The Emergence and Evolution of Environment in The New York Times: Sixty Years of Conceptual Change

Over the past sixty years the scope and complexity of environmental governance has developed at a rapid pace. This has been paralleled by a growing and shifting conceptualisation of “environment” itself. We observe the groups of concepts through which environment is discussed by The New York Times’ editorial page at seven historic intervals from 1963 to the present. After initial identification as an area of societal concern, bureaucratic institutions were established and foundational environmental legislation was put into place, leading to a sense of optimism that the environment problem could be “fixed.” Public attitudes shifted while the pervasiveness of environmental issues continued to be uncovered, setting the stage for environment to become the politically charged policy domain it is today. This record of the changing conceptualisation of environment begins to lay down a conceptual history and provide a benchmark for interpreting U.S. environmental politics at different historical timeframes.