I posted these thoughts on the green movement and language over at http://www.earthscreen.com/blog

(I apologize for repeating some of the information in the the treehugger post above. However any thoughts from treehugger users about how green is changing language would be sweet!)

I suppose its no obscure phenomena that as culture changes so does language but tracking those changes can be very illusive indeed. So it's a fun mental game to see how the english language is changing as our culture becomes bright green.

Thats why I was fascinated to see over at Treehugger, that the Global Language Monitor, who tracks such changes, declared "hybrid" as the word of the year. Three years ago I would have thought hybrid refered to a type of plant but know we all know it as a revolution in car design. Hybrid joins the 2006 word of the year "sustainable" which shows that green is gaining momentum in culture. 2005 was "refugee" and I think in the wake of Katrina we are starting to connect that with our climate crisis as well. This is after several years of words relating to the war or Bush presidency topped the list. So just in the past couple of years, the environment has really creeped into (maybe flooded would be a better, if darker, pun) our global mindset.

The top phrases and names are even more telling. This year "climate change" and "Al Gore" won those top positions respectively. Though not number one "carbon footprint stomping" made the list of top politically incorrect phrases. I hadn't heard this one before but the GLM defines it as "The movement to flaunt carbon-intensive activities such as driving Hummers and flying private jets; a reaction to the Green movement is the height of political inCorrectness." In 2006 "Global Warming Denier" was the top politically incorrect phrase.

Not only do these phrases show the gaining presence of the green movement but changes in the movement itself. For example, phrasing went from "global warming denier" to "climate change" within a year. I myself only started using climate change instead of global warming in the past year. Also I would bet "carbon footprint" is new to most of our vocabulary. I think these phrases show a gaining sophistication of what it means to be green.

The more playful aspects of green culture are changing as well. I was amused to see a blog post comment recently saying that wind turbines are beautiful and the "PIMBY!". This is a play on NIMBY, not in my back yard, a rather depressing cultural trend of the 80's suggesting that only the environment that effected one's immediate vicinity was important. PIMBY, I took to mean "please in my back yard" but googling it also brought up "power in my back yard", both very encouraging notions of doing everything we can for the environment in our personal lives. Green is becoming more dedicated and thorough, from our personal lifestyles to our global policies.

So, in the end, if language is any indicator, the green movement is picking up speed and going in the right direction.