British Petroleum’s corporate discourse involving climate change before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: A cognitive linguistic account

Abstract

This article involves a qualitative study of climate change discourse by British Petroleum (BP) before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. The study aims at elucidating the impact of the spill upon BP’s climate change discourse by means of identifying conceptual metaphors in BP’s annual reports before and after the Deepwater Horizon spill. Data analysis reveals that BP’s climate change discourse prior to and following the Deepwater Horizon spill is framed by the metaphors Citizen and Journey. These findings are further discussed in the article.