Biodiversity and its threats in popular expert texts
Keywords:
biodiversity, discourse studies, ecolinguistics, natureAbstract
The article examines the ways that biodiversity is constructed and how threats to diversity are
discussed in a variety of popular expert texts. The material includes blogs and news articles
from the websites of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Natural Resources Institute
Finland and nature conservation organizations. The research is based on an ecolinguistic
approach to discourse analysis. The analysis shows that, especially in the texts of the Ministry
and the Natural Resources Institute Finland, the concept of biodiversity often remains vague
and abstract. The texts of nature conservation organizations explain the concept more often
and focus specifically about measures to promote diversity. Even still, biodiversity often
seems to refer rather narrowly to the diversity of species. All the texts build an image that
biodiversity is important. Actions and processes that threaten biodiversity are discussed about
using nominalisation and passive voice. When people are mentioned, they are spoken of as a
collective unit, making it impossible to perceive the relationship between responsibility and
power. One of the threats mentioned in the material is alien species, over which humans play
an active role in their control.
