I agree that the messaging has been bad on climate change, but I disagree that hyperbole is the answer. I am as committed to solving climate change as anyone, but even I am turned off by the constant attempts to reframe the issue: global heating instead of warming, a climate emergency/breakdown/crisis... climate cancer just sounds ridiculous. Do we really think that the climate change deniers out there don't understand that scientists think this is a serious issue? And that their mind will be changed by rebranding to climate cancer?

I personally think that part of the problem is that we focus too much on telling people how bad it is, and not enough on educating people about potential solutions. It sounds like a daunting problem to solve, and a lot of the talk from climate-change friendly media is about how we need to drastically change our way of life to solve this crisis. I believe that if people understood engineering better, and the potential of existing technologies to get most of the way to a zero emissions future, then it would seem less daunting and be met with less resistance.

Climate scientists have done a good job over the last few decades to inform us of the problem and its scale. I hope in the next decades engineers will step up to show us how we can solve climate changing without giving up everything enjoyable in life.