The Language of Climate Change

Earlier this week I was listening to RadioLab, a public radio program from NPR. They were talking about climate change, and they comment on how currently society is in a transitional phase on how we talk about climate change. In the past, the IPCC's goals were on the prevention of climate change. In the past few years, they have shifted to the language of adaptation of climate change. Put simply, they are no longer trying to prevent it from happening as it is already here. Now we must adapt to the reality of it.


The radio program suggests we are all in this strange middle ground where we are trying to find the language to say why it is important that we keep working at this, while at the same time admitting some level of failure. They continue on bringing this back to the idea of nihilism, I think it is worth while thinking about the importance of language in climate change. For those who are uneducated on Climate Change, poor language used by climate change activists could end up sounding like a pessimistic view of the world, maybe even an apocalypse to be laughed at, pushed aside and ultimately ignored. The way we speak about climate change is important in order for change to take place, in lifestyles, politics, and public perception.

This is only one aspect of the complexity of creating a structure to mitigate the effects of climate change, but I think it emphasizes the complexity of the situation. It also stresses that we cannot continue to push the problem of climate change aside for other things, such as economic benefit. It is one more reason action needs to be taken in Paris at the COP21.