What's happening?

Have you ever felt gwilt after forgetting to water a plant? Or a jestopic belief that humans can survive on Mars, even if it is very hard?

The chances are that the answer is yes.

You probably have not heard of gwilt or jestope. They are new words submitted to the Bureau of Linguistical Reality, set up by two artists to collect new words to talk about climate change.

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Gwilt is the feeling of guilt you get after forgetting to water a dying plant. Jestope is a hopeful feeling that difficult things will work out.

The artists believe that if we have new words to talk about how climate change makes us feel, we will be better at dealing with it and finding answers.

News events often change our language. For example, before Covid-19The official scientific name for the type of coronavirus that swept the world from March 2020. few people spoke about "social distancingA way of reducing infection by controlling and reducing social interactions." or "lockdowns". Many think that the words we use change how we see the world, and also how we think and find answers to problems.

Yes! To change things we need other people to understand our thoughts and ideas. They can only do that if we have the right words to talk about them.

No! Most people are worried about climate change because they see it, not because they talk about it. And we already have lots of words. Adding new ones will just confuse people.