waging the war of the words: global warming or heating?

abstract

many of the metaphors we use in environmental education have unwanted emotive associations. with thought more appropriate metaphors can be found. in choosing metaphors to describe global heating (versus warming), we seem to have selected metaphors with negative associations to describe concepts that should have positive associations (such as carbon sinks), and metaphors with positive associations to describe concepts that should have negative associations (such as greenhouses). it is argued that the use of metaphors that are appropriate in form and affect will promote wider public acceptance of environmental concepts.