Carbon budgets, wet-bulb temperature, the Greta effect – climate change has spawned a new vocabulary

A lot of new words are needed to grasp the full impact of climate change – tipping points, urban heat islands and flight shaming are fairly easy to understand

Then there are terms like albedo, to do with white surfaces and reflection, pyrocumulonimbus – clouds formed by wildfires – and permafrost (don’t go there)

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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in a rally in Brussels. The “Greta effect” has spawned a generation of uncompromising climate warriors inspired by her. That’s one of many new words and phrases climate change has ushered in. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:00am, 1 Aug 2021Updated: 12:00am, 1 Aug 2021

One of the annoying things about global warming – besides the likelihood it will ravage life on earth – is all the new words we are expected to learn to track our descent into climate chaos.

Rising temperatures have not only boosted the intensity or frequency of major storms and heatwaves, they have spawned rare or novel weather phenomena, accompanied by new more-or-less scientific names.

“Firenados”, for example, occur when searing heat and turbulent winds rise above out-of-control forest fires in tornado-like columns.

California and Australia have seen plenty of these vertical flame-throwers, and are likely to see a lot more, scientists say.

A pyrocumulonimbus cloud generated by an intense bush fire burning to the south of Canberra, Australia, in January 2020. Such fires create their own weather – and new vocabulary for climate change watchers to learn. Photo: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

So-called “dry thunderstorms” in drought-stricken regions such as the southwestern United States are a big tease, producing thunder and lightning, but no rain.

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