Ecology is not a single story it is a constellation of meanings, experiences, and worldviews. For a farmer in Kenya, ecology may evoke the rhythms of rainfall and soil fertility. For an urban planner in Amsterdam, it may signify green infrastructure and circular systems. For an Indigenous elder in the Amazon, it is an ancestral relationship with the forest living proof of interconnectedness, not merely a domain of scientific inquiry. What we call “ecology” is filtered through culture, history, and place. It is never neutral, and it is never one-size-fits-all.
This diversity of interpretation becomes even more complex when the language of climate change and sustainable development goals (SDGs) crosses linguistic borders. While the SDGs strive to provide a universal roadmap, the meanings they carry are shaped and sometimes reshaped by the languages they are translated into. In some languages, there is no direct word for “sustainability” only phrases that attempt to describe it. “Climate change” might be interpreted as a distant event in the future in one culture, and as an ongoing crisis of survival in another.
Take the word “resilience.” In English policy documents, it connotes technical adaptability and infrastructure robustness. In Arabic, الصمود (al-sumood) implies spiritual and emotional steadfastness, often rooted in political resistance. Similarly, the term “development” might be seen as progress in one context, but as a reminder of colonial imposition in another. The very idea of “nature” as something separate from humans is not shared by many Indigenous languages, where no such distinction exists at all.
Thus, when climate policy is “translated,” it is not just converted into another language it is interpreted, reimagined, sometimes misunderstood, and often re-contextualized.
These semantic shifts can empower or exclude, resonate deeply or fall flat. If we aim for effective climate action, we must do more than disseminate global goals. We must engage in cultural translation, not just linguistic translation listening to how communities define sustainability on their own terms.
To build a truly inclusive ecological future, we must recognize that language is not a vessel it is a worldbuilder. And the words we use to describe the Earth matter deeply, because they shape how we care for it.
