'Peaking' into the future of climate change
When I was a child, I was terrified the grown-ups would destroy our beautiful planet with nuclear weapons. Now the threat seems to be from more mundane sources: the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from our tailpipes, smokestacks, and such.
When you see this, Dear Reader, the Paris climate change conference will have concluded. We may have an early read on whether anything meaningful was accomplished.
The conference has already been etched in my thought, though, as the occasion that solidified use of peak as a transitive verb, as in 鈥渢o peak (one鈥檚) emissions.鈥� That is, to identify, and commit to, a time after which one鈥檚 emissions, as measured on a graph, will decline.
Thus, Chuck Hagel, former senator and secretary of Defense, wrote in Dec. 1: 鈥淐hina has made impressive commitments on climate change, committing to peak their emissions....鈥�
A recent White House 鈥�fact sheet鈥� said, 鈥淏eijing and Guangzhou have committed to peak their carbon dioxide emissions by the end of or around 2020.鈥�
And , in one report from Paris, said that the Alliance of Small Island States, whose members fear being overwhelmed by rising ocean levels, 鈥渨ants countries to 鈥榩eak鈥� their emissions urgently.鈥�
Note the quotation marks around 鈥減eak.鈥� Neither the Hagel column nor the White House document was 鈥渘ews鈥� writing. But the Guardian piece was, and I have a hunch that the quotation marks around peak were there at the behest of a newsroom copy editor.
Peak is one of those short words that can work as a noun (鈥渟everal peaks in the mountain range鈥�), an adjective (鈥渁 peak accomplishment鈥�), or a verb (鈥渁 political campaign that peaked too soon鈥�).聽
As a verb, peak is generally intransitive. But the , for instance, lists a transitive use of peak that may be apropos here: 鈥淭o bring to a maximum of development, value, or intensity.鈥�
And the Oxford English Dictionary has a usage example dating back to 1887: 鈥淭he accumulation of the national wealth ... serves mostly to heighten and peak the great social inequalities as between the capitalist and the jobbing day labourer.鈥�
Once upon a time, a congressman who wanted to make a fuss about something threatened, 鈥淪omething鈥檚 going to happen, and I鈥檓 going to happen it!鈥澛�
The threat was also a joke. It turned on the grammatical principle that, idiomatically, one can鈥檛 鈥渉appen鈥� something, because happen is an intransitive verb. Emissions 鈥渉appen,鈥� one might say 鈥� of their own accord?聽
A transitive verb, by contrast, conveys the action of a subject upon a direct object: It conveys agency. 鈥淪am ate the cake.鈥� Sam acted upon the cake, and the cake is no more. To use peak transitively with reference to emissions is to acknowledge, however subtly, that they don鈥檛 just happen on their own but rather are caused 鈥� and can be controlled.
And that acknowledgment is, to my mind, a peak accomplishment.
