Climate Language
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Heatflation, overshoot, soup throwers: Grist’s picks for words of the year
10 terms and phrases that defined our sweltering climate in 2022.
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![Black and white photo of construction on a London street lined with old-timey gas lamps.]()
![Black and white photo of construction on a London street lined with old-timey gas lamps.]()
The fossil fuel origins of ‘gaslighting’
Merriam-Webster's word of the year is all about deception. Guess where it comes from?
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![Photoshopped Coke bottle with COP27 logo on it floating in water]()
![Photoshopped Coke bottle with COP27 logo on it floating in water]()
It’s not just Coca-Cola: Corporations have co-opted the UN climate talks
COP27 is covered with logos. But that's just the start of companies' influence.
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![Collage: a speech bubble with a photo of smokestacks and smoke against an orange sunny sky, and a speech bubble with the dictionary definition for the word]()
![Collage: a speech bubble with a photo of smokestacks and smoke against an orange sunny sky, and a speech bubble with the dictionary definition for the word]()
‘It makes climate change real’: How carbon emissions got rebranded as ‘pollution’
California activists paved the way for defining climate change as an air pollution problem. Now it's federal law.
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![Collage: United States Supreme Court building with planet Earth, an oil pumpjack, and vintage one hundred dollar bills surrounding it in a semi triangular layout]()
![Collage: United States Supreme Court building with planet Earth, an oil pumpjack, and vintage one hundred dollar bills surrounding it in a semi triangular layout]()
How a 50-year-old PR strategy influenced the Supreme Court’s EPA decision
E. Bruce Harrison developed the "Three Es" in the 1970s. Now the framing is everywhere.
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![Five outdoor thermometers arranged left to right from smallest size to largest, with the temperature rising from 70 degrees in the first to 120 in the last]()
![Five outdoor thermometers arranged left to right from smallest size to largest, with the temperature rising from 70 degrees in the first to 120 in the last]()
Summer has transformed into ‘danger season,’ scientists warn
Hurricanes, heat, fires, smoke, drought: Is it time to stop sugar-coating summer?
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![Blue silhouette of USA with conservative states colored red; solar panels and wind turbines are placed randomly on top of the red states]()
![Blue silhouette of USA with conservative states colored red; solar panels and wind turbines are placed randomly on top of the red states]()
The secrets to passing climate legislation — even in red states
These Republican states are passing clean energy bills in the name of freedom and economics.
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![collage with capitol building, earth, american coins, price stickers, smokestacks with red scribble for smoke, and red and green rectangles in background]()
![collage with capitol building, earth, american coins, price stickers, smokestacks with red scribble for smoke, and red and green rectangles in background]()
True costs: How the oil industry cast climate policy as an economic burden
For 30 years, the debate has largely ignored the soaring costs of inaction.
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![an oil pump jack in a dusty landscape against an orange sky]()
![an oil pump jack in a dusty landscape against an orange sky]()
Here’s the ‘energy transition’ needed to stave off climate catastrophe
And it’s not the one oil executives had in mind.
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![collage: paint bucket pouring green paint on top of black and white oil rig with green circle in background]()
![collage: paint bucket pouring green paint on top of black and white oil rig with green circle in background]()
The massive disconnect between Big Oil’s words and actions, in data
A new study illustrates fossil fuel companies' greenwashing agenda.
