Figures of Speech Served Fresh

Quote:  "It would be another planet."  Jim Hansen, NASA's chief climatologist, in The Independent.

Figure of Speech:  cataplexis (cat a PLEEX is), the jeremiad.

The cataplexis (Greek for "awful menace") warns of catastrophic punishment for ill deeds. The Biblical prophet Jeremiah was a master at it -- hence the jeremiad, which is the more common name for this kind of dire warning.

Jim Hansen swings the figure like an avenging sword by interpreting the latest data on Greenland's icebergs. They are sliding toward the ocean much faster than scientists had predicted.  "You could imagine great armadas of icebergs breaking off Greenland and melting as they float south," Hansen says. "And, of course, huge areas being flooded."  The Earth could turn into a giant bourbon on the rocks during this century.

Hansen was the guy NASA's political appointees told to shut up. He didn't.

Snappy Answer:  "Good. We could use another planet."