Pantone’s Mocha Mousse and Behr’s Climate Change: A Tale of Two Colors
We were quick to poke fun when Pantone declared its colour of the year 2025 to be Mocha Mousse. But at least the icky hue sounds more palatable than it looks. When it comes to selling colours, the usual convention is to give hues evocative poetic names that elicit positive feelings, not the death of a planet.
Behr’s Climate Change: A Colour with a Controversial Name
So why does the paint brand Behr have a moss-tinged white called Climate Change? It’s been five years since people first noticed it, and there’s still no explanation, although Home Depot appears to have now removed the hue from its website amid the controversy.
A Colour with a Warmth to It
Behr describes its Climate Change paint hue as an “icy green-gray with a tonal richness”. That sounds nice enough, but why connect it with a global environmental crisis? The hue has a warmth to it. Perhaps Behr wanted to suggest that the shade can make interiors feel warmer and it was somehow oblivious to the fact that the term ‘climate change’ already has another, catastrophically negative meaning.
A Possible Connection with Behr’s Polar Bear Logo
Or maybe it’s an ironic riposte to Benjamin Moore’s similar Glacier White, which is not the colour of any glacier I’ve ever seen. Or perhaps we’re supposed to make a connection with Behr’s polar bear logo. Is it a warning to the world about the plight of the species as its habitat melts, the pristine white ice turning to a green-grey slush? If that’s the aim, perhaps Climate Change white should be the real colour of the year; a true colour for our times.
A Lack of Explanation
It seems strange that if Behr wanted to make a statement, it didn’t provide an explanation. Climate Change is buried away in a library of over 4,000 colours with no explanation, and the name makes it seem as if Behr thinks climate change is a good thing.
What Others Think
“Climate Change” seems like a really scary name for a paint chip of a wispy, moss-tinted white that would look great in my bathroom,” someone wrote on Reddit five years ago. “Is this about polar bears darkening their coats because of declining sea ice?”, Zoë Schlanger, a writer at the Atlantic wondered back in 2022.
Conclusion
The controversy surrounding Behr’s Climate Change paint hue raises questions about the thought process behind naming colours. While Behr may have intended to create a unique and evocative name, the result has been a colour with a name that is jarring and insensitive. It’s unclear whether Behr will continue to sell Climate Change, but one thing is certain: the colour has sparked a conversation about the importance of considering the impact of our words and actions on the world around us.
FAQs
Q: Why did Behr name a colour Climate Change?
A: The reason behind the name is unclear, and Behr has not provided an explanation.
Q: Is the colour Climate Change still available?
A: Home Depot appears to have stopped stocking the colour, but it is still listed on the Behr website.
Q: What does the colour Climate Change look like?
A: Behr describes it as an “icy green-gray with a tonal richness”.
