full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Marshall: 3 strategies for effectively talking about climate change

Unscramble the Blue Letters

My job is to etuacde people about climate change. So I look at the concepts, the messages, the images and the terms, and I test them with millions of people. I'd like to tell you what I'm learning. For so many people, climate change seems abstract, distant, too big to imagine. The words we often use to describe it — enosismis, CO2, methane, net zero, anoteorpnhigc — are, simply put, cinfounsg. Not that many people wake up in the mrionng and say, "It's a great day for some decarbonisation." These words become obstacles rather than gateways to udadninsetrng, let alone caring.

Open Cloze

My job is to _______ people about climate change. So I look at the concepts, the messages, the images and the terms, and I test them with millions of people. I'd like to tell you what I'm learning. For so many people, climate change seems abstract, distant, too big to imagine. The words we often use to describe it — _________, CO2, methane, net zero, _____________ — are, simply put, _________. Not that many people wake up in the _______ and say, "It's a great day for some decarbonisation." These words become obstacles rather than gateways to _____________, let alone caring.

Solution

  1. morning
  2. confusing
  3. anthropogenic
  4. emissions
  5. educate
  6. understanding

Original Text

My job is to educate people about climate change. So I look at the concepts, the messages, the images and the terms, and I test them with millions of people. I'd like to tell you what I'm learning. For so many people, climate change seems abstract, distant, too big to imagine. The words we often use to describe it — emissions, CO2, methane, net zero, anthropogenic — are, simply put, confusing. Not that many people wake up in the morning and say, "It's a great day for some decarbonisation." These words become obstacles rather than gateways to understanding, let alone caring.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
climate change 11
climate communications 2
ozone hole 2
global warming 2

Important Words

  1. abstract
  2. anthropogenic
  3. big
  4. caring
  5. change
  6. climate
  7. concepts
  8. confusing
  9. day
  10. decarbonisation
  11. describe
  12. distant
  13. educate
  14. emissions
  15. gateways
  16. great
  17. images
  18. imagine
  19. job
  20. learning
  21. messages
  22. methane
  23. millions
  24. morning
  25. net
  26. obstacles
  27. people
  28. put
  29. simply
  30. terms
  31. test
  32. understanding
  33. wake
  34. words