climate canary
n.— «They are dubbed the “climate canaries”—the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change. And as government ministers sit down in Nairobi at this weekend’s United Nations Climate Conference, the people most likely to be wiped out by devastating global warming will be only a few hundred miles away from their deliberations. Those people, according to research commissioned by the charity Christian Aid, will be the three million pastoralists of northern Kenya, whose way of life has sustained them for thousands of years but who now face eradication» —“3 Million Kenya Herdsmen Face Extinction From Global Warming” African News Dimension (Johannesburg, South AFrica) Nov. 12, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If you take up texting and social media late in life, there’s a lot to learn! A twenty-something wants advice getting her dad up to speed on memes, Instagram, and animated images. Plus, when you’re on a long road trip, what do you call...
Ever wonder what medieval England looked and sounded like? In Old English, the word hord meant “treasure” and your wordhord was the treasure of words locked up inside you. A delightful new book uses the language of that period to create...