Last week’s poll: language and the climate

Recently, Guardian editor Katherine Viner sent a memo to the paper's journalists setting out how it was going to change the language it used to talk about the climate. This, she explained, was to press home the magnitude of the challenge that changes to our climate pose, and how seriously the issue should be taken by readers and policymakers. We asked The Engineer's readers what they thought of Viner's recommendations.

A third (33 per cent) felt that the prevailing term of 'climate change' was sufficient, despite Viner's belief that this phrase "sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity”. From now on The Guardian will be using terminology such as 'climate emergency', 'climate crisis' or 'climate breakdown'. Some variation on the first two of these (crisis/emergency) was the most popular choice in our poll, garnering 43 per cent of the vote. 'Climate breakdown' was significantly less popular, backed by just four per cent. One-fifth of respondents (20 per cent) chose the 'none of the above' option, a larger proportion than usual for our polls, which is likely to have included some who dispute the veracity of the prevailing scientific consensus on the climate.