The most dramatic narrative shift in modern history
02/11/2025 / By News Editors
More than five and a half years ago, The Guardian updated its house style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world.
Ten years after the Climategate scandal broke, Damian Carrington, The Guardian’s environment editor, announced on 17 May 2019 that instead of using “climate change,” the preferred terms for The Guardian are “climate emergency, crisis, or breakdown” and “global heating” is favoured over “global warming,” although the original terms were not banned.
(Article by Rhoda Wilson republished from Expose-News.com)
The house style guide is a guide followed by journalists who write and edit for The Guardian and Observer.
Commenting on introducing the new language to be used relating to climate change, The Guardian‘s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, stated, “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.”
This change reflected the urgency of the situation and aimed to better convey the seriousness of global heating, The Guardian claimed.
https://www.climate.news/2025-02-11-the-most-dramatic-narrative-shift-in-modern-history.html
