Visuals in environmental communication can potentially shape the public perception of environmental issues. They are frequently used in corporate communication in sustainability reports to construct environmentally responsible corporate images. This study analyzes the images used in the sections addressing climate change in the sustainability reports of an international petroleum mega-business from 2018 to 2022. Based on the theoretical framework of ecolinguistics and multimodal critical discourse analysis, the present study investigates how the motifs constructed in the reports' visual narratives legitimize the energy industry with various discursive strategies in relation to the underlying anthropocentric ecosophy. Four main motifs in the visual narratives are identified, including uniformed employees, the high-tech (clear) energy industry, unspoiled nature, and public signage with evaluative meanings. These motifs are represented through the discursive strategies of salience, erasure, and evaluation, which are operationalized through the praxis of collectivization, individualization, decontextualization, and aestheticization. The real causes and impacts of climate change are discursively erased, and the energy-exploiting and environmentally polluting industry is techno-optimistically aestheticized and romanticized in tackling climate change and actively contributing to idyllic and unspoiled nature. The present research is hoped to shed light on the analyses of corporate environmental communication in the current era where ecology is increasingly valued, and it may also help raise viewers' critical awareness of institutional ecological discourses.

中文翻译：

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石油企业讲述和赖以生存的应对气候变化的视觉故事：多模式批判性生态语言学视角

环境传播中的视觉效果可能会影响公众对环境问题的看法。它们经常用于可持续发展报告中的企业沟通，以构建对环境负责的企业形象。本研究分析了一家国际石油巨头2018年至2022年可持续发展报告中涉及气候变化的章节中使用的图像。基于生态语言学和多模态批评话语分析的理论框架，本研究探讨了主题如何在报告的视觉叙事通过与潜在的人类中心生态学相关的各种话语策略使能源行业合法化。视觉叙事中的四个主要主题被确定，包括穿制服的员工、高科技（清洁）能源产业、未受破坏的自然以及具有评价意义的公共标牌。这些主题通过显着性、擦除性和评价性的话语策略来表现，这些策略通过集体化、个体化、去语境化和审美化的实践来运作。气候变化的真正原因和影响被话语抹杀，能源开采和环境污染行业在应对气候变化和积极为田园诗般的未受破坏的自然做出贡献的过程中被技术乐观地审美化和浪漫化。本研究希望能够为当今生态日益受到重视的时代的企业环境传播分析提供启示，也可能有助于提高观众对制度生态话语的批判意识。