‘Climate Words’ Can Accelerate ‘Climate Deeds’
When notable environmentalist Jay Westerveld coined the term “greenwashing” in the 1980s, it was a cheeky but revolutionary rebuke of what he saw as deception, even deceit, on the part of the hotel industry. Some 40 years later, the term is now a mainstay of global climate communications, a pejorative justifiably cast against companies using clever language to make misleading claims to climate do-gooderism.