Exploring the language of climate change – a special Oxford English Dictionary update

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) takes place 31st October – 12th November in Glasgow. To mark the occasion, Oxford Languages announces the launch of its latest Oxford English Dictionary (OED) update, dedicated to exploring the language of climate change.

As our understanding of how climate affects our planet progresses, so does the language we use to describe it. Early in 2021, the OED embarked on a project to broaden and review its coverage of vocabulary related to climate change and sustainability. In addition to new words and updated definitions, lexicographers have worked to trace existing climate-related words further back in time, in turn revealing how the way we talk about climate has evolved over the years.

While we might think of climate change as a relatively contemporary issue, it’s in fact been a topic of debate for more than 150 years. OED lexicographers have tracked use of the term back to 1854 and an article in the US Magazine of Science, Art, Manufacturers, Agriculture, Commerce and Trade which, querying whether humans could cause climate change, goes on to suggest it may be related to ‘the changeable position of the magnetic poles.’

Fast forward a century and, through the language used, it’s evident that concern over the warming of the earth is growing in intensity. In the 1980s we discussed the greenhouse effect (the phenomenon whereby the lower atmosphere and surface of a planet are warmer than they would otherwise be because the atmosphere, while transparent to visible radiation from the sun, is relatively opaque to heat rays (infrared radiation) re-emitted from the surface and within the atmosphere) which, in turn, was quickly overtaken by the somewhat more emotive global warming (a long-term gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere, waters, and land surface, spec. that occurring in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, becoming apparent from the late 20th century onwards, and linked to increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases caused by human activity.). Both were quickly eclipsed by the use of climate change, a term that has seen sharp and steady growth over the past forty years (as can be seen in the report here). More recently our choice of words evokes an even greater sense of urgency, with both climate crisis and climate emergency (Oxford Languages 2019 Word of the Year) seeing significant increase in usage over the past two years. Between 2018 and 2020, the use of climate crisis increased nearly 20-fold, climate emergency 76-fold over the same period. Continuing in this vein, our latest update sees an entry for global heating. While not (yet) set to overtake global warming, the term was used approximately fifteen times more in the first half of 2021 than in the first half of 2018.

Ask someone what the term climate refugee means in 2021 and, in all likelihood, they will tell you that it is associated with people forced to move home in response to extreme weather or rising sea levels, resulting from global warming. A good example of how a definition has evolved over the years, you may be surprised to know that, at the end of the 19th century, to be a climate refugee applied to someone who had moved to a place where the climate is healthier or more congenial.

No update relating to climate would be complete without mention of best-known climate striker, Greta Thunberg. Her skolstrejk (‘school strike’) of 2018 gained international support and media coverage but it was a few years prior, in 2014, that we first see the term climate strike, in a proposed event organised by Popular Resistance.

As we discover more about the impact of climate change and have to face issues such as food insecurity and water insecurity, it comes as no surprise to see a new entry for eco-anxiety (unease or apprehension about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change). There are also a number of revisions for words where negative connotations of the prefixes convey a moral standpoint – unsustainable and overconsumption being two examples.

While much of the language surrounding climate-change has negative connotations, language can also show us that positive action is being taken. After ‘bag’, single-use is the most statistically significant collocate occurring within 5 words either side of the word ‘plastic’ – surely a sign of rising awareness about waste and over-consumption. While we are now witness to more extreme weather conditions, whether they be floods, wildfire, or superstorms, solutions are being found. Our update includes entries for rain garden (an area of garden that lies below the level of its surroundings, designed to absorb rainwater that runs off from an impervious surface such as a patio, roof, or pavement.), urban agriculture (the practice of farming within an urban environment, especially the cultivation of food crops for consumption by local communities), vertical farming (the commercial cultivation of crops for human consumption in multiple layers or levels in a building or other structure, often with the help of artificially controlled lighting and nutrients), solar park, microgrid A localized electrical power grid which can operate independently of a wide-area grid, but is typically connected to it.), and more. We also include updated entries for retrofit (in relation to upgrading poorly insulated housing stock) and windmill (in the sense ‘wind turbine’). And, many more of us are choosing active travel (travel, esp. commuting to work or school, by a means that involves physical exercise, such as walking, cycling, etc.) as a means of reducing our carbon footprint (the environmental impact of a particular individual, community, or organization, or of a specific event, product, etc., measured in terms of the total associated greenhouse gas emissions, and typically expressed in terms of the (annual) equivalent in tons of carbon dioxide). It may come as a surprise to know that, while not coiners of the term, it was oil giant, BP, which helped elevate the term to wider prominence, using a footprint image as part of a PR campaign in 2005.

Trish Stewart, Science Editor at the Oxford English Dictionary says, “As world leaders come together to seek solutions to the climate change problem, it has been fascinating, if at times somewhat alarming, to delve deeper into the language we use, both now and in the past, to talk about climate and sustainability. The very real sense of urgency that is now upon us is reflected in our language. What happens next depends on so many factors but, one thing we can be sure of is that our language will continue to evolve and to tell the story.”

Access the full list of new words in this update. Read our historical sources blog post here.