Move aside, smiley faces, clapping hands and dancing ladies. Emoji are finally ready to tackle serious issues.

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The project may be the first of its kind to think about visual ways to help people talk about the problems in a day-to-day, shorthand format, according to Nick Obradovich, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab who also works on climate change-related communication. “I do really think that some of the complex and sad emotions that people have about climate change, you could write out in essay form — or you could have a crying dead penguin.”