Even as we shake our heads over the changing weather, or moan about the fumes belched from the vehicles in our cities, climate change still feels a distant problem.

That’s partly because the solution seems to lie with governments and industries, and partly because journalists struggle to engage with the public on the issues.

It’s a tricky story to tell. The most extreme effects of global warming will occur in the future; fear-based reporting tends to backfire; and journalists need a decent understanding of the science to hold the authorities to account.

The obscure and impenetrable language of climate change does not help. So, as part of a project with the Open Society Foundations to help the media better report on (and for all of us to better understand) global warming, IRIN has produced this glossary of terms.

From adaptation to zoonoses, you’ll find it here – and a lot more besides.

The glossary is the first in a series of fact files that will be released in the coming weeks.