Between September 20th and 27th, a total of 7.6 million people worldwide took to the streets to participate in a global climate strike. 4 million are said to have participated on September 20th alone. Members of tentree’s staff as well as the CEO proudly participated in Vancouver, Canada’s climate strike on September 20th.
But the climate strikes didn’t catch just the attention of those participating in the public demonstrations. According to Collins Dictionary lexicographers, there was a 100-fold increase in the use of the term ‘climate strike’ in 2019.
Collins Dictionary has declared the term 2019’s word of the year and has even given a definition to the term:
climate strike (ˈklaɪmɪt ˌstraɪk) noun: a form of protest in which people absent themselves from education or work in order to join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change
The dictionary’s editors say that the first time ‘climate strike’ was registered as a word was for a demonstration at the Paris Climate Change Conference in November of 2015. There were a number of honorable mentions that made it onto a shortlist that, frankly, we’re happy to see.
hopepunk (ˈhəʊpˌpʌŋk) noun: a literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity
double down (ˈdʌbəl daʊn) phrasal verb: to reinforce one’s commitment to a venture or idea in spite of opposition or risk
influencer (ˈɪnflʊənsə) noun: a person who uses social media to promote lifestyle choices, commercial products, etc to his or her followers
Our favorite has to be “rewilding.”
rewilding (riːˈwaɪldɪŋ) noun: the practice of returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer naturally found there
