Green Mail: The Social Construction of Environmental Issues through Letters to the Editor

Press coverage of environmental issues constructs a public discourse of the dynamic relations between humans and the world they inhabit. In the daily newspaper, letters to the editor act as a forum for public dialogue on forestry issues, mediating perceptions of land use, economy, and environment. The publication of "green mail" concerning the proposed logging in the Carmanah Valley of British Columbia shapes and reflects issues of social conflict and economic transition. Through various means, letters to the editor uphold ideals of economic utility and democratic process as determinants of land use policy. Yet green mail challenges the dominant paradigm through its extension of public access to the agenda-setting process, its development of an ecological critique, and the articulation of an alternative environmental discourse.