Watch your f-ing language
Too many expressions reek of fossil fuels. Let's stop "cooking with gas" and come up with cleaner alternatives.
I’m a big believer in the power of language. Maybe because I write and tell stories for a living, I think the words we use have immense power, even when we choose them casually — perhaps especially when we choose them casually. They shape the way we think and how we understand the world, sometimes subconsciously.
Take “cooking with gas.” It literally refers to cooking a meal — something many of us will do for family and friends this Thursday. But it’s also come to mean making great progress. When you’re cooking with gas, you’re on a roll. You’re a winner.
Which is exactly how the gas industry wants you to feel.
I’m not kidding. The American Gas Association coined the phrase “cooking with gas” in the 1930s as a marketing slogan to outcompete electric stoves. Soon Bob Hope and other celebrities were using it, and it was showing up in comics. The gas industry still uses those three punchy words to bolster its case that gas is “the only way to cook” — part of a campaign to counter studies showing that gas stoves propel the climate crisis and fill our homes with potentially deadly air pollution.
Let’s stop saying “cooking with gas.” Let’s come up with a new expression that means the same thing — maybe even an expression with climate-friendly flair.
Actually, here are five fossil-fueled expressions that have been bothering me:
Cooking with gas
Burning the midnight oil
Well-oiled machine
Out of gas
Step on the gas
Climate-Colored Goggles readers, I am asking for your help. Take a couple minutes and brainstorm a cleaner alternative for at least one of these filthy turns of phrase. Feel free to play with language involving solar, batteries, electricity, or anything you want — be creative! There are no rules. No expertise is required. When you’re ready, email me your idea(s) or leave them in the comments (paid subscribers only).
I’ll create a poll with some standouts and we’ll vote on our favorites. The winners will get one-year paid subscriptions to Climate-Colored Goggles, free of charge.
We won’t topple fossil fuels with a few language tweaks.
But maybe we can needle ourselves — and the people around us — into being a little more intentional. Language reflects our aspirations, our desires, our standards. Let’s try to keep it clean.
About that paid subscription for the winners: You may be wondering why it matters, because everything I’ve written so far has been free for everyone. Well, I’ve promised exclusive stuff for paid subscribers, and I’m ready to deliver. Starting now…
Join me at BMO Stadium
The 2028 Olympics start in just under 1,000 days. Los Angeles officials are scrambling to prepare for a “transit-first” Summer Games by funding and permitting electric vehicle charging infrastructure across L.A. County. Their goal is to support electric buses and other clean transit options that can move spectators and athletes across the region without creating a traffic and air-quality nightmare.
On December 8 and 9, the nonprofit Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator is hosting a summit at BMO Stadium, the city’s premier soccer field, to talk about what still needs to be done to make sure L.A. is ready for 2028. The group has been working closely with government agencies to prepare for the Olympics, and I’m grateful they asked me to be part of their summit.
I’m moderating a conversation the afternoon of Monday 12/8 with two Olympic athletes: Dotsie Bausch, who won a silver medal in cycling for Team USA in 2012 in London, and Sam Mattis, an American discus thrower who competed in Tokyo and Paris and is training for Los Angeles. They’re both members of EcoAthletes. We’ll discuss how rising temperatures are impacting sports, in L.A. and around the world.
You can get tickets here.
And — drumroll please — Climate-Colored Goggles paid subscribers get a big discount. Discount code, plus a Thanksgiving week news roundup, coming right up, after a paywall that only some of you will see…