A New Language for Grappling With Climate Change

This month, a major UN report on climate change declared that humanity has just a few short years to make the drastic changes needed to stave off an environmental catastrophe. While news outlets reacted with shock and alarm, those who regularly write, research or advocate on climate change were more resigned. For them, the report — which synthesized existing research — merely aggravated the psychic wound formed by continually reckoning with the end of the world.

What's ahead for kids like me?

Responding to the report, climate writer Eric Holthaus encouraged readers to talk about their feelings with friends, though he said that he has “no idea whether or not this is the right advice for everyone.” Environmental reporter Zoë Schlanger expressed similar ambivalence, writing that “in 2018, life can feel in need of a dirge for the whole world, with scarcely the language to write it.”

Perhaps as the climate changes, so must our vocabulary. We need new words to grapple with these new challenges. What does it feel like when your home leaves you? When the seasons shift and rains dry up or turn to deluge? How do you capture the sense of this new abnormal? And how do you cope?

Read the story from NexusMedia by Phil Newell - “A New Language for Grappling With Climate Change.”