I remember learning in school as a baby within the early Nineteen Nineties concerning the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide released when fossil fuels are burned traps heat near the Earth's surface, just like the glass of a greenhouse. I imagined myself roasting in a humid greenhouse on the playground.
30 years later, conditions have modified.
For a time, “global warming” was the usual term when referring to rising global temperatures and the role of human activities, particularly using fossil fuels. Increase in web searches in 2007, probably attributable to the documentation of former Vice President Al Gore “An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning”, which was released in 2006.
Towards the top of the Obama administration, “climate change” became probably the most commonly used term. It is now Google search trends greater than global warming. Both terms mean the identical thing: rising global temperatures have significant impact on local weather patterns and global climate effects, including stronger hurricanesDroughts, floods and fires.
However, the words we use to speak about these impacts could make a giant difference in how people understand the risks and the necessity for more sustainable decisions.
What's in a reputation? Loads, because it seems
I’m a Linguist currently live to tell the tale Mayotte Island off the coast of Madagascarwhere I examine local people's knowledge about climate change and the language they use to debate it.
Local Fishermen on Mayotte I find it difficult to speak concerning the phenomenon because there is no such thing as a established terminology for it. What my colleagues and I even have learned provides insight into the difficulties people in lots of cultures have in understanding climate change.
In the larger context of climate change education and sustainability efforts, this seemingly small translation problem is definitely a symptom of a bigger underlying problem regarding the connection between people and their environment.
When we glance deeper into the challenges of cross-cultural communication on climate change, two aspects actually come into play: spiritual beliefs and time perceptions.
Spiritual language can overlap
Spiritual and spiritual beliefs can play a crucial role in how climate change is known and even named. For example, the interpretation of the term climate in Inuktitut, an Inuit language In Canadian language it is known as “sila”. However, Sila also refers to wisdom, the spirit, the earth and the universe. It is something sacred that should be revered.
From the attitude of those second definitions, Sila is practically unattainable for humans to influence. It is beyond the reach of humanity to alter the cosmos. Therefore, communication geared toward Climate change awareness is being politicized within the Inuit languages of Eastern Canada.
My colleagues and I encountered similar challenges as we discussed possible future efforts to slow environmental degradation brought on by climate change in Mayotte.
The Maore fishermen interviewed by usa lot of whom had deep Islamic faith, often responded “Inshallah,” or “God willing,” when asked what efforts the community could make in the longer term to handle the issue. They saw these climate change-related events as something beyond their control that only God could intervene in.
People understand time in another way
Second, we’d think that point is objective and due to this fact cross-cultural. But as Albert Einstein argued that point is relative.
Time just isn’t only relative from a scientific viewpoint, but in addition culturally. The ancient Greeks had greater than three varieties of timeone among them we still use today, Kronos or linear time – think chronological order. We have almost forgotten Aion or sacred, everlasting time and Kairos or cyclical time.
Concepts of time play a crucial role after we take into consideration climate change, because at its core this phenomenon is a couple of slow, continuous change over an extended time period. We cannot see climate change with the naked eye since it spans years and many years. Of course, we are able to see its effects on weather patterns, including extreme heat waves and heavy rainfall.
AP Photo/Mohammed Sean
In many cultures, it’s a challenge to get people to take into consideration time in such a way that they concurrently consider the now and of a “then” within the distant future.
Researchers studying sustainability efforts within the Maldives, for instance, have encountered exactly this problem. While discussing the time, Think concerning the present and the near futurewhile policymakers must take into consideration longer-term impacts on a bigger scale. These contrasting approaches to time have made it difficult to implement sustainability efforts tackle Rising sea levels – a major threat to this tropical country with 26 atolls.
Translating climate change
A primary step to addressing this problem is to place language at the guts of climate change education efforts.
One youth-led non-profit organization making progress on this area is Climate Cardinals. The group's goal is to translate climate change research into as many languages as possible. Most scientific studies and reports are in English, which could be a barrier for the numerous non-English speakers world wide. In their efforts to translate this research and related phenomena, they have to think twice about how essential words are translated and understood.
The United Nations and other groups are also starting to take seriously the connection between climate change skepticism and religion, including the necessity to resolve any areas of friction.
For example, the Faith for Earth initiative works with faith-based organizations to explore the compatibility of sustainability efforts and faith. It does this by helping religious leaders link core spiritual values akin to caring and rejection of greed to the community's environment, thereby reconnecting with nature and seeing themselves as its stewards.
Finally, it is important to proceed studying local or indigenous knowledge concerning the environment in relation to alter and time. The ancient Greeks definitely had their reasons for dividing time into several categories, so what ecological and historical influences led them to accomplish that?
In Australia, for instance, researchers and community members try to reconcile Aboriginal knowledge with Western science. Thanks to indigenous people's long-term commentary of their environment over several generations, they’ve been capable of discover local impacts of climate change. Such information is commonly missed and difficult to acquire using traditional research methods.
Beyond the headlines
Climate change awareness and sustainability efforts will only increase with time. Attention should be paid to how these concepts are lived, understood and discussed in non-Western settings. Language is an important a part of these efforts and deserves more careful consideration.
image credit : theconversation.com