Climate change and language change
July 1, 2022
For over ten years I have now been thinking and writing about extreme weather events, especially floods and fires, and how they are verbally and visually represented in the media and beyond. Over that decade the issue of extreme weather has become increasingly topical and people no longer hesitate to discuss this topic in the …
The IPCC report: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities
March 4, 2022
When I think about the latest IPCC report, which came out on 28 February, these sentences come to my (German) mind: Eintritt streng verboten! Eintritt strengstens verboten!! Eintritt allerstrengstens verboten!!! (Entry strictly forbidden. Entry very strictly forbidden. Entry extremely strictly forbidden.) These words are written on warning signs that adorn three doors in the classic …
Extreme weather talk: Making climate public?
June 19, 2013
This is yet another in a series of blog posts where I try to show how one can use publicly available data (newspaper databases or Google Insight for Search) to observe patterns and shifts in public attention to climate change. Other posts have dealt with some first reflections on extreme weather, Hurricane Sandy, alarmism, carbon …