Our planet is currently facing an unprecedented climate crisis and we are now close to the point of no return. The consequences are already showing signs of irreversibility in many parts of the world, and many are now suggesting the abandonment of the term ‘climate change’ in exchange for language that conveys the seriousness of what is happening.
Although the expression ‘climate change’ began to appear around the mid-70s, and in 1988 it was enshrined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the UN, by the end of the 90s it was already competing with the term ‘global warming’, that for many conveyed the changes the planet was undergoing more accurately.
It was with the Republican administration of George W. Bush in the US, advised by Frank Luntz, that the term was shaken up once more: “It’s time we start speaking about climate change rather than global warming, and of conservation rather than preservation. While global warming has catastrophic connotations, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge”.
