How did we go from "Global Warming"...

[SHRED]

...to "Climate Change"?

I prefer the former.
More urgent sounding and truthful.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Rhetorical question?

I hope so...

[SHRED]

4. Wasn't this Frank Luntz's handiwork?

[Buzz Clik]

5. It seems to me that Luntz would be asking question you're asking but cynically.

The reason for the change was accuracy, not urgency.

[SHRED]

6. Found this...

Perhaps the only individual to advocate the change was Frank Luntz, a Republican political strategist and global warming skeptic, who used focus group results to determine that the term 'climate change' is less frightening to the general public than 'global warming'.

https://www.skepticalscience.com/print.php?r=326

[Ilsa]

2. Climate change is definitely more generalized and encompasses

Wild and unexpected extremes in temperature, who for some, don't feel like "warming". When the big blizzards would blow in, the deniers would claim the storms were proof that there was no warming.

[Fla Dem]

3. I suspect it was because as we experienced harsher winters, deniers were saying,

"What global warming. It's colder". Not understanding that the harsher winters were a by product of global warming. So therefore to make the global warming crisis more acceptable to the masses, it was rebranded as climate change.

[KittyWampus]

9. That's why I like "Global Volatilitly" better than either term.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. That sounds like an economics term

One of your 2 words has to include something definitely climate-related.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. Many people that I know think global warming means that the entire world will suddenly

feel like the tropics. They don't understand what the warming of the oceans means to changes in climate and they are, frankly, too lazy to explore the problem.

I'm not trying to be snarky, but I've tried to explain it to people and they just blow it off. They don't seem to pay attention to reports of temperature records being broken month after month, year after year. They just stick their fingers in their ears, go lalalalala or say that "gawd will find a way". It's willful ignorance at its best.

[SHRED]

10. The word "Global" escapes them apparently

[Bucky]

15. Here's a short explanation I found that works well.

1. Think about all that rainfall in the Mississippi valley. This annual precipitation turns the middle of North America into a global breadbasket, despite being so far away from the oceans. The rivers, created by rainfall, help us grow a lot of crops.

2. That rain comes from the annual clash between cold Arctic air and warm tropic air. That is why middle America is so fertile and prosperous. Without the rainfall, it'd be mostly desert.

3. The Arctic air is so cold because the white of the Arctic icesheet reflects back the sun's rays. But as slightly warmer air melts off the permanent icecap, the darker ocean water absorbs and retains more of that heat. That is why the Arctic and Antarctic are seeing some of the most dramatic rises in temperature.

4. When the air from the Arctic becomes less cold, then the seasonal collision of cold and warm fronts over North America produce less precipitation. There is less rainfall. There is less snow to melt off into the river and irrigation systems each year. As the Arctic absorbs more solar heat in the summer, the ice cap melt off will happen at ever faster rates.

5. That's why there's been weaker harvests in the past 5-10 years. We're getting less rain. That's led jumps in grocery prices over the past two years. Think about how much more you pay for zucchinis or cabbage compared to 5 years ago. The price increase is significantly higher than inflation rates.

6. You can project those rising food prices into the future for another two generations and see how food shortages are going to get worse. When there's 7 billion of us around here, you can see the scope of the problem. This is all due to changes in precipitation, which is the result of changes in the global climate.

(bonus bullet point for advanced students)
7. How fast is the Arctic melting off? In the next few years it will become possible for ships to sail around the north of Canada to travel between Europe and China--the fabled Northwest Passage will become a reality. The US and Russia will start to compete for control of the Arctic Ocean, a new front for conflict in the Second Cold War. The Russians are already trying to lay claim to oceanic resources up there.

[KittyWampus]

8. Neither are particularly accurate. I prefer "Global Volatility". Because it's not just warming...

It's wild fluctuations from the norm.

[justhanginon]

12. Too may syllables in "volatility". Once you get past three syllables i'm afraid

half the people in this country either lose interest or don't know what the word means.

[hatrack]

17. "Climate Destabilization" - not catchy, not a good beat, can't dance to it . . .

[Bucky]

11. Because some places are getting cooler, actually.

The averaging of the temps from places where it's getting cooler is why the overall warming of the earth isn't as dramatic as the warming in places (like the polar regions) where the overall climate change is creating the greatest threat to life on earth. Plus there are places where the change isn't so much temperature, but change in annual precipitation--ie, more severe flooding or extended periods of drought.

[tinrobot]

13. I prefer "We're screwed"

[libtodeath]

14. Because ignorant people and liars reject warming data because it was cold today.

[Hoyt]

18. I think it should have been "climate change" all along. The ignorant had a hard time believing

"warming" when there was 3 feet of snow outside.

Maybe we should call it "catastrophic climate change."

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Because things like rainfall change are also a major part

Regions may see increased droughts or floods even if their average temperature doesn't change significantly. The term was common enough to be part of the name of the IPCC when it was founded in 1988.

[aidbo]

20. I think we should call it "global-need-for-science-education-so-..

..everyone-can-understand-climate-change".

But I won't hold my breath.

[ehrnst]

21. Because Climate Change indicates that some places may get more severe winters.

Global warming is a catalyst to the phenomena that affects climate - where the Jet Stream changes and brings arctic air further south, more heat in the oceans for hurricanes, etc.

Things that people don't associate with higher temperatures.

Like that idiot that brought a snowball into congress to prove that there is "no global warming."

[R B Garr]

22. I read somewhere awhile ago that Gore himself or

one of his scientist friends said that the opposition kept intentionally misrepresenting Global Warming to their dumbed down constituents by ridiculing it whenever there were cold spells, etc. So they started calling it climate change.

Obviously Gore didn't say the constituents were dumbed down, but the essence of what he said is that the Global Warming name was deliberately being exploited so they started referencing it as Climate Change. It was because of what and how the opposition was trying to delegitimize it by mocking the name Global Warming. Everything they do is mocking and ridicule. It's all they have.

[SHRED]

23. Check this out

https://www.skepticalscience.com/print.php?r=326

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. It's "catastrophic climate change."

[bhikkhu]

25. Because the effects of Global Climate Change vary from region to region

Some areas colder, some wetter, some drier, most hotter. Changing winter storm patterns may cause as much problem as hot summers.

[liberal N proud]

26. When we say global warming, then a huge snow storm hits, the deniers use it to sell their lies

And the uninformed go yeah, that's right, give me my coal.

Climate change became the term to explain extreme weather swings. You have to remember that facts a unimportant to a very large portion of our country, how else would a lying monster ever get them to support him?

[Skittles]

27. conservative idiots think a cold day disproves global warming