The Global Language Monitor reports that the top words of the decade were ‘Global Warming’, with ‘Climate Change’ the top phrase. ‘Global Warming’ was rated highly from the very first day of the decade. In 2008, ‘Global Warming’ was the top phrase of the year, while in 2007 it was ‘Climate Change’.
That, despite eight years of an administration in the US that sought to minimise the issue, if not ignore it completely.
GLM don’t reveal the algorithm they used, but if I had to guess why global warming was the top phrase – despite the relative lack of North American political engagement – then I would think that reality probably had something to do with it. Has a day gone by in the last ten years without a news story on global warming?
Climate Change, your newsmaker for the new millennium.