Is it Time to Kick the Term ‘Global Warming’ to the Curb?

People are confused about global warming, and no wonder. Misinformation is spread like wildfire across the web and in conversations at coffee shops, newsstands and basement poker tables every day, all over the world. “The planet is actually cooling!” “It’s snowing in Vegas! Global warming is a fraud!” “CO2 is good for us!” “Antarctic sea ice is increasing!” “Al Gore just wants your money!”

There are two major points of confusion that global warming skeptics – even those who are actively seeking facts – always seem to trip over. The first is the misinterpretation of ‘weather’ as ‘climate’. The second is the seeming interchangeability of the phrases ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’ and what they imply.

As we’ve griped about before here on EarthFirst, every time it snows global warming deniers immediately start chirping about how global warming is obviously a myth. This belief illustrates a failure to grasp the concept of weather versus climate. As defined by NASA, “Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere “behaves” over relatively long periods of time.” (Read more about climate vs. weather at The Daily Green).

Those who question the existence of man-made climate change use the unpredictability of climate as a means of justifying their point: that we can’t conclude that the world is warming based on the past because climate is changing so rapidly all the time. It’s often said that “climate is what you expect and weather is what you get”. Well, climate is growing more unpredictable by the day – and it can’t all be explained away by natural cycles. Human activities that have changed the composition of the atmosphere and land surface – burning fossil fuels, deforestation, urbanization, desertification and the like – have made climate more chaotic. We’re already starting to see the effects, and unfortunately, they’ll soon become all too clear.

The phrase ‘global warming’ is too often misunderstood. People interpret it to mean that temperatures everywhere on earth are increasing. What ‘global warming’ actually means is that the surface temperature of the entire planet as a whole – when averaged together – is increasing. Not all regions of the planet will show the same changes in temperature or rainfall patterns. This doesn’t invalidate global warming – it simply reflects regional variations in our complex climate system. All of the global temperature trend analyses show significant warming in average temperature (NASA GISS, CRU, Hadley Centre). Just because some areas in the United States have shown cooling doesn’t mean the entire world has.

Global warming deniers love to point out the fact that ‘climate change’ is superceding ‘global warming’ as the phrase du jour to describe the effects of greenhouse gases on climate, claiming that we’re backtracking on what we’ve said previously. However, there’s a simple reason why the term ‘climate change’ is gaining popularity as a replacement for ‘global warming’ – it helps to convey that there is more to this phenomenon than just rising temperatures, and aims to eliminate confusion over regional versus global temperature trends.

Is the phrase ‘global warming’ itself holding back progress by keeping people misinformed about what all of this actually means? Well, perhaps it’s not helping to prevent confusion among the thickheaded, but the real problem isn’t terminology. It’s the flood of falsehoods promoted by climate change deniers who ignore scientific facts in favor of conspiracy theories that make it okay for them to continue living life as they always have, treating the Earth as if we’ve got a selection of replacement planets waiting in the wings.

There are a lot of reasons why people deny that climate change is actually happening. Many of them are rooted in emotional responses – most often, fear. Fear of losing their livelihood, if climate change action threatens the industry they work for. Fear of losing the earth-battering lifestyle they hold so dear. Fear, ironically, of a changing world.

It’s not all their fault. After all, the entire American population seemed to get a little stupider during the 8 years of Bush’s scientific oppression, and we’re force-fed misinformation and outright lies by Big Coal and Big Oil, whose continued prosperity depends on people refuting the reality of climate change.

Some people have their minds made up, and that’s that. But for those who are still just trying to figure it all out for yourselves: forget the talking points drummed into your heads by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh for a moment and consider the consequences of inaction. Call it global warming, call it climate change, call it what you will – but we’ve got everything in the world to lose, and we don’t have time to waste.

Related Posts:

Climate Change Deniers’ Sad Little Gathering in NYC
Global Warming Deniers are on Thin Ice
CNN Meteorologist Calls Man Made Global Warming ‘Arrogant’
Grist Explains How to Smack Down Global Warming Deniers, Point by Point
Why You’re a Global Warming Denier