Climate change is a popular topic. No, wait. It isn’t popular, but it is frequent. Unfortunately there is much disagreement around climate change from those outside the science sector. This interesting information came to us from JSTOR Daily in their article, “How Language and Climate Connect.”
While the climate changes, the words we use to describe it doesn’t. While we’re losing biological diversity, we’re also losing linguistic and cultural diversity at the same time.
The consistent language of science is valued, but too often it’s incomprehensible to the average layperson. In the media, so-called neutral language serves to dumb down the message and avoid causing any alarm. Bland information doesn’t inspire action.
The language we choose to use about the environment matters if we want anyone to pay attention. Intentional and measured language about environmental crises is valuable in the right contexts. Language has a powerful role to play in ecological survival, beyond just describing the disturbing environmental outlook.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in taxonomies, metadata, and semantic enrichment to make your content findable.
