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As the climate changes, so does the vocabulary around it - to amplify concern, to dampen concern, to serve corporate concerns… It is linguistically fraught! Journalist Amy Westervelt of the podcast Drilled, Alice Bell from the climate charity Possible, and Robin Webster from Climate Outreach explain some of the shifts in terminology, the squabbles and the industry interference - and how to communicate about climate in a way that does result in useful action.
The transcript of this episode is at theallusionist.org/transcripts/alarm-bells.
ADDITIONAL READING:
Currently reading: Merchants of Doubt, the seminal book about how tobacco-doesn’t-cause-cancer playbook was copied by climate policy obfuscators.
New words and new habits: flygskam (flight shame) and tågskryt (train-bragging).
Coining ‘greenwashing’ because of…towels?!
Astroturfing techniques. So that you can be aware of them, not use them, thanks.
The history of actual AstroTurf: “When ChemGrass was first installed in the Astrodome, the groundskeepers would dress up as astronauts between innings and use vacuum cleaners to keep the turf clean during the game.”
How knitters are visualising climate change.
“I ended up feeling that it wasn’t really important if I had hope or felt despair, because what does matter is complicity.” I loved Jenny Offill’s first two novels so am looking forward to reading her new one, Weather.
The coining of the term ‘greenhouse effect’ took a while and quite a few people.
“I have seen change that was unimaginable until it happened and then became so ordinary-seeming a part of everyday life that people forgot there was a struggle, forgot there was a transformation, forgot how we got here, forgot that we are living in the once-unimaginable.” Of course Rebecca Solnit can sow hope even about climate emergency.
Other relevant Allusionists include Warm Front, about weather forecasting, US Election Lexicon, which has the etymology of ‘radical’, and Bonus 2016, containing the origins of ‘gaslighting’.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
jouissance
CREDITS:
Alice Bell is director of communications at the climate charity Possible and the author of the new book Can We Save the Planet? and an upcoming book about the history of climate change.
Robin Webster is senior climate engagement strategist for the climate communication organisation Climate Outreach, which has released a handbook for having useful conversations about climate. It’s free and you can download it HERE.
Amy Westervelt is a climate journalist and she makes the podcast Drilled; season 3 is out now. She is the editor-in-chief of Drilled News, journalism in pursuit of climate accountability.
The Allusionist theme is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his new podcast Year of the Bird about the songs he writes.
Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
I’ll be back with new Allusionists in May. In the meantime, listen to my other podcasts Veronica Mars Investigations (we just completed Veronica Mars season 1) and Answer Me This. I’ve been on a few other podcasts recently:
BBC Radio 4’s Podcast Radio Hour’s TV Companion Podcasts episode;
Jordan Jesse Go ep 624 A Flat of Babies;Three episodes of Potterless recapping the 7th Harry Potter film;
I discuss the naming of the planets on the Delve episode of Astro Blast, and it turns out to be some very complicated history!
Here’s an interview about the Allusionist in Podcast The Newsletter.
And from last year, here’s the burnout episode of ZigZag I mentioned.
