(Credit: Wikipedia)

The Guardian has new guidance for reporting on the climate.

Specifically, the Guardian recommends staff use “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” but not “climate change,” the Guardian said in a May 17 article from environment editor Damian Carrington. In addition, Guardian staff should say

• “global heating” not “global warming”
• “climate science denier” not “climate sceptic,”
• “wildlife” not “biodiversity,”
• “fish populations” not “fish stocks.”

However, the Guardian noted “the original terms are not banned.”

iMediaEthics wrote to the Guardian for more information about the new guidance, but the Guardian pointed to its news article.

“We want to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue,” the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, is quoted by the Guardian as saying. “The phrase ‘climate change’, for example, sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity.”

Hat Tip: Press Gazette