Americans have stronger responses to the phrase “global warming” than “climate change,” according to a study conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.
This finding begs the question—how important is word choice when it comes to talking about specific issues? Can a simple change in the words you use change the way someone reacts to what you say?
As someone communicating about environmental issues, this question is not only interesting to me, but important. I had a discussion with some of my fellow CELL students about it just a few months ago, and we decided it was better to say “climate change” than “global warming” because it more accurately describes the large-scale changes in climate and weather patterns we face as our atmosphere fills with carbon dioxide and our planet gets warmer. For these very reasons, it’s the term favored by scientists. But the findings of the study imply that perhaps we were wrong, and if we want to communicate about the issue, our message will resonate more if we say “global warming” instead.
The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication found that across all demographics, “global warming” created greater engagement with the issue and a greater sense of personal threat. They believe this is not only because more people are familiar with the expression than they are with “climate change,” but also because global warming brings to mind frightening images of melting ice and global catastrophe, while climate change sounds more manageable and less threatening. In addition, Americans are four times as likely to say they hear or use the term global warming instead of climate change.
Pictures of this poor bear show up in Google Image searches for both “global warming” and “climate change”… as do images of the planet on fire (often held in a large, disembodied hand).
Interestingly, those who do not believe global warming/climate change is real do not seem to be affected by the use of one term or the other, according to the study. So talking about “climate change” to a person who is convinced “global warming” is a hoax probably won’t change their opinion much. But for those already concerned by the issue, or on the fence, it could potentially make a big difference.
Effective communication is important in activism because half the effort is getting people engaged with the issue. Knowing the words which most engage people is essential to effective communication. So I took a look at a couple of the major activist groups to see which expressions they favor.
On Greenpeace’s page on the global warming/climate change, they performed a delicate balancing act of using both “global warming” and “climate change” to describe the issue, implying the terms are synonymous. The findings of the study indicate that according to most Americans, they are not, and hold different meanings and implications.
350.org, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and bringing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere down to 350 parts per million (the highest possible level deemed safe by scientists), handles their phrasing differently. On their “What We Do” page, they only use the expressions “global warming” and “climate change” once each, and instead rely on phrases such as “global climate,” “climate safety,” and “climate crisis” to convey their message. Instead of choosing between the two camps, they create a language of their own to describe the issue—and possibly lose the engagement of some of their potential audience, if the study is any indication.
Though the debate between using “global warming” or “climate change” may seem to be resolved, it calls into question some of the other related words we two often use interchangeably, which actually have different meanings—words like sustainable, environmental, ecological, natural, organic, and green. When we throw these words around without any regard to their independent meanings, is the result a bunch of eco-jargon?
A Google Trends report shows that while “global warming” has dominated in the past as the far more commonly searched phrase, “climate change” fluctuated in popularity at the same times, and now the two phrases (which are both being searched less frequently) are neck-and-neck. So while the report may indicate the people more often respond to and use “global warming,” the Google searches say the two are roughly equal.
On the other hand, two words often used interchangeably—“environmental” and “sustainable”—tell a very different story in Google searches. While significantly more commonly searched than “sustainable,” the word “environmental” has been steadily declining in searches since 2005. Searches for “sustainable,” however, have remained relatively constant, with only seasonal fluctuations (which are interesting by themselves). Does this perhaps mean that “environmental” was more of a buzzword whose time is past, while “sustainable” more accurately describes the movement and is here to stay? Or does it mean that so few people are familiar with the concept of “sustainability” that there hasn’t been enough room for it to rise and fall like “environmental”?
Whatever the reason, Yale’s findings show us that the words we use are important. So choose them wisely.
By Jessica Edington