THE climate emergency could accelerate the loss of languages across the world, with one already being lost every 10 days, Gaelic campaigners have warned. 

There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, but half of them are at risk and could be gone before the end of the century, according to United Nations cultural agency Unesco. 

Speaking today at the People’s Summit, a counter-conference to Cop26 in Glasgow, Ben O Ceallaigh, a member of Gaelic campaign group Misneachd, warned that the true rate of language loss could be even higher because Unesco did not take into account the impact of the climate crisis. 

“Every time a language dies, it’s like dropping a bomb on a national library,” he said, adding that the loss of a language also wipes out traditional ecological knowledge that could be vital to overcoming challenges presented by the climate crisis. 

The event sought to explore the intersections of ecological and language collapse and how groups such as Misneachd are resisting this decline. 

Mr O Ceallaigh argued that both are driven by colonialism, capitalism and neoliberal policies. 

For example, Gaelic has been subjected to “centuries-long marginalisation,” he said, including “military and economic subjugation, forcible removal and mass slaughter.”

Efforts to revive the language began in the 1970s, but Gaelic remains in a “critical condition,” spoken by just 1 per cent of Scotland’s population, he said. 

Gaelic-speaking areas are exclusively rural and tend to be poor. 

However, solutions to the climate crisis outlined in the green new deal could “coincidentally help our situation as Gaelic, Irish and Welsh speakers,” Mr O Ceallaigh added. 

The deal seeks to devolve powers and resources to indigenous communities, a measure also proposed by campaigners against language loss.