Climate Change vs Climate Crisis: Which Term Sparks More Emotion?

Language matters. And it especially matters when it comes to climate change.

If the hypothesis of Fischer and Forester is right, and the language we use does play a role in shaping how we perceive issues, then the terms that we use could be the difference between someone engaging, or switching off.

Yes, "Tell the truth".

Because of the history of controversy around climate change, we need words that are scientifically accurate and reflect what we know. But we also need words which instill some sense of urgency: this is a problem we need to be working on right now. And we also need to convey the emotional side of climate change: it’s a human-caused problem which will have devastating human impacts.

The terms which are most commonly used are ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’. They’ve both been on the scene for a while, picking up momentum during the mid 1900s as scientific research was well underway into the greenhouse effect and the role of human activity within that. As terms for use within scientific journals, they’re fairly well suited, ticking that first box of accurately describing what is happening — changes in climate caused by the warming of the earth’s surface.

Read the Medium story by Tabitha Whiting - “Climate Change vs Climate Crisis: Which Term Sparks More Emotion?”