Language and the Self: Climate Change Metaphors

The ongoing search for the perfect climate change metaphor

When scientists, environmentalists, and marketers talk about climate change, they do it metaphorically. The atmosphere is a kind of greenhouse. Carbon dioxide is like a heat-trapping blanket. Climate change resembles a house on fire.

According to an ad for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, global warming is like a melting ice cream cone.

Metaphors are a crucial part of communicating climate change, says Stephen Flusberg, an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York. ‘Metaphors are central to how we talk and think about a lot of aspects of our world… Metaphors are not just something extra like a rhetorical flourish. Metaphors are, to use a metaphor, baked into language.’ When it comes to climate change, communications strategists have struggled for years to find the right metaphor to get people motivated to address the problem.

Facts don’t sink in

According to Lucy Atkinson, an associate professor in communication at the University of Texas, relying on factual information alone is just not good enough. ‘It can be a pitfall in that we tend to think, “Oh, it’s a problem of knowledge, it’s a problem of information. If people just knew more about the issue, then they would do something.” We call that the information deficit model. And it’s not really the best way to go about communicating,’ says Atkinson.

Declaring war on climate change

Metaphors are supposed to lead to action. And one climate change metaphor that’s gaining traction is ‘war.’ U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the comparison in her proposal for a Green New Deal, legislation intended to fight climate change, in which she called for ‘a new national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II.’

Flusberg says war metaphors can be useful in getting people interested in a cause, at least in the short term. ‘Wars convey a sense of urgency and risk. They’re scary. And so whenever politicians or journalists or pundits are trying to get attention to an issue, it helps to use language that activates strong emotions — and wars do that.’ But there’s a danger in relying on war metaphors. The fight against climate change will be long, and there probably won’t be a single, clear moment when we’ve won the war for good.

Make images of love, not war

Kai Chan, a professor in sustainability at the University of British Columbia, says the public and scientists could learn a lot about love. ‘We as scientists need to be much more in touch with our emotions and also our values. It’s helping us to recognize that we all do, surely, in one way or another, love this planet that we call home — and then asking us whether our actions are consistent with that emotion.’ Professor Chan says love is so important and central to people, it may well be the metaphor we need most to address climate change. ‘Everybody knows what that word means, right?’