If you haven’t heard that Cop26 has just started, you must have been living on a different – no doubt much more environmentally healthy – planet. Meanwhile the rest of us are aware that heads of state, government leaders, and others among the great and the good, have gathered in a rain-soaked Glasgow to – hopefully – make some real commitments to address global warming. Also gathering, among the disgruntled town folk and unemptied rubbish bins if the strike is still on, will be a horde of protesters – some wanting more action, and others denying any action is needed at all,
So what is a Cop? And why 26? Surprisingly few know the answer. Yes we know it is a hugely important gathering in Scotland. No, we don’t know why it is called that. It’s quite simple really, and rather unexciting. C-O-P stands for Conference of the Parties. 26 is the number of times (including this one) that said parties will have conferred.
More exciting perhaps for wordsmiths are the subtle changes and additions climate change is making to our dictionaries. The Oxford English Dictionary now includes the term global heating. It is felt that global warming does not convey sufficiently the sense of urgency and gravity of the situation. New sub entries have also been included in the dictionary in advance of COP26, although many, like net zero, eco-anxiety, are already in common use in both mainstream and social media:. (A sub entry, in lexicography, is a compound or phrase added to an existing word entry).
It certainly feels right to increase the sense of urgency. The term climate change first appeared in an American magazine article in 1854. It seems we have spent over a hundred and seventy years thinking it either wasn’t a problem, or was one for a future generation to sort out. Friends – the future is now upon us!
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