Climate crisis

Short description: Term for the threat of climate change

Template:Italicize title

Google trends data shows that, following the 2006 release of Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth,[1] searches for the term climate crisis increased, with a resurgence beginning in late 2018. Also graphed: searches for the term climate emergency.

Climate crisis is a term that is used to describe global warming and climate change and their effects. This term and the term climate emergency have been used to emphasize the threat of global warming to Earth's natural environment and to humans, and to urge aggressive climate change mitigation and transformational adaptation.[2][3][4][5]

The term climate crisis is used by those who "believe it evokes the gravity of the threats the planet faces from continued greenhouse gas emissions and can help spur the kind of political willpower that has long been missing from climate advocacy".[2] They believe, much as global warming provoked more emotional engagement and support for action than climate change,[2][6][7] calling climate change a crisis could have an even stronger effect.[2]

A study has shown the term climate crisis invokes a strong emotional response by conveying a sense of urgency.[8] However, some caution this response may be counter-productive[9] and may cause a backlash due to perceptions of alarmist exaggeration.[10][11]

In the scientific journal BioScience, a January 2020 article that was endorsed by over 11,000 scientists states: "the climate crisis has arrived" and that an "immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis".[12][13]

## Contents

* 1 Scientific basis
* 2 Definitions
* 3 Use of the term
* 3.1 20th century
* 3.2 21st century
* 4 Effectiveness
* 4.1 Concerns about crisis terminology
* 4.2 Psychological and neuroscientific studies
* 5 Related terminology
* 6 See also
* 7 Footnotes
* 8 References
* 9 Further reading
* 10 External links

## Scientific basis

Scientific consensus on causation: Academic studies of scientific agreement on human-caused global warming among climate experts (2010–2015) reflect that the level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science.[14] A 2019 study found scientific consensus to be at 100%,[15] and a 2021 study concluded that consensus exceeded 99%.[16] Another 2021 study found that 98.7% of climate experts indicated that the Earth is getting warmer mostly because of human activity.[17]

Until the mid-2010s, the scientific community had been using neutral, constrained language when discussing climate change. Advocacy groups, politicians and media have traditionally been using more powerful language than that used by climate scientists.[18] From around 2014, a shift in scientists' language connoted an increased sense of urgency.[19]: 2546 Use of the terms urgency, climate crisis and climate emergency in scientific publications and in mass media has grown. Scientists have called for more-extensive action and transformational climate-change adaptation that focuses on large-scale change in systems.[19]: 2546

In 2020, a group of over 11,000 scientists said in a paper in BioScience describing global warming as a climate emergency or climate crisis was appropriate.[20] The scientists stated an "immense increase of scale in endeavor" is needed to conserve the biosphere.[12] They warned about "profoundly troubling signs", which may have many indirect effects such as large-scale human migration and food insecurity; these signs include increases in dairy and meat production, fossil fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, activities that are all concurrent with upward trends in climate-change effects such as rising global temperatures, global ice melt and extreme weather.[12]

In 2019, scientists published an article in Nature saying evidence from climate tipping points alone suggests "we are in a state of planetary emergency".[21] They defined emergency as a product of risk and urgency, factors they said are "acute". Previous research had shown individual tipping points could be exceeded with a 1–2 °C (1.8–3.6 °F) of global temperature increase; warming has already exceeded 1 °C (1.8 °F).[21] A global cascade of tipping points is possible with greater warming.[21]

## Definitions

In the context of climate change, the word crisis is used to denote "a crucial or decisive point or situation that could lead to a tipping point".[5] It is a situation with an "unprecedented circumstance".[5] A similar definition states in this context, crisis means "a turning point or a condition of instability or danger" and implies "action needs to be taken now or else the consequences will be disastrous".[22] Another definition defines climate crisis as "the various negative effects that unmitigated climate change is causing or threatening to cause on our planet, especially where these effects have a direct impact on humanity".[11]

## Use of the term

Logo of the United States House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, formation of which was authorized on January 9, 2019.[23]

### 20th century

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed at the launch of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor in 2009, where the term climate crisis was used.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has used crisis terminology since the 1980s; the Climate Crisis Coalition, which was formed in 2004, formalized the term climate crisis.[2] A 1990 report by the American University International Law Review includes legal texts that use the word crisis.[3] "The Cairo Compact: Toward a Concerted World-Wide Response to the Climate Crisis" (1989) states: "All nations ... will have to cooperate on an unprecedented scale. They will have to make difficult commitments without delay to address this crisis."[3]

### 21st century

U.S. Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders at the December 2018, "Solving Our Climate Crisis, a National Town Hall"

Letter to Major Networks:
Call It a Climate Crisis —
and Cover It Like One

The words that reporters and anchors use matter. What they call something shapes how millions see it—and influences how nations act. And today, we need to act boldly and quickly. With scientists warning of global catastrophe unless we slash emissions by 2030, the stakes have never been higher, and the role of news media never more critical.
We are urging you to call the dangerous overheating of our planet, and the lack of action to stop it, what it is—a crisis––and to cover it like one.

Public Citizen open letter
June 6, 2019[24]

In the late 2010s, the phrase climate crisis emerged "as a crucial piece of the climate hawk lexicon", and was adopted by the Green New Deal, The Guardian, Greta Thunberg, and U.S. Democratic political candidates such as Kamala Harris.[2] At the same time, it came into more-popular use following a series of warnings from climate scientists and newly-energized activists.[2]

In the U.S. in late 2018, the United States House of Representatives established the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, the name of which was regarded as "a reminder of how much energy politics have changed in the last decade".[25] The original House climate committee had been called the "Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming" in 2007.[2] It was abolished in 2011 when Republicans regained control of the House.[4]

The advocacy group Public Citizen reported that in 2018, less than 10% of articles in top-50 U.S. newspapers used the terms crisis or emergency in the context of climate change.[26] In the same year, 3.5% of national television news segments in the U.S. referred to climate change as a crisis or an emergency (50 of 1,400).[26][27] In 2019, Public Citizen launched a campaign called "Call it a Climate Crisis"; it urged major media organizations to adopt the term climate crisis.[27] In the first four months of 2019, the number of uses of the term in U.S. media tripled to 150.[26] Likewise, the Sierra Club, the Sunrise Movement, Greenpeace, and other environmental and progressive organizations joined in a June 6, 2019 Public Citizen letter to news organizations[26] urging the news organizations to call climate change and human inaction "what it is–a crisis–and to cover it like one".[24]

We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. Nor can we treat something like a crisis unless we understand the emergency.

Greta Thunberg, December 10, 2020[28]

In 2019, the language describing climate appeared to change: the UN Secretary General's address at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit used more emphatic language; Al Gore's campaign The Climate Reality Project, Greenpeace and the Sunrise Movement petitioned news organizations to alter their language; and in May 2019, The Guardian changed its style guide[29] to favor the terms "climate emergency, crisis or breakdown" and "global heating".[30][31] Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner said: "We want to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue. The phrase 'climate change', for example, sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity."[32] The Guardian became a lead partner in Covering Climate Now, an initiative of news organizations Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation that was founded in 2019 to address the need for stronger climate coverage.[33][34]

In May 2019, The Climate Reality Project promoted an open petition of news organizations to use climate crisis instead of climate change and global warming.[2] The NGO said: "it's time to abandon both terms in culture".[35]

In June 2019, Spanish news agency EFE announced its preferred phrase was "crisis climática".[26] In November 2019, Hindustan Times also adopted the term because climate change "does not correctly reflect the enormity of the existential threat".[36] The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza also uses the term climate crisis rather than climate change; one of its editors described climate change as one of the most-important topics the paper has ever covered.[37]

Also in June 2019, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) changed its language guide to say: "Climate crisis and climate emergency are OK in some cases as synonyms for 'climate change'. But they're not always the best choice ... For example, 'climate crisis' could carry a whiff of advocacy in certain political coverage".[38] Journalism professor Sean Holman does not agree with this and said in an interview:

> It's about being accurate in terms of the scope of the problem that we are facing. And in the media we, generally speaking, don't have any hesitation about naming a crisis when it is a crisis. Look at the opioid epidemic [in the U.S.], for example. We call it an epidemic because it is one. So why are we hesitant about saying the climate crisis is a crisis?[38]

In June 2019, climate activists demonstrated outside the offices of The New York Times; they urged the newspaper's editors to adopt terms such as climate emergency or climate crisis. This kind of public pressure led New York City Council to make New York the largest city in the world to formally adopt a climate emergency declaration.[39]

In November 2019, the website Oxford Dictionaries named climate emergency Word of the year for 2019, with climate crisis being on the shortlist. The term was chosen because it matches the "ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year".[40]

In 2021, the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat created a free variable font called Climate Crisis that has eight weights that correlate with Arctic sea ice decline, visualizing historical changes in ice melt.[41] The newspaper's art director said the font both evokes the aesthetics of environmentalism and is a data visualization graphic.[41]

In updates to the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity of 2021 and 2022, scientists used the terms climate crisis and climate emergency; the title of the publications is "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency".[13][42] They said: "we need short, frequent, and easily accessible updates on the climate emergency".[13]

Within weeks of his second inauguration in 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid on government websites, memos, and unofficial agency guidance—the list including climate crisis.[43]

## Effectiveness

In September 2019, Bloomberg journalist Emma Vickers said crisis terminology may be "showing results", citing a 2019 poll by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation saying 38% of U.S. adults termed climate change "a crisis" while an equal number called it "a major problem but not a crisis".[4] Five years earlier, 23% of U.S. adults considered climate change to be a crisis.[44] As of 2019[update], use of crisis terminology in non-binding climate-emergency declarations is regarded as ineffective in making governments "shift into action".[5]

### Concerns about crisis terminology

See also: Social:Fear appeal

Emergency framing may have several disadvantages.[9] Such framing may implicitly prioritize climate change over other important social issues, encouraging competition among activists rather than cooperation. It could also de-emphasize dissent within the climate-change movement.[9] Emergency framing may suggest a need for solutions by government, which provides less-reliable long-term commitment than does popular mobilization, and which may be perceived as being "imposed on a reluctant population".[9] Without immediate dramatic effects of climate change, emergency framing may be counterproductive by causing disbelief, disempowerment in the face of a problem that seems overwhelming, and withdrawal.[9]

There could also be a "crisis fatigue" in which urgency to respond to threats loses its appeal over time.[18] Crisis terminology could lose audiences if meaningful policies to address the emergency are not enacted.[18] According to researchers Susan C. Moser and Lisa Dilling of University of Colorado, appeals to fear usually do not create sustained, constructive engagement; they noted psychologists consider human responses to danger—fight, flight or freeze—can be maladaptive if they do not reduce the danger.[45] According to Sander van der Linden, director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab, fear is a "paralyzing emotion". He favors climate crisis over other terms because it conveys a sense of both urgency and optimism, and not a sense of doom. Van der Linden said: "people know that crises can be avoided and that they can be resolved".[46]

Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe said in early 2019 crisis framing is only "effective for those already concerned about climate change, but complacent regarding solutions".[11] She added it "is not yet effective" for those who perceive climate activists "to be alarmist Chicken Littles", and that "it would further reinforce their pre-conceived—and incorrect—notions".[11] According to Nick Reimer, journalists in Germany say the word crisis may be misunderstood to mean climate change is "inherently episodic"—crises are "either solved or they pass"—or as a temporary state before a return to normalcy that is not possible.[47] Arnold Schwarzenegger, organizer of the Austrian World Summit for climate action[failed verification], said people are not motivated by the term climate change; according to Schwarzenegger, focusing on the word pollution might evoke be a more-direct and negative connotation.[48] A 2023 U.S. survey found no evidence that climate crisis or climate emergency—terms less familiar to those surveyed—elicit more perceived urgency than climate change or global warming.[49]

### Psychological and neuroscientific studies

In 2019, an advertising consulting agency conducted a neuroscientific study involving 120 U.S. people who were equally divided into supporters of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party and independents.[50] The study involved electroencephalography (EEG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements.[8] Responses to the terms climate crisis, environmental destruction, environmental collapse, weather destabilization, global warming and climate change were measured.[50] The study found Democrats had a 60% greater emotional response to climate crisis than to climate change. In Republicans, the emotional response to climate crisis was three times stronger than that for climate change.[50] According to CBS News, climate crisis "performed well in terms of responses across the political spectrum and elicited the greatest emotional response among independents".[50] The study concluded climate crisis elicited stronger emotional responses than neutral and "worn out" terms like global warming and climate change.[8] Climate crisis was found to encourage a sense of urgency, though not a strong-enough response to cause cognitive dissonance that would cause people to generate counterarguments.[8]

## Related terminology

See also: Climate movement § Declaring emergency state, and Climate emergency declaration

Global boiling has arrived

Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.

— António Guterres, U.N. Secretary-General[51]
27 July 2023

Terms like climate emergency and climate crisis have often been used by activists, and are increasingly found in academic papers.[52] An example of the terms climate crisis and climate emergency being used together during a protest march

Research has shown the naming of a phenomenon and the way it is framed "has a tremendous effect on how audiences come to perceive that phenomenon"[10] and "can have a profound impact on the audience's reaction".[46] Climate change, and its real and hypothetical effects, are usually described in scientific-and-practitioner literature in terms of climate risks.

The many related terms other than climate crisis include:[lower-alpha 1]

* global weirding (author and environmentalist L. Hunter Lovins, as a variation of global warming, early 2000s)[53]
* climate catastrophe (used with reference to a 2019 David Attenborough documentary,[54] the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season,[55] and the 2022 Pakistan floods[56])
* threats that impact the earth (World Wildlife Fund, 2012—)[57]
* climate breakdown (climate scientist Peter Kalmus, 2018)[58]
* climate chaos ("The New York Times" article title, 2019;[59] U.S. Democratic candidates, 2019;[60] and an Ad Age marketing team, 2019)[46]
* climate ruin (U.S. Democratic candidates, 2019)[60]
* global heating (Richard A. Betts, Met Office U.K., 2018)[61]
* global overheating (Public Citizen, 2019)[24]
* climate emergency (11,000 scientists' warning letter[12] in BioScience,[62][63] and in The Guardian,[4][30] both 2019),
* ecological breakdown, ecological crisis and ecological emergency (all set forth by climate activist Greta Thunberg, 2019)[64]
* global meltdown, Scorched Earth, The Great Collapse, and Earthshattering (an Ad Age marketing team, 2019)[46]
* climate disaster (The Guardian, 2019)[65]
* environmental Armageddon (Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama)[66]
* climate calamity (Los Angeles Times, 2022)[67]
* climate havoc (The New York Times, 2022)[68]
* climate pollution, carbon pollution (Grist, 2022)[69]
* global boiling (U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres speech, July 2023)[51]
* climate breaking point (Stuart P.M. Mackintosh, The Hill, August 2023)[70]
* (Has humanity) broken the climate (The Guardian, August 2023)[71]
* (climate) abyss (spokesman for the United Nations secretary general, May 2024)[72]
* climate hell (U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, June 2024)[73]
* climate warming (Nature Ecology and Evolution, June 2025)[74]
* climate overshoot (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus, November 2025)[75]
* greenhouse warming (Nature Climate Change, November 2025)[76]

Terms other than climate crisis have been investigated for their effects upon audiences, including global warming, climate change, climatic disruption,[10] environmental destruction, weather destabilization and environmental collapse.[8]

In 2022, The New York Times journalist Amanda Hess said "end of the world" characterizations of the future, such as climate apocalypse, are often used to refer to the current climate crisis, and that the characterization is spreading from "the ironized hellscape of the internet" to books and film.[77]

## See also

* Earth:Climate psychology - Field of psychology
* Earth:Economic analysis of climate change
* Social:Environmental communication - Type of communication
* Organization:Extinction Rebellion - Environmental pressure group
* Earth:Media coverage of climate change - None
* Philosophy:Psychology of climate change denial

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Following dates are not necessarily the first use of such terms.

## References

1. ↑ Rosenblad, Kajsa (December 18, 2017). "Review: An Inconvenient Sequel". Medium (Communication Science news and articles) (Netherlands). https://mediummagazine.nl/review-inconvenient-sequel/. "... climate change, a term that Gore renamed to climate crisis".
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Sobczyk, Nick (July 10, 2019). "How climate change got labeled a 'crisis'". E & E News (Energy & Environmental News). https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060718493.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Center for International Environmental Law. (1990). "Selected International Legal Materials on Global Warming and Climate Change". American University International Law Review 5 (2): 515. https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1589&context=auilr. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Vickers, Emma (September 17, 2019). "When Is Change a 'Crisis'? Why Climate Terms Matter". Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-17/when-is-change-a-crisis-why-climate-terms-matter-quicktake.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Mukheibir, Pierre; Mallam, Patricia (September 30, 2019). "Climate crisis – what's it good for?". The Fifth Estate (Australia). https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/urbanism/climate-change-news/climate-crisis-whats-it-good-for/.
6. ↑ Samenow, Jason (January 29, 2018). "Debunking the claim 'they' changed 'global warming' to 'climate change' because warming stopped". The New York Times. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/01/29/debunking-the-claim-they-changed-global-warming-to-climate-change-because-its-cooling/.
7. ↑ Maibach, Edward; Leiserowitz, Anthony; Feinberg, Geoff; Rosenthal, Seth; Smith, Nicholas; Anderson, Ashley; Roser-Renouf, Connie (May 2014). "What's in a Name? Global Warming versus Climate Change". Yale Project on Climate Change, Center for Climate Change Communication. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.10123.49448. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316859513. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Yoder, Kate (April 29, 2019). "Why your brain doesn't register the words 'climate change'". Grist. https://grist.org/article/why-your-brain-doesnt-register-the-words-climate-change/.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Hodder, Patrick; Martin, Brian (September 5, 2009). "Climate Crisis? The Politics of Emergency Framing". Economic and Political Weekly 44 (36): 53, 55–60. https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/09epw.pdf.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Words That (Don't) Matter: An Exploratory Study of Four Climate Change Names in Environmental Discourse / Investigating the Best Term for Global Warming". North American Association for Environmental Education. 2013. https://naaee.org/eepro/research/library/words-dont-matter-exploratory-study-four.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Dean, Signe (May 25, 2019). "ScienceAlert Editor: Yes, It's Time to Update Our Climate Change Language". https://www.sciencealert.com/is-it-time-to-call-it-a-climate-crisis.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Ripple, William J.; Wolf, Christopher; Newsome, Thomas M.; Barnard, Phoebe; Moomaw, William R. (January 1, 2020). "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency" (in en). BioScience 70 (1): 8–12. doi:10.1093/biosci/biz088. ISSN 0006-3568. https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/1/8/5610806. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Ripple, William J.; Wolf, Christopher; Newsome, Thomas M.; Gregg, Jillian W. et al. (July 28, 2021). "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021". BioScience 71 (9). doi:10.1093/biosci/biab079. https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biab079/6325731. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
14. ↑ Cook, John; Oreskes, Naomi; Doran, Peter T.; Anderegg, William R. L. et al. (2016). "Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming". Environmental Research Letters 11 (4). doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/048002. Bibcode: 2016ERL....11d8002C.
15. ↑ Powell, James Lawrence (20 November 2019). "Scientists Reach 100% Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming". Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 37 (4): 183–184. doi:10.1177/0270467619886266. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0270467619886266. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
16. ↑ Lynas, Mark; Houlton, Benjamin Z.; Perry, Simon (19 October 2021). "Greater than 99% consensus on human caused climate change in the peer-reviewed scientific literature". Environmental Research Letters 16 (11): 114005. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac2966. Bibcode: 2021ERL....16k4005L.
17. ↑ Myers, Krista F.; Doran, Peter T.; Cook, John; Kotcher, John E.; Myers, Teresa A. (20 October 2021). "Consensus revisited: quantifying scientific agreement on climate change and climate expertise among Earth scientists 10 years later". Environmental Research Letters 16 (10): 104030. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac2774. Bibcode: 2021ERL....16j4030M.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Bedi, Gitanjali (January 3, 2020). "Is it time to rethink our language on climate change?". Monash Lens (Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)). https://lens.monash.edu/@environment/2020/01/03/1379384/is-it-time-to-rethink-our-language-on-climate-change.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 New, M., D. Reckien, D. Viner, C. Adler, S.-M. Cheong, C. Conde, A. Constable, E. Coughlan de Perez, A. Lammel, R. Mechler, B. Orlove, and W. Solecki, 2022: Chapter 17: Decision-Making Options for Managing Risk. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2539–2654, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.026
20. ↑ Carrington, Damian (November 5, 2019). "Climate crisis: 11,000 scientists warn of 'untold suffering'" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/climate-crisis-11000-scientists-warn-of-untold-suffering.
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Lenton, Timothy M.; Rockström, Johan; Gaffney, Owen; Rahmstorf, Stefan; Richardson, Katherine; Steffen, Will; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim (2019). "Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against" (in en). Nature 575 (7784): 592–595. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03595-0. PMID 31776487. Bibcode: 2019Natur.575..592L.
22. ↑ "What does climate crisis mean? / Where does climate crisis come from?". December 2019. https://www.dictionary.com/e/tech-science/climate-crisis/.
23. ↑ "United States House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis / About". United States House of Representatives. 2019. https://climatecrisis.house.gov/about. Crediting Shawna Faison and House Creative Services.
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 "Letter to Major Networks: Call it a Climate Crisis – and Cover it Like One". Public Citizen. June 6, 2019. https://www.citizen.org/article/letter-to-major-networks-call-it-a-climate-crisis-and-cover-it-like-one/.
25. ↑ Meyer, Robinson (December 28, 2018). "Democrats Establish a New House 'Climate Crisis' Committee". The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/12/house-democrats-form-new-committee-climate-crisis/579109/.
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 Yoder, Kate (June 17, 2019). "Is it time to retire 'climate change' for 'climate crisis'?". Grist. https://grist.org/article/is-it-time-to-retire-climate-change-for-climate-crisis/.
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Call it a Climate Crisis". https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/call-it-a-climate-crisis. Earliest Wayback Machine archive is May 17, 2019.
28. ↑ "Greta Thunberg Warns Humanity 'Still Speeding in Wrong Direction' on Climate". December 11, 2020. https://www.ecowatch.com/greta-thunberg-paris-agreement-2649450989.html.
29. ↑ Visram, Talib (December 6, 2021). "The language of climate is evolving, from 'change' to 'catastrophe'". Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90702024/the-language-of-climate-is-evolving-from-change-to-catastrophe.
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Hickman, Leo (May 17, 2019). "The Guardian's editor has just issued this new guidance to all staff on language to use when writing about climate change and the environment...". Journalist Leo Hickman on Twitter. https://twitter.com/LeoHickman/status/1129322707110236160.
31. ↑ Carrington, Damian (May 17, 2019). "Why The Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment". The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment.
32. ↑ Carrington, Damian (May 17, 2019). "Why The Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment / From now, house style guide recommends terms such as 'climate crisis' and 'global heating'". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment.
33. ↑ Guardian staff (April 12, 2021). "The climate emergency is here. The media needs to act like it". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/12/covering-climate-now-guardian-climate-emergency.
34. ↑ Hertsgaard, Mark (August 28, 2019). "Covering Climate Now signs on over 170 news outlets". Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/covering_climate_now/covering-climate-now-170-outlets.php.
35. ↑ "Why Do We Call It the Climate Crisis?". The Climate Reality Project. May 1, 2019. https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/why-do-we-call-it-climate-crisis.
36. ↑ "Recognising the climate crisis". Hindustan Times. November 24, 2019. https://www.hindustantimes.com/editorials/recognising-the-climate-crisis-ht-editorial/story-v3GecFh9xed242exHphqhP.html.
37. ↑ "Do European media take climate change seriously enough?". Switzerland. February 18, 2020. https://en.ejo.ch/specialist-journalism/do-european-media-take-climate-change-seriously-enough.
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 "Treat climate change like the crisis it is, says journalism professor". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. July 5, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-for-july-7-2019-1.5198309/treat-climate-change-like-the-crisis-it-is-says-journalism-professor-1.5198311. • Archive of CBC quote in Osoyoos Times.
39. ↑ Barnard, Anne (July 5, 2019). "A 'Climate Emergency' Was Declared in New York City. Will That Change Anything?". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/nyregion/climate-emergency-nyc.html.
40. ↑ Zhou, Naaman (November 20, 2019). "Oxford Dictionaries declares 'climate emergency' the word of 2019". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/21/oxford-dictionaries-declares-climate-emergency-the-word-of-2019. "Climate emergency" was named word of the year.
41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Smith, Lilly (February 16, 2021). "This chilling font visualizes Arctic ice melt". Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90604481/this-chilling-font-visualizes-arctic-ice-melt.
42. ↑ Ripple, William J; Wolf, Christopher; Gregg, Jillian W; Levin, Kelly; Rockström, Johan; Newsome, Thomas M; Betts, Matthew G; Huq, Saleemul et al. (October 26, 2022). "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022". BioScience 72 (12): 1149–1155. doi:10.1093/biosci/biac083.
43. ↑ Yourish, Karen; Daniel, Annie; Datar, Saurabh; White, Isaac; Gamio, Lazaro (7 March 2025). "These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html.
44. ↑ Guskin, Emily; Clement, Scott; Achenbach, Joel (December 9, 2019). "Americans broadly accept climate science, but many are fuzzy on the details". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/americans-broadly-accept-climate-science-but-many-are-fuzzy-on-the-details/2019/12/08/465a9d5e-0d6a-11ea-8397-a955cd542d00_story.html.
45. ↑ Moser, Susan C.; Dilling, Lisa (December 2004). "Making Climate Hot / Communicating the Urgency and Challenge of Global Climate Change". pp. 37–38. https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-1734-2005.22.pdf. Footnotes 33–37. Also published: December 2004, Environment, volume 46, no. 10, pp. 32–46 .
46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 46.3 Rigby, Sara (January 3, 2020). "Climate change: should we change the terminology?". BBC Science Focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/climate-change-should-we-change-the-terminology/.
47. ↑ Reimer, Nick (September 19, 2019). "Climate Change or Climate Crisis – What's the right lingo?". Clean Energy Wire. Germany. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/blog/climate-change-or-climate-crisis-whats-right-lingo.
48. ↑ Shahan, Zachary (6 June 2023). "Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Wants Us To Focus On Pollution Rather Than Climate Change". Clean Technica. https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/06/why-arnold-schwarzenegger-wants-us-to-focus-on-pollution-rather-than-climate-change/.
49. ↑ de Bruin, Wandi Bruine; Kruke, Laurel; Sinatra, Gale M.; Schwarz, Norbert (12 August 2024). "Should we change the term we use for "climate change"? Evidence from a national U.S. terminology experiment". Climatic Change 177 (129). doi:10.1007/s10584-024-03786-3. Bibcode: 2024ClCh..177..129B.
50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 50.2 50.3 Berardelli, Jeff (May 16, 2019). "Does the term "climate change" need a makeover? Some think so — here's why". CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-the-term-climate-change-need-a-makeover-some-think-so-heres-why/.
51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 "Secretary-General's opening remarks at press conference on climate". United Nations. 27 July 2023. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-07-27/secretary-generals-opening-remarks-press-conference-climate.
52. ↑ Osaka, Shannon (30 October 2023). "Why many scientists are now saying climate change is an all-out emergency". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/30/climate-emergency-scientists-declaration/. Data source: Web of Science database.
53. ↑ Yulsman, Tom (8 December 2023). "As Weather Extremes Increase in 2023, Global Weirding Becomes a Better Term". Discover. https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/as-weather-extremes-increase-in-2023-global-weirding-becomes-a-better-term.
54. ↑ "Climate Change: The Facts". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC Australia). August 2019. https://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/climate-change-the-facts/.
55. ↑ Flanagan, Richard (January 3, 2020). "Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/opinion/australia-fires-climate-change.html.
56. ↑ Baloch, Shah Meer (August 28, 2022). "Pakistan declares floods a 'climate catastrophe' as death toll tops 1,000". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/28/pakistans-south-braces-for-deluge-as-death-toll-from-floods-tops-1000.
57. ↑ "Tackling Threats That Impact the Earth". 2019. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats.
58. ↑ Kalmus, Peter (August 29, 2018). "Stop saying 'climate change' and start saying 'climate breakdown.'". https://twitter.com/ClimateHuman/status/1034993858243743744.
59. ↑ Shannon, Noah Gallagher (April 10, 2019). "Climate Chaos Is Coming — and the Pinkertons Are Ready". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/10/magazine/climate-change-pinkertons.html.
60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 Kormann, Carolyn (July 11, 2019). "The Case for Declaring a National Climate Emergency". The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-case-for-declaring-a-national-climate-emergency.
61. ↑ Watts, Jonathan (December 16, 2018). "Global warming should be called global heating, says key scientist". Grist. https://grist.org/article/global-warming-should-be-called-global-heating-says-key-scientist/.
62. ↑ Ryan, Jackson (November 5, 2019). "'Climate emergency': Over 11,000 scientists sound thunderous warning / The dire words are a call to action.". CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/climate-emergency-over-11000-scientists-sound-thunderous-warning/.
63. ↑ McGinn, Miyo (November 5, 2019). "11,000 scientists say that the 'climate emergency' is here". Grist. https://grist.org/article/11000-scientists-say-that-the-climate-emergency-is-here/.
64. ↑ Picazo, Mario (May 13, 2019). "Should we reconsider the term 'climate change'?". The Weather Network (CA). https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/term-climate-change-global-warming-greta-thunberg. includes link to Thunberg's tweet: ● Thunberg, Greta (May 4, 2019). "It's 2019. Can we all now please stop saying 'climate change' and instead call it what it is". https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1124723891123961856.
65. ↑ Goldrick, Geoff (December 19, 2019). "2019 has been a year of climate disaster. Yet still our leaders procrastinate". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/20/2019-has-been-a-year-of-climate-disaster-yet-still-our-leaders-procrastinate.
66. ↑ Anna, Cara (27 September 2020). "Leaders to UN: If virus doesn't kill us, climate change will". Associated Press News. https://apnews.com/article/climate-climate-change-oceans-environment-united-nations-general-assembly-d073896990db973a3e45db26787d6a18.
67. ↑ Roth, Sammy (July 28, 2022). "August is coming. Prepare for climate calamity". Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2022-07-28/august-is-coming-prepare-for-climate-calamity-boiling-point.
68. ↑ Sengupta, Somini (September 27, 2022). "Who pays for climate havoc?". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/27/climate/climate-imf-world-bank.html.
69. ↑ Yoder, Kate (September 29, 2022). "'It makes climate change real': How carbon emissions got rebranded as 'pollution'". Grist. https://grist.org/health/how-carbon-emissions-got-rebranded-climate-pollution-ira/.
70. ↑ Mackintosh, Stuart P. M. (22 August 2023). "We need better strategies for the approaching climate breaking point". The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4162840-we-need-better-strategies-for-the-approaching-climate-breaking-point/.
71. ↑ Carrington, Damian; Lakhani, Nina; Milman, Oliver; Morton, Adam; Niranjan, Ajit; Watts, Johathan (28 August 2023). "'Off-the-charts records': has humanity finally broken the climate?". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/28/crazy-off-the-charts-records-has-humanity-finally-broken-the-climate.
72. ↑ Carrington, Demian (9 May 2024). "'The stakes could not be higher': world is on edge of climate abyss, UN warns". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/09/world-is-on-verge-of-climate-abyss-un-warns.
73. ↑ "There is an exit off 'the highway to climate hell', Guterres insists". United Nations. 5 June 2024. https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/06/1150661.
74. ↑ Lin, Da; Du, Shuai; Zhao, Zhe; Zhang, Tianlun; Wang, Lu (4 June 2025). "Climate warming fuels the global antibiotic resistome by altering soil bacterial traits". Nature Ecology and Evolution 9 (8): 1512–1526. doi:10.1038/s41559-025-02740-5. PMID 40468041. Bibcode: 2025NatEE...9.1512L. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/318441.
75. ↑ Krucziewics, Andrew; Zommers, Zinta; Kimutai, Joyce; Garschagen, Matthias; Fisher, Joshua (18 November 2025). "The human and social impacts of climate overshoot". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Nexus 4 (11). doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf332. PMID 41262980.
76. ↑ Yi, Gyuseok; Lee, June-Yi; Kwon, Eun Young; Lee, Sun-Seon et al. (5 November 2025). "Future mesoscale horizontal stirring in polar oceans intensified by sea ice decline". Nature Climate Change 15 (12): 1315–1323. doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02471-2. Bibcode: 2025NatCC..15.1315Y.
77. ↑ Hess, Amanda (3 February 2022). "Apocalypse When? Global Warming's Endless Scroll". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/arts/climate-change-doomsday-culture.html. "the climate crisis is outpacing our emotional capacity to describe it."

## Further reading

* "Act now and avert a climate crisis (editorial)". Nature. September 15, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02734-x. (Nature joining Covering Climate Now.)
* Feldman, Lauren; Hart, P. Sol (November 16, 2021). "Upping the ante? The effects of "emergency" and "crisis" framing in climate change news". Climatic Change 169 (10): 10. doi:10.1007/s10584-021-03219-5. Bibcode: 2021ClCh..169...10F. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-021-03219-5.
* Hall, Aaron (November 27, 2019). "Renaming Climate Change: Can a New Name Finally Make Us Take Action". Ad Age. https://adage.com/article/industry-insights/renaming-climate-change-can-new-name-finally-make-us-take-action/2218821. (advertising perspective by a "professional namer")
* Visram, Talib (December 6, 2021). "The language of climate is evolving, from 'change' to 'catastrophe'". Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90702024/the-language-of-climate-is-evolving-from-change-to-catastrophe.

## External links

* Covering Climate Now (CCNow), a collaboration among news organizations "to produce more informed and urgent climate stories" (archive)

* v
* t
* e

Climate change

Overview

* Causes of climate change
* Effects of climate change
* Climate change mitigation
* Climate change adaptation
* By country and region

Causes

| Overview|

* Climate system
* Greenhouse effect (Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Earth)
* Scientific consensus on climate change

|

Sources|

* Deforestation
* Fossil fuel
* Greenhouse gases
* Greenhouse gas emissions
* Carbon accounting
* Carbon footprint
* Carbon leakage
* from agriculture
* from wetlands
* World energy supply and consumption

History

* History of climate change policy and politics
* History of climate change science
* Svante Arrhenius
* James Hansen
* Charles David Keeling
* United Nations Climate Change conferences
* Years in climate change
* 2019
* 2020
* 2021
* 2022
* 2023
* 2024
* 2025
* 2026

Effects and issues

| Physical|

* Abrupt climate change
* Anoxic event
* Arctic methane emissions
* Arctic sea ice decline
* Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
* Drought
* Extreme weather
* Flood
* Coastal flooding
* Heat wave
* Marine
* Urban heat island
* Oceans
* acidification
* deoxygenation
* heat content
* sea surface temperature
* stratification
* temperature
* Ozone depletion
* Permafrost thaw
* Retreat of glaciers since 1850
* Sea level rise
* Season creep
* Climate sensitivity
* Tipping points in the climate system
* Tropical cyclones
* Water cycle
* Wildfires

|

Flora and fauna|

* Biomes
* Mass mortality event
* Birds
* Extinction risk
* Forest dieback
* Invasive species
* Marine life
* Plant biodiversity

Social and economic|

* Agriculture
* Livestock
* Multi-breadbasket failure
* In the United States
* Children
* Cities
* Civilizational collapse
* Crime
* Depopulation of settlements
* Destruction of cultural heritage
* Disability
* Economic impacts
* U.S. insurance industry
* Fisheries
* Gender
* Health
* Infectious diseases
* Mental health
* In the United Kingdom
* In the Philippines
* Human rights
* Indigenous peoples
* Migration
* Poverty
* Psychological impacts
* Security and conflict
* Urban flooding
* Water scarcity
* Water security

By country and region|

* Africa
* Americas
* Antarctica
* Arctic
* Asia
* Australia
* Caribbean
* Europe
* Middle East and North Africa
* Small island countries
* by individual country

Mitigation

| Economics and finance|

* Carbon budget
* Carbon emission trading
* Carbon offsets and credits
* Gold Standard (carbon offset standard)
* Carbon price
* Carbon tax
* Climate debt
* Climate finance
* Climate risk insurance
* Co-benefits of climate change mitigation
* Economics of climate change mitigation
* Fossil fuel divestment
* Green Climate Fund
* Low-carbon economy
* Net zero emissions

|

Energy|

* Carbon capture and storage
* Energy transition
* Fossil fuel phase-out
* Nuclear power
* Renewable energy
* Sustainable energy

Preserving and enhancing
carbon sinks|

* Blue carbon
* Carbon dioxide removal
* Carbon sequestration
* Direct air capture
* Carbon farming
* Climate-smart agriculture
* Forest management
* afforestation
* forestry for carbon sequestration
* REDD+
* reforestation
* Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF and AFOLU)
* Nature-based solutions

Other|

* Earth Strike
* Fridays for Future
* Geoengineering
* Individual action on climate change
* Positive tipping points
* Sustainable architecture
* Sustainable transport

Society and adaptation

| Society|

* Business action
* Climate action
* Climate emergency declaration
* Climate movement
* School Strike for Climate
* Denial
* Ecological grief
* Governance
* Justice
* Litigation
* Politics
* Public opinion
* Women

|

Adaptation|

* Adaptation strategies on the German coast
* Adaptive capacity
* Disaster risk reduction
* Ecosystem-based adaptation
* Flood control
* Loss and damage
* Managed retreat
* Nature-based solutions
* Resilience
* Risk
* Vulnerability
* The Adaptation Fund
* National Adaptation Programme of Action

Communication|

* Climate Change Performance Index
* Climate crisis (term)
* Climate spiral
* Education
* Media coverage
* Popular culture depictions
* art
* fiction
* video games
* Warming stripes

International agreements|

* Glasgow Climate Pact
* Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market
* Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets
* Kyoto Protocol
* Paris Agreement
* Cooperative mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement
* Nationally determined contributions
* Sustainable Development Goal 13
* United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Background and theory

| Measurements|

* Global surface temperature
* Instrumental temperature record
* Proxy
* Satellite temperature measurement

|

Theory|

* Albedo
* Carbon cycle
* atmospheric
* biologic
* oceanic
* permafrost
* Carbon sink
* Climate sensitivity
* Climate variability and change
* Cloud feedback
* Cloud forcing
* Fixed anvil temperature hypothesis
* Cryosphere
* Earth's energy budget
* Extreme event attribution
* Feedbacks
* Global warming potential
* Illustrative model of greenhouse effect on climate change
* Orbital forcing
* Radiative forcing

Research and modelling|

* Climate change scenario
* Climate model
* Coupled Model Intercomparison Project
* Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
* IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
* Paleoclimatology
* Representative Concentration Pathway
* Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

* '
* Category
* Glossary
* Index

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