"Why is it so difficult to act on climate change? Despite growing public
awareness of the current climate crisis, the topic of climate change continues
to thwart political and social systems across the globe, as it has for over 30
years. The reasons for this vary, but cognitive linguist and philosopher George
Lakoff suggests that an inability to act on climate change may be ingrained into
our most fundamental linguistic and cognitive systems. Lakoff is an emeritus
professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California
at Berkeley. He is the best-selling author of Don't Think of an Elephant and
Metaphors We Live By, and Co-host of the FrameLab Podcast. He is an expert in
understanding how language is framed to suit personal and political
agendas.
In this interview, I turned to him to shed light on the linguistic and
cognitive barriers to climate action, and what should be done to overcome
them."
