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Ikiwa
- if, suppose.
Etymology
A
conjugated form of -wa, literally "if it should be".
Conjunction
ikiwa
1.
if
Ikiwa
utarusha utagonga – if you
will throw you will hit.
Wa
- be; become.
Etymology
Verb
-wa (infinitive kuwa)
1.
to be
Wewe ni nani? ― Who are you?
2.
(in positive present) to become
Inakuwa baridi. ― It
is getting cold.
3.
(auxiliary) dummy verb that takes tense marking while the main verb
takes aspect marking
nilikuwa ninaandika ― I was writing
4.
(with specified location) stem of -wapo, -wako,
or -wamo
5.
(with na or
a form thereof) stem
of -wa na
Conjugation
|
▼Conjugation
of -wa (irregular) |
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The
CCHH (Climate Change and Human Health) was produced by the International Panel on
Climate Change, now named Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which
represents the “gold standard” of climate science and is the first report to
document the “human fingerprint” on global warming (Mooney 2005).
The
IPCC has adopted its rules of procedure in the "Principles Governing IPCC
Work". These state that the IPCC will assess:
1.
the risk of climate change caused by human activities,
2.
its potential impacts, and
3.
possible options for prevention.
IPCC
states that its assessments are drawn on scientific, technical and
socioeconomic information. IPCC states that its reports must be neutral
regarding policy recommendations. However, they may address the objective
factors relevant to enacting policies.
Of
particular analytic interest, is the complex role that representations of, and
claims about future “reality” play in legitimating particular policies and
actions. Briefly, to make its case for near future policies and actions, the
CCHH text presents explicit arguments about distant future phenomena resulting
from global warming. As such, representations and claims about the future
feature prominently in the CCHH text.
The
CCHH focuses on natural phenomena and events in the world of nature and
science, “things that occur naturally” and about which “it is useless to offer
counsel”. The idea of an “inevitable” future does not derive solely from the
natural world; rather, representations of the future are “naturalized” (Fairclough
1989, 2003) through linguistic and discursive devices in such a way as to
legitimate the policies and strategies advocated in the CCHH documents.
The
data examined below comes from a section of Climate Change and Human Health,
which explicates the impact that increases in sea levels, a major consequence
of global warming, could have on human health and the ecosystem and recommends
policies for preventing or mitigating that impact. As such, the text projects
three interrelated future moments:
1.
The occurrence of sea level rise by the year 2100 – “occurrence statements.”
2.
The impact of sea level rise on human health and the ecosystem – “impact statements.”
3.
Policies and actions for attending to sea level rise and its impact on human health
– “policy statements.”
The
occurrence and impact statements project distant, epistemic futures; the policy
statements project near, obligatory futures concerning what should be done in
light of the epistemic futures. The rhetorical relationship among these future
moments, are presented as relationships of conditionality and contingency. As
such, the discussion follows an ‘if/then’ logic, “If sea levels rise/were to
rise to X, what would the consequences be for human health and the ecosystem?”
Similarly, the obligatory future of policy and action is contingent upon the
occurrence of an increase in sea levels and consequences of that increase for
human health. Thus, the obligatory force of the policy statements is dependent
upon the epistemic status of the occurrence and impact statements. Potentially, for undiscerning audiences, impetus is given for saturation of media with news, memes, articles about occurrences
and speculations of occurrences relating to climate change discourse, especially
the small and inconsequential, and the attachment of these towards “high impact”.
This signifies a direction towards locations for action. Often scapegoats. In
addition, are actions which produce results that enable propagation of
narratives, for example, burning of forests and the resultant high temperatures
(heat waves).
References
Dunmire, P.L. The rhetoric of
temporality: The future as linguistic construct and rhetorical resource. Edited
in Johnstone B., Eisenhart C. (2008) Rhetoric in Detail. Discourse analyses of
rhetorical talk and text. Volume 31
Fairclough, N. (1989).
Language and Power. London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (2003).
Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge
Mooney, C. (2005), May/June.
“Some Like it Hot.” Mother Jones
TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza;
Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili
(TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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