Question: Is there a difference between Global Warming and Climate Change?

[BigmanPigman]

[stonecutter357]

1. Difference between global warming and climate change

Global warming is the term used to describe the current increase in the Earth's average temperature. Climate change refers not only to global changes in temperature but also to changes in wind, precipitation, the length of seasons as well as the strength and frequency of extreme weather events like droughts and floods. whatsyourimpact.org/global-warming-climate-change

[Angry Dragon]

2. good answer

[Chemisse]

3. It also accounts for the fact that the warming earth causes a variety of changes.

People get confused when there is a cool summer, which seems to contradict the idea of global warming. But climate change can actually cause regional cooling, such as when the Polar vortex dipped down and froze New England.

[marylandblue]

4. Global Warming is from the title of a 1975 paper on the subject

And was used for about 20 years after that. Then they starting using climate change as more a accurate description.

[brush]

5. Yes, global warming is not really accurate in the face of recent harsh winters back east.

[SCantiGOP]

6. Its still accurate

It refers to the average temperature of the planet, not any temperature at a specific time or place.
The mean temperature of the planet is increasing. There is no scientific debate; the political debate is whether the increase is a natural climate fluctuation or one that is being caused by human activity.

[brush]

7. Haven't most scientists switched to the term "climate change" so deniers can't argue that recent...

harsh winters are evidence that there is no global warming?

[SCantiGOP]

8. Oh definitely

My answer was confusing. While the planet is overall warming, most avoid the term “global warming” because some areas will get colder.
The dire implication of an overall rise in median planet temperature is the melting of polar area ice and the rise in sea levels, and the fact that the loss of ice causes the warming to accelerate.

[Boomer]

10. No, they're not contrary evidence at all

Harsher winters may actually SUPPORT the theory of global warming. Cold polar weather is kept in place by the sharp difference in temperatures between upper and lower lattitudes. As the northernmost regions warm (relatively speaking), that "wall" between them grows more porous and we get spikes of colder air coming down farther into our own territory.

[brush]

11. Did you miss the point? Climate change seems to be the most used term nowadays.

Last edited Thu Oct 12, 2017, 11:07 PM - Edit history (1)

[caraher]

9. There's also a history of manipulation in choice of terminology

The Bush crew tried to squelch the use of "global warming:"

The memo, by the leading Republican consultant Frank Luntz, concedes the party has "lost the environmental communications battle" and urges its politicians to encourage the public in the view that there is no scientific consensus on the dangers of greenhouse gases.

<snip>

The phrase "global warming" should be abandoned in favour of "climate change", Mr Luntz says, and the party should describe its policies as "conservationist" instead of "environmentalist", because "most people" think environmentalists are "extremists" who indulge in "some pretty bizarre behaviour... that turns off many voters".

Climate change has evidently pulled away as the more popular term