Thursday 3 September 2009

Bad language
















(Above) Domestic life in London after climate catastrophe kicks in.

"Climate change." This phrase was invented by the Republican pollster Frank Luntz, when he discovered that focus groups found the phrase "global warming" too scary. Climate change sounds nice and gentle, and evokes our latent awareness that the climate has changed naturally throughout history. Even "global warming" is problematic, since it makes us picture putting our feet up in the sun. The more accurate phrase would be "the unravelling of the ecosystem", "climate chaos", or "catastrophic man-made global warming." They're a mouthful, but they are honest.

If the ecosystem is unravelling, say the ecosystem is unravelling.
It is only when we honestly describe the world that we can begin to change it.

Of course another word we need to get rid of is "accident" used to describe a road collision. But the mass media shows no inclination to do so.