Comment by specialist
8 years ago
Since we're talking about anthropocentric climate change, it's safe to assume "life" means "life as we know it". But you already knew that.
8 years ago
Since we're talking about anthropocentric climate change, it's safe to assume "life" means "life as we know it". But you already knew that.
The distinction seems important to me. One has a clear definition and the other could be imagined to mean anything the reader wants. That's alright if everyone already understands and agrees with you, but it makes disagreement useless. Since climate change is so political, there are lot of exaggerations flying around, so you have to be careful.
I think I know that when you said "anthropocentric", you really meant "anthropogenic" but I really had to think hard to see if you were using a clever word to make a point about our own perception of human life. Eventually I decided it was just a spelling mistake but it took effort and I'm still not sure. So trying to be accurate is helpful if you're going for understanding rather than just expressing a feeling.