“Global Warming” and “Climate Change”

Someone sent me the meme here and wrote: “A GOP strategist rebranded global warming as “climate change” because it sounds far, far less dangerous, problematic, severe, worrisome. The usual network of right-wing think tanks and media outlets immediately — as if by design — began to use it. And the rest is history. By now, all of us use a term that a Republican strategist came up with to make global warming sound less dangerous and wonder why we can’t fix the planet.”

I don’t believe this is correct. Derek Muller of Veritasium fame (an element of truth) says that the term “climate change” was coined because not every part of the globe is hot at the same time, and in fact, there are a few places that aren’t hotter at all. It was an effort to fend off climate denial on that basis, i.e., it’s cold today, ergo the Earth is not warming.

Some people have suggested that we abandon both terms and use “climate disruption” instead, since it implies human action.  Personally, I don’t think it matters.  Most people accept that human activity is causing Earth’s temperatures to rise.  Of course, the political right wing joins the oil companies in pushing the notion that climate science is a mass of corruption, where so-called scientists are getting rich by taking grant money to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist.