Tridging Politics, Progress and Preservation: An Abbeyesque Analysis of President William Jefferson Clintion’s ‘Environmental’ Public Address

• In Event: Bridging the Gap between Conservation, Energy Independence and Green Technologies? How Presidential Rhetoric has Built the Case for Environmental Politics

Abstract

An examination of the ‘environmental’ narratives constructed by President Clinton, as exemplified in his public speeches ‘on the environment’, through a critical rubric derived from the work of Edward Abbey, reveals the counterproductivity of environmental preservation rhetorics cabined by the need to co-construct progress and politics. Links between environmental literature and rhetorical methodology are discussed.

Authors

• Raymond Quiel, Eastern Michigan University

• George Denger, Lake Superior State Univ