Abstract
Science has long been recognized as having an important role in generating popular discourses on animals and the natural world, and the paucity of information on how animals are represented in popular science narratives of environmental degradation is striking. Our study begins to fill that gap. We examine representations of animals in articles on climate change published over two decades in the most widely read popular science magazine in the world, National Geographic. National Geographic uses a variety of animal representations to make salient the problem of a changing climate. Analysis of 108 photographs and their captions in articles on climate change revealed four major themes: vulnerability of wildlife to climate change, representation of animals as specimens in climate change adaptation and conservation, the contribution of food animal consumption to climate change, and the vulnerability of the livelihoods of draft animals (sled dogs) and their human companions to climate change. We conclude that popular science is contributing to an expanded public discourse on climate change that extends beyond the vulnerability of iconic wild megafauna to include insects and amphibians and issues facing the relationship we have with other animals, such as the widespread consumption of animals for food.
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