The Global Language Monitor (GLM) reports that, based on it's 2006 survey:- "Sustainable’ is Top Word, ‘Stay the Course’ is Top Catchphrase, ‘Darfur’ is the Top Name, and 'Yoof Speak' is Top Youth Speak atop the Global Language Monitor's Annual List" . The GLM seems to walk the line between statistical study and mocking humor, as it defines sustainable as "Originally a ‘green’ term [that] has moved into the mainstream meaning ‘self-generating’ as in ‘wind power is a sustainable power supply’. Can apply to populations, marriages, agriculture, economies, and the like. The opposite of ‘disposable’". Seemingly a confabulation of renewable, sustainable, & recyclable, this lighthearted definition might be due to a backwards-day sort of reporting style. GLM, in another example of this approach, defines Climate Change as "The warming of the Earths atmosphere due to natural cycles (politically sensitive; believed to be primarily outside the control of man.)" The off-sided definition of "Sustainable" does, helpfully, point out the not-so-obvious paradox of its buzz status. Describe something as "sustainable" and your average listener has no idea what you're getting at. He/she might conclude you're using the term the way a stock analyst would. Saying "we need to be more sustainable" indicates nuttiness or pretentiousness to anyone not immersed in the topics of global resource depletion and climate change. But...if you say "you keep blasting at those turkeys a mile away you're gonna run out of shells," the 'unsustainabilty' of the behavior is immediately apparent. Though neither the speaker nor the listener, in the hypothetical turkey shoot, would likely use sustain to talk about it. So we ask you then, just who's global buzz is it?

The 2007 Global Warming Globie Awards: Time to Vote!

Canada Sort of Commits to Kyoto. We think.