Can We Here At DU Instead Of Using The Term Global Warming - Call It......

[global1]

Global Climate Change.

As was pointed out on Rachel today - global warming might be happening - but because of its moniker - the Regressives take shots at Gore et al everytime we get a snowstorm or a cold snap.

From now on we need to use the term "Global Climate Change" - because this defines better what is happening to our planet.

I wish President Obama - in one of his speeches - redefines this and tells us all that we need to refer to it as "global climate change".

We need to take that asinine Regressive talking point away from the other side.

[Common Sense Party]

1. Didn't arsehat Frank Luntz coin the term "climate change"? n/t

[gateley]

4. Yeah -- I was just going to post that. The OP makes a good point, though. nt

[Dogmudgeon]

14. Nope. Scientists did.

Robert Gagosian and Ruth Curry at http://www.whoi.edu/">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, I think, were the first scientists to popularize it, though I might be wrong about that.

Just because some words are appropriated for political purpose doesn't make them "wrong". For example, "Pro-Life" was a term first used by '50s activists who wanted to end child abuse -- it appears in Summerhill. "Libertarianism" was used in the 1940s-60s as an euphemism for "anarchism" (see Paul Goodman).

Climate change is the proper term, because the amount of heat we have added isn't enough to cause a permanent heat wave, but it IS enough to destabilize the climate. It's still possible that we could have kick-started the next ice age a couple of thousand years early. The scientific work on human-induced climate change is still new enough that there are a number of open questions. The denialists take advantage of this, although the evidence FOR human-induced climate change is so strong that it's close to self-evident.

--d!

[Posteritatis]

22. Who cares who coined the term, if it's accurate? (nt)

[valerief]

2. Global Storming is more like it. The planet-heating causes more storms. nt

[texastoast]

3. But wouldn't that be kind of Orwellian?

Cause this planet is heating up.

Just because there is a bunch of snow right now does not mean that the average temperature is not increasing.

[global1]

11. I Don't Disagree With You - But Those Kooks Can't Relate To That.....

They see cold and snow and they laugh about 'global warming' even though we all know that the average temperature of the planet is increasing.

By saying 'global climate change' at least we have a fighting chance at explaining what is happening to us better. That different parts of the world will be experiencing erratic weather patterns. Some places that are normally dry might get rain. Some places that normally experience a lot of rain - might dry up. Some that don't get snow or much snow might get blizzards, etc. You get the picture.

I think that the light bulb will go off in their feeble brains and they might be able to get the concept. But as long as they have the likes of Rush, Hannity, Beck and the Regressives in Congress laughing at 'global warming' - they won't grasp the concept.

We have to make it that when Rush, Hannity, Beck and the Regressives say the words 'global warming' that people listening to them will know that it is incorrect terminology.

We need to redefine this in order to get people to support the cause.

[pintobean]

48. Support the cause?

I thought it was suppose to be about science. Changing the terminology to explain anything that "might" happen isn't going to help people "grasp the concept". It fuels skepticism.

[global1]

49. We're Not Talking To Scientists Here That's What The Right Is So.....

successful in their campaign against 'global warming'.

We need to explain this so the lowest common denominator can understand. They don't understand 'global warming' when they get 3 feet of snow or when they experience subzero weather. That's why it's so easy for the right to laugh it off and say - "Yeah Right - global warming - have you been outside lately".

They need to be told that we are experiencing 'global climate change'. It might turn some places colder and some places hotter. It might make some places rainy'er and other places dryer - but bottom line - the weather in the world that we have grown accustom to is changing and not for the good. We need to do something about it.

You know what really frustrates me - is that people here on DU argue amongst themselves and can't agree on anything - AND I MEAN ANYTHING.

One thing that the Regressive Repugs have going for them is that they all are on the same page and they all speak from the same talking points. They stick together. Even though what they are saying might be wrong or a lie as long as they keep on saying it in unison and repetitively - it sinks in to people. What was that quote from GWB - about saying something and saying it again and again - that's their game.

So go ahead - stick to strict science. Tell those people on the East Coast that can't go to work this week and had to shovel out of 3 feet of snow - that the world is heating up. They'll understand.

[KittyWampus]

27. actually, we don't know whether it's "warming up" or if we are headed into an ice age.

[Viking12]

40. We don't?

I think somebody needs a reality check.

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20100121/

[texastoast]

45. What makes you say that? n/t

[Lifelong Protester]

5. I called it "climate change" when I replied to the RNC

census...they sent me one, and BOY, did I reply... I told Michael Steele to get with the program, it's now called climate change.
I have a physicist friend who agrees (he's a lot smarter than me).

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. No.

The globe is warming, so I'll call it global warming.

I'm not going to change what I call it because a few neanderthals crack wise every time it snows, because that would be rather dishonest and cowardly. Even if I did, they'd just make fun of the change, "oh, so it's not global warming any more? How convenient, hyuk hyuk hyuk"

[Cha]

7. I've been calling it that for a while..it's descriptive and

that's what the EPA calls it.

“The phrase 'climate change' is growing in preferred use to 'global warming' because it helps convey that there are changes in addition to rising temperatures.”

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

I realize the concept of Global Warming & Global Climate Change is more than they can wrap their little brains around ..it's too bad they're only going to be left in the dust.

[On the Road]

8. To Me, It Sounds Like Backtracking

As if advocates are flinching after a blow has landed. Which isn't really the case.

[timeforpeace]

17. Exactly.

[Lorien]

19. It was always described as climate change by scientists

Global warming= climate change. It's just part of the process that's been known for at least 50 years now.

[On the Road]

20. I Realize It's Not a New Term

and is more accurate, since weather is a chaotic system with eddies and variations.

Still, whenever someone suggests changing the wording it sounds like there's something to be defensive about or that the climate deniers have a legitimate point. JMO.

[Ter]

38. Exactly

It's like saying "you were right."

[gmoney]

9. how about "globally fucked-up weather and stuff"?

GFUW&S for short... just rolls off the tongue.

[NYC_SKP]

10. That is, IIRC, the term of art used in the field. Global Climate Change. So, K and R. n/t

[many a good man]

12. I prefer the term Global Catastrophic Climate Change

[rhett o rick]

13. Doesnt matter what we call it. It matters what CorpMedia calls it. nt

[tuvor]

15. If deniers are too thick to realize local cold weather doesn't mean the earth isn't heating up...

...dumbing down the terminology for their benefit would only make them think we moved the goalposts mid-game, imo.

For that reason, I won't discontinue using "global warming".

[Lorien]

21. Calling it climate change is nothing new.

scientists have been using the terms together for at least five decades now. Global warming leads to climate change. When calling it global warming you're referring to "step A", in referring to climate change you are referring to "step B", if you use climate collapse you are referring to "step C."

[KittyWampus]

28. Dumbing down? Climatologists aren't sure if we are actually headed into an ice age.

So saying the earth is heating up and global warming is an accurate term for may actually happen is pretty dumb in itself.

[Viking12]

41. Where do you learn such nonsense?

[KittyWampus]

43. Science- here's some links for you to learn something. With a short bit from Wiki

Global warming can speed up the next ice age by melting the arctic, releasing fresh water into the ocean, throwing off the balance of salt to fresh water. This will stop a large ocean current that transfers heat from the equator to the northern hemisphere. When this happens, heat will no longer reach the northern hemisphere, causing our next ice age.

This is not fully true we are 3051 year over due from our last ice age

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2003/nov/13/comment.research

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0130-11.htm

[Viking12]

46. Pssst, Thom Hartman is not a scientist.

..and the likelihood of a Younger Dryas-like event is very, very negligible. First, there isn't a source of freshwater of the volume necessary to create an influx that would shut down the thermohaline circulation. Just because it happened when Lake Agassiz suddenly drained into the Atlantic does not mean it is likely to happen again. Second, there was already a foundation for glaciation when that event occurred. The Earth was emerging from the "ice age" when that event occurred but hadn't fully transitioned into an interglacial period.

Here's a clue: Don't get your science from newspapers.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

50. FYI, this person's a creationist.

I'm not joking.

[Viking12]

51. Thanks for info

Makes sense.

[timeforpeace]

16. Fine, but no one will argue that the climate changes. It's like a concession after all these years.

[Lorien]

18. I've been doing that for quite a few years now. The repugs and incurious

are so unimaginative that they can't grasp the science linking global warming and freakish weather of all types-including record low temperatures and blizzards. I guess too few people saw "the day after tomorrow" (which was a bit silly, but the scenario could happen over a decade or two instead of a few days).

[niyad]

23. been using that term for years.

[Schema Thing]

24. Personally, I think it was a mistake to change it to "climate change"

The asshats jump on that and say "see, they're changing their tune because the data isn't saying what they want it to say". I hear this almost every day at one forum I post on.

The asshats will lie and obfuscate either way.

If someone is simply ignorant, it's a fairly simple thing to say that the theory of global warming does not say that "winter will no longer be winter", and in fact it predicts that *warming* (overall) will produce wild weather patterns, including wild winter storms.


But we should never have backed off from the simple fact that the real problem is that the earth's atmosphere is predicted to warm and is warming due to anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

[wtmusic]

25. Exactly - you can't teach a pig to sing

and woe to those who try.

[KittyWampus]

26. Climate Volatility is the correct terminology. Saying "climate change" simply means the

climate changes, which it does anyway. And the Right uses that to obfuscate.

Global warming isn't accurate for what is happening because we may end up in another ice age.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

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[wtmusic]

32. If you're uncertain as to whether it's real, you're not a denier

You're a global warming agnostic!

Welcome to DU

:bounce: :toast: :bounce:

[Chulanowa]

30. Nope.

climate change is an effect of global warming. They're not synonyms.

[Hugabear]

31. Because it is GLOBAL WARMING

It's not UNITED STATES WARMING or any other simplistic bullshit like that. It's a global thing. There are areas of the globe that are currently experiencing record heat waves. And it's already been shown how warmer temperatures can actually cause more severe winters in certain areas.

[tex-wyo-dem]

34. Many scientists would prefer the terminology...

Global climate degridation. Seems more acurate to me.

Although "global warming" is acurate from a certain perspectve, it does give fodder to those deniers who point to the daily weather to support their accusations, which is a misunderstanding of the science.

[mindwalker_i]

35. Call it global variable

Just to piss off the CS guys.

[bertman]

36. I refuse to do--or not do--anything because a fucking Regressive uses it as a talking point.

The planet is WARMING. It's global WARMING.

This is about climate SYSTEMS changing. Explain that to a Regressive in a very quiet voice, using words slowly like you're talking to a three year-old. That's what they deserve. Not for you to start apologizing about how it's really global climate change--not global warming.

This is the shit those fuckers do to us on EVERY issue. I WILL NOT KOWTOW TO THE IDJITS

[HeresyLives]

37. We tried that already.

Global warming causes climate change...simple enough one would think.

The deniers immediately jumped on it as 'changing the name because it's all hokum and you're trying to hide it with a different phrase.'

You are talking to people who see snow in DC...but ignore the heat wave in Rio, or the temps in the 50s in Greenland today, and still can't figure it out. They don't want to.

I run into people who now agree there is climate change, but who think we're having global cooling instead, altho why they'd prefer that to warming I don't know.

The science is quite clear, and quite conclusive no matter how much they try to discredit it...and they'll certainly try.

Lot of money at stake for the vested interests.

Same as they did with tobacco, acid rain, the ozone hole etc.

[DCBob]

39. It does not matter.. the deniers will always deny..

They will likely still be denying even as the water circles their ankles from rising sealevels.

[lunatica]

42. I've called it that for awhile now

But I truly wonder why they resist cleaning up the pollution anyway, just to have a clean planet. They'll fight tooth and nail to get people to stop smoking and to marginalize smokers but it's OK to pollute the air with CO2 belching out of oil based vehicle engines.

[Xenotime]

44. NO! Climate Chanage sucks...We need something better. MOre dramatic.

[Overseas]

47. I call it climatic destabilization sometimes. With more science education, perhaps

people will be able to realize that heating the sky and oceans affects the winds, water and currents that drive our climate.

Too bad ecological awareness was tossed out as too depressing when Reagan came in to pretend it was "Morning in America" and encourage us all to rip out the solar panels and burn baby burn more oil.