Words and Hardships of the Environment

This essay criticizes the frequent use, in discussions of environmental matters, of a misleading, euphemistic mode of expression. The article analyzes the expression ecological “crisis”, the use of the word “risks” to designate damages that may result from currently occurring climate change, and the term “pollutions”. Finally the conditions for the correct use of the term “catastrophe”, in relationship to what is called the anthropocene, are studied.