Temporal Metaphor in Abrupt Climate Change Communication: An Initial Effort at Clarification

Abstract

Abrupt climate change has recently become the focus of significant attention. The belief that abrupt climate changes have not been given due weight in scientific reporting and policy discussion has become more vocal since the turn of the century. New research has incorporated these possibilities in terms of tipping points and tipping elements, and argued that projections of gradual change can lull society into a false sense of security. In this paper, I draw attention to the metaphorical quality of abrupt climate change discourse. I examine the discourse occasioned by such abrupt change warnings, and I illuminate how deeply embedded temporal assumptions orient evaluations of climate change danger. I suggest that many familiar points of dispute might be indexed to different visions of time and change, and I develop the role of metaphor for better understanding climate change communication on this matter, and more generally.