Every time I hear the phrase "climate change" I want to scream. "Change" suggests something that we can adapt to relatively easily, as in the change of the seasons, or the change of a job, home or hairstyle. The reality is that, even in the best case scenario, climate change will be enormously costly and dangerous.
Just think of the ongoing disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina to the people of New Orleans, and imagine this kind of thing happening in many different locations at the same time. Add to that all the costs of trying to prepare for and prevent similar catastrophes. Right now in Britain, there is talk of building new trainlines to replace a number of sections of track that are perilously close to the coast. And that's a relatively predictable problem.
The term "climate change" is in fact a phrase that numbs or lulls us (which is why it makes me want to scream -- screaming being a restorative, healing reaction to psychic numbing). I have recently heard the phrase "climate chaos", which is more accurate but suggests confusion rather than disaster. I prefer the term "climate crisis" or even better, if you don't mind the lack of alliteration, "climate emergency". There is a certain spiritual connotation to the word emergency, because it contains both the sense of danger and the sense of "emergence". It conveys the reality that there is a real crisis, but that if we deal with it, something altogether new might emerge for the planet and its inhabitants.
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