Whoever coined the term 'Global Warming' should be slapped

[LynneSin]

Don't get me wrong, the concept of 'Global Warming' is real. The problem is that right-wing ideologist things that it's just about the planet getting warmer. So then they use these polar vortexes and snow in Atlanta as their warped-logic reason that 'Global Warming' is fake.

What this should have been called from the get-go is Climate Change. The whole concept of Global Warming/Climate Change is this - the expected climate you expect in a region is changing and one of the biggest issues with this change is the melting of the polar ice caps. This melting is causing an issue with our climate.

If I hear one more person tell me how Global Warming is fake because of this cold weather I'm gonna scream. I associate Global Warming with concepts like Intelligent Design and Late Term Abortions - made up things that can be used to advance the right-wing agenda.

Climate Change - that's what is happening and it's real and it's dangerous!

[randome]

1. Scientists tend to see things literally.

'Warming' is the cause of climate change. It's unfortunate we have demagogues who will use this to their advantage but I don't see science at fault.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

[LynneSin]

2. Point well taken

But I guess hindsight when Global Warming was coined no one thought one day it could be used to doubt the science behind the name.

[randome]

16. Yeah, how can anyone refute basic facts?

Republican obstructionism never fails to amaze me. I still say, however, that their time is soon passing. Because people will remember who obstructed and made things worse.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

[joshcryer]

23. "Climate change" has always been the academic term.

Perhaps 1% of papers use the term "global warming."

Regardless, climate change has now been proved as a net positive warming effect. Therefore both terms are accurate.

[NightWatcher]

3. tell them to call someone in Australia. Last week my friend said was 105 all week long

Just as when the sun goes down here, it's dawn somewhere else and in between all over the globe, so too are the seasons. If these twits can't understand that, they need to take remedial science, and not that garbage taught in church-schools.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. I've seen several DUers argue that "climate change" is RW spin

because it sounds less threatening than "global warming", and they claim it only came into widespread use through Frank Luntz's efforts. I agree with you that 'climate change' is the better general term.

FWIW, the phrase 'global warming' dates back to 1952, or perhaps even earlier; and the link with CO2 was being written about by 1957. The Oxford English Dictionary's fist 2 citations for its use in print:

1952 San Antonio (Texas) Express 28 Apr. 2/5 Scientists who are studying global warming trends point out that not a single iceberg was sighted last year south of Parallel 46.
1957 Hammond (Indiana) Times 6 Nov. b2/1 This continued pouring forth of waste gases may upset the rather delicate carbon dioxide balance in the earth's general atmosphere and..a large scale global warming, with radical climate changes may result.

[kwolf68]

5. Even if they had coined climate change

There would still be deniers, charlatans and whores that would fear any negative and drastic change to the planet being caused by man would bring about a call to do something, which could possibly lead to a restriction or regulation on certain money making enterprises causing said "warming".

[JoePhilly]

9. YUP ... they'd have just found some other lie to tell.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. The RW loons are geographically-challenged

because while Atlanta gets encased in snow (in the winter by golly!!11!11!), Melbourne, AUS burned up during the Australian Open just 2 weeks ago with record highs that halted play (it's their summer).

Anything "below the equator" in the Northern Hemisphere winter doesn't count in the "global warming" / "climate change" debate. And certainly the record warmth in Alaska going on right now - again during this same winter, doesn't count. Nome, AK hitting 51F in January is irrelevant.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

7. About half of the people are below average.

About a quarter are unable to think. I am sure that the second set is not even close to a proper subset of the first. That leave lost of room for stupid decisions.

[Armstead]

8. You're correct -- I must admit I';m susceptable to being lulled by the term

I live in New England and i hate cold weather. So there's always this little selfish part of me that takes comfort in thinking maybe "global warming" will at least make it a little more comfortable here.

But as you correctly pointed out it's really climate change. More extremes, storms and problems of all sorts.

[Exciting Trip]

10. The idiots are the ones who pretend global warming is a short-term phenomenon

Don't blame the non-idiots.

the hockey stick (which anyone who is not a right wing-nut believes in) shows a long-term warming trend for the planet (also known as the globe, hence "global&quot .

[Auggie]

11. I think the term is dying, albeit slowly

I hear it less and less

[kwolf68]

12. A lot of these people

Are not far off from believing the earth is flat. Science that speaks in terms of geological time (thousands or more of years) is simply too complicated for these people. The Permian extinctions (before the Dinosaurs) were very possibly caused in large part by "global warming" (at that time natural warming), but since Dinosaurs are only 6,000 years old and Jesus rode on their backs they don't really get it.

[loyalsister]

13. Good points

When I used climate change, a conservative friend (from Las Vegas) asked if that was the new politically correct term for global warming. When I pointed to snow in Vegas, she agreed that it is changing, but it's a natural phenomena we are not contributing to.

Some of them will work their way around facts and reinterpret terminology no matter how accurate the language is.

[kwolf68]

15. And smoking doesn't make one pre-disposed to lung disease

The global warming debate is not unlike the smoking discussion.

The right must not 'prove' mankind is not impacting the planet, they only need to create doubt and confusion. That's all.

We also were told at one time we wouldn't be able to overfish the oceans. How is that working out? Mankind has the capacity (for whatever reason) to impact EVERY SINGLE nook and cranny of every single part of every single ecosystem we touch...so why is it so hard to believe we are NOT impacting atmospheric chemistry? It's insane.

[Mnemosyne]

14. Word. nt

[TexasProgresive]

17. You can keep beating that drum,

but no matter what it is called these idiots will attempt to spin it the wrong way. They have simple minds with simple answers. They are incapable to understand complexity.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Show them this

v

This is Alaska. It was 62 yesterday at Iliamna, just west of Anchorage.

[LynneSin]

19. I think there are people in the south that would like to return Alaska's climate back to them

Just saying

[Blue_In_AK]

20. And Alaska would be more than happy to take it back.

This may not be causing us "issues" (aside from that monster avalanche outside of Valdez), but it's troubling and definitely not normal. A lot of businesses and events here depend on snow and cold, so it's having a negative economic impact on certain segments. Plus, we've had to close schools, too, because of rain on top of the ice.

It's a little colder here this morning -- 28 degrees -- so we may get back to normal pretty soon.

[Jim Lane]

21. Some activists have moved from "global warming" to "climate change" to "climate crisis".

I think each of these shifts is an improvement. Nevertheless, I don't blame the "global warming" coiner(s). That was a simple and obvious term, based on the data then available. The understanding of what's going on has progressed greatly since then.

It's like when the public health people started talking about "GRID" as a new problem. They didn't know what was causing it. All they knew was that they were suddenly seeing a lot of gay men with compromised immune systems. The phenomenon was significant enough that it needed to be studied, and that's easier to do if it has a name. The early GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) became known as AIDS only later. (Yes, I know that not all the early patients were gay. That's why, in 1982, the term "AIDS" was introduced, reflecting the growing knowledge about the nature of the disease.)

[Whisp]

22. I'm still explaining to people that

weather and climate are different.

But yah, unfortunate terms. Like Globalization sounds all huggy and stuff when it really means fucking the workers throughout the world.

[JI7]

24. those people don't believe in evolution and think the earth is a few thousand years old

how would that have changed anything ?

[grahamhgreen]

25. Disagree. Global warming is more descriptive, climate change is obscure.

[Spider Jerusalem]

26. Global warming is accurate, though?

Global = planetwide. Regional climate variations have nothing to do with that.

[elleng]

27. Exactly.

[CFLDem]

28. Like 'climate change' is any better.

It's way too vague too get excited about and it's a patently absurd concept since the climate is always changing.

'Anthropogenic climate change' is something entirely different and what should be rallied around of you're going to get excited about this sort of stuff.

[magical thyme]

29. the term was adopted decades ago

and it wasn't selected as a marketing term.