The Power of Language

We are shaped, and shape others through our language. In this morning's news, UN chief Antonio Guterres tells us "the planet is broken". I think the sentiment is admirable, but the metaphor misleading.

If we found an abused child, abandoned and wounded, we wouldn't say "this child is broken". We would take it into care, find out what has happened, pursue those who brought it about, and do our utmost to make sure it doesn't happen again. If our home was a broken machine, we'd go out and buy a new machine. To the best of my knowledge, ebay doesn't do habitable, beautiful planets.

The sentiment is right, we are however dominated by mechanistic, technical language and an obsession with hard data and hard evidence. Whilst we are getting more and more of that regarding the planet, it's the soft data that is compelling, from weather to biodiversity. Our senses and intuition are screaming at us.

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