People are Michael Schmidtlikely to be confused by climate change terms like "mitigation" and "carbon neutral," according to a recent study. Yet, these terms are ubiquitous in climate research and reports that are meant to be accessible to a general audience. Even we on Short Wave are guilty of using this confusing jargon. In light of all this, NPR climate correspondent Rebecca Hersher asks: How can everyone — scientists, journalists and other science communicators — do a better job talking about climate change so that no one's left confused?

The key might be simple.

Read more of Rebecca's reporting on climate jargon.

You can always reach the show by emailing [email protected] — but please, hold the jargon.

This episode was edited by Viet Le, produced by Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Berly McCoy. Neil Tevault was the audio engineer.