The US saw a record number of billion-dollar disasters in 2023, even when accounting for inflation. The number of long-running heat waves like the Southwest experienced is also rising.
“Yeah but last year was cold, so obviously global warming isn’t real”
This is why it’s called climate change now. Stop saying global warming. Or useful idiots and malicious actors will jump at the chance to use the “but it was cold recently” argument.
“It’s time for us to start talking about “climate change” instead of global warming and “conservation” instead of preservation…“Climate change” is less frightening than “global warming”…While global warming has catastrophic connotations attached to it, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge”.
People are always going to twist language to their selfish purposes.
I prefer “global warming” over “climate change” because it is more specific and more likely to be seen as a potential problem by anyone who bothers to think about it. It also gives us a specific goal, whereas climate change is, if not neutral, then non-specific in the goal.
And when it really comes down to it, I prefer something like “greenhouse effect” and “Greenhouse Earth” because they strike much closer to the root causes. “Greenhouse Earth” is particularly good at getting at the root of the issue: that humanity has always and continues to treat the Earth like a literal greenhouse, trying to manage what lives and dies under what conditions strictly to our own benefit. If we’re going to do that anyway, then let’s do it right and manage the temperature along with everything else.
“Yeah but last year was cold, so obviously global warming isn’t real”
This is why it’s called climate change now. Stop saying global warming. Or useful idiots and malicious actors will jump at the chance to use the “but it was cold recently” argument.
“It’s time for us to start talking about “climate change” instead of global warming and “conservation” instead of preservation…“Climate change” is less frightening than “global warming”…While global warming has catastrophic connotations attached to it, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge”.
Source: Republican Political Consultant Frank Luntz, 2003
Just in case you think the current colloquial usage is just driven by fact-forward Scientists
People are always going to twist language to their selfish purposes.
I prefer “global warming” over “climate change” because it is more specific and more likely to be seen as a potential problem by anyone who bothers to think about it. It also gives us a specific goal, whereas climate change is, if not neutral, then non-specific in the goal.
And when it really comes down to it, I prefer something like “greenhouse effect” and “Greenhouse Earth” because they strike much closer to the root causes. “Greenhouse Earth” is particularly good at getting at the root of the issue: that humanity has always and continues to treat the Earth like a literal greenhouse, trying to manage what lives and dies under what conditions strictly to our own benefit. If we’re going to do that anyway, then let’s do it right and manage the temperature along with everything else.