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Changing Climate, Changing Language

IEEE Spectrum: Changing Climate, Changing Language

The link above explores the language changes introduced by the culture of Global Warming. Some very interesting words and phrases have been spawned by this phenomenon:

According to the Nobel Prize-–winning Dutch chemist Paul J. Crutzen, we are now living in the anthropocene, his recently coined term for the present geological period, characterized by humanity’s effects on global climate and ecology.

Sorry, I cannot see myself saying, "welcome to the anthropocene."

For the symptoms of global warming, I love the phrase drunken trees, which refers to a stand of trees under which the perma­frost has melted.

Keep trying. I cannot see that catching on either.

we seem to be undergoing season creep: earlier spring weather and other gradual seasonal shifts, particularly those caused by global climate change....

Then there is this:

Then there's the strange concept of global dimming, the gradual reduction in the amount of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, the average amount of sunlight reaching the ground has gone down by almost 3 percent a decade over the past 50 years.

Or the familiar carbon footprint or carbon cost:

For example, a person's total CO2 output is called the carbon footprint or carbon cost, and you can calculate this by performing a carbon audit that tallies up the amount of CO2 emitted by driving your car, running your appliances, and other activities.

It goes on to the business or technology of Global Warming:

These pollution trading markets are where technology ties in. Sure, some of the projects are decidedly low-tech, such as planting lots of trees. But increasingly, we're seeing savvy investors putting their money behind companies that specialize in eco-tech, technology designed to alleviate environmental problems and reduce the use of natural resources. This is also called greentech.

How about a carbon-coverup?

Sadly, all too often companies engage in greenwashing. They work on token environmentally friendly initiatives as a way of deflecting criticism about existing environmentally destructive practices. (This is the environmental version of whitewashing.)

No Global Warming discussion would be complete without the big-business-bashing:

As the reality of global climate change penetrates, companies will become increasingly carbon-­constrained. They will not only have to stop producing bads, commodities that lead to environmental harm (as opposed to goods), but they’ll also have to decarbonize: make their processes environmentally cleaner by reducing the amount of carbon produced. They'’ll also need ecolonomics, sustainable living through environmentally friendly business practices. For this they'’ll need the principles of green accounting, using economic measurements that take into account the effects of production and consumption on the environment.

Then to round it out, let's talk yin and yang:

The end goal is enlibra, the process of bringing something into balance, particularly an environmental issue.

It is interesting to watch the culture, science, and economics of Global Warming has permeated our language and our lives.

posted by Jim VAT @ 10:35 AM