmental Justice
Flipping the Script: Talking about Environmental Privilege
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 6 • Advocacy for Climate Justice: Moving from Cruel Irony to a Just Transition
Climate Injustice: A Global Pattern
Advocacy and the Dilemma of Social Change
Inside or Outside, Take One: Articulating A Just Transition
Inside or Outside, Take One: Disrupting Business as Usual
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 7 • Visual Rhetoric & Market-based Advocacy: From Boycotts to Divestment
Visual Rhetoric and Nature Advocacy
Seeing the American West
Moving Images of Disasters
Witnessing Biodiversity Loss through Projection Mapping and Documentaries
Alert, Amplify, and Engage
Three Challenges for (Digital) Engagement
Market-based Advocacy
Divest and Reinvest Climate Campaigns
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 8 • Environmental Advocacy Campaigns: From Resisting Toxic Pollution to Protecting Zuni Salt Lake
A Warmup to Advocacy Campaigns: Critical Rhetoric
Environmental Advocacy Campaigns
An Advocacy Campaign for a Toxic Study and Redress in Mississippi
An Advocacy Campaign to Protect Zuni Salt Lake from Strip-Mining
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Part III • Environmental Communication Here, There, Everywhere
Chapter 9 • Environmental Journalism: From Narratives to Fact-Checking
Environmental Journalism in the Public Sphere
A Perfect Storm: The Decline of Traditional Journalism in the West
Breaking News and Environmental Journalism
Political Economy of News Media
Media Effects and Influences
Digital Storytelling and Environmental News
The Impact of AI on Veracity: An Emerging Trend
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 10 • Green Advertising and Media: From Greenwashing to Sustainable Storylines
The Environment and Popular Culture
Sustainability Discourses: Public Goods versus Free Markets
Corporate Sustainability Communication
Greenwashing: Lies and Lawsuits
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 11 • Risk Communication: From the Trope of Uncertainty to Health Activism
Dangerous Environments: Assessment in a Risk Society
Communicating Risks in the Public Sphere
The Precautionary Principle: “Better Safe than Sorry”
Toxic Politics: From Privatizing to Publicizing Chemical Disasters
Fracked: The Expansion of Hydraulic Fracturing and The Voices of Dissent
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Part IV • Disputed Environmental Laws and Disorder
Chapter 12 • Possibilities of Public Participation: Food Fights & Toxic Politics, Continued
Rights of Public Participation: An Overview
Right to Know: Transparency and Access to Information
Right to Comment: Involvement
Advisory Committees on Toxic Pollution—and the Ideal of Collaboration
SLAPP: Strategic Litigation against Public Participation
Growth of Public Participation Globally
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Chapter 13 • Debating Voice and Standing: From Nature’s Rights to Intergenerational Justice
Right of Expression and Right of Assembly
Right of Standing: Who Legally Can Speak?
Landmark Cases on Environmental Standing
Reversing, Slowing, Or Reducing Global Warming as Injury
Who Should Have a Right of Standing?
Summary
Suggested Resources
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
Epilogue: Imagining Stories for Our Future
Glossary
References
Index