Rose-tinting in the emerging discourse of the European bioeconomy

Abstract This article puts forward a new term and concept for ecolinguistic analysis of environmental discourse: rose-tinting . The term comes from the expression “viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses”, which means perceiving situations in an overly optimistic or idealised way. In the context of environmental discourse, it refers to strategies such as exaggerating the benefits of technological “solutions”, downplaying the scale of ecological issues, and giving minimal attention to the suffering and harm caused by ecological destruction. In general, it pays attention to environmental concerns and offers incremental improvements but fails to promote the level of systemic change necessary to address the scale of the problems. The article investigates the concept of rose-tinting through analysis of the emerging discourse of the European bioeconomy , examining four official policy documents from the European Commission as well as two alternative documents which express a very different vision. The conclusion argues that the environmental consideration within European bioeconomy and other policy discourses is welcome and necessary for sustainability, but rose-tinting can mean that it is not sufficient. When it comes to the future of life on Earth, it is essential that environmental discourse is “sufficient”.