Brennt unser Haus oder hat die Erde Fieber? Krankheits- und Feuermetaphorik im deutschen Klimawandeldiskurs

In recent years, climate change has emerged as one of the most important political, economic and societal issues in Germany. Due to its thematic complexity and its controversial nature, the climate change discourse is considered to be a particularly suitable subject for linguistic discourse analysis. This article deals with the use of metaphors in public German climate change discourse. The analysis focuses on the disease and fire metaphors used in the climate discourse and the questions of which conceptualisations these are part of and for what purposes they are used. On the basis of the analysis, it can be stated that climate change is often conceptualised as a DISEASE or a FIRE and is thus presented as an existential danger and evaluated negatively. Climate protection measures are positively framed as they are often conceptualised as a REMEDY or FIRE PROTECTION / FIRE FIGHTING.