Melting modifiers, caps on omissions, what next? Rising reading levels? The Oxford Dictionary of English has recently revealed — in terms as loud and clear as a vuvuzela — the toxic debt left on the English language by climate change.
A green audit of the latest words appended to this edition shows humanity’s panic-button solutions to global warming are rapidly changing the linguistic climate with the addition of carbon capture and storage, geoengineering, and the most instinctive choice for us lazy humans, staycation.
Even in light of such overwhelming evidence of the climate’s affect on our language, there are plenty of people who refuse to acknowlege the data. They would prefer to banish, rather than welcome, such green-minded words from the pages of history. But if they won’t speak your language, how do you talk to a climate word skeptic?
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