[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by metalic

Climate change is what the scientists call what is happening to the Earth's climate - generally warming and with increased examples of extreme weather, such as higher highs, lower lows, more droughts and more floods.

Global warming is what climate change deniers call what is happening, so that they can point to a few places that are cooler and claim that since not everywhere is warming then the scientists must be lying.

Scientists stopped using the term "Global Warming" 15 years ago because it was confusing, which is exactly why climate change deniers continue to use it.

Don't be fooled!

Another confusion that climate change deniers like to use in their arguments is to look at weather rather than climate.

Weather changes from day to day and is to be expected. When climate - the long term pattern of pattern - changes it is a cause for concern.

If a particular day is cooler than the same day last year then that comes as no surprise. If it has been getting warmer every year for most of the past 20 years then attention needs to be paid to it and an explanation sought. That explanation is climate change.

Don't be fooled!

The vast majority of scientists (not the 97% quoted in some articles, but over 80%) believe that the significant changes in climate since industrialization has largely been caused by us.

Why would so many intelligent people believe something if it were not true? Their scientific work relies on proof and evidence, so they are unlikely to believe something unless they have both of these. Climate change deniers have failed to come with a valid reason why 80+% of scientists have been fooled or are lying.

One reason they give is that by claiming there is rapid climate change scientists can get increased funding for their work on climate change. However, the vast majority of these scientists are NOT working in the field of climate change so would not end up with increased funding. Exactly the opposite - there is a relatively fixed pot of funds available to finance scientific research, so if you support spending more on climate change research you are leaving less funding for your field of research.

Don't be fooled!

Very good and well-worded thread starter. Kudos. I agree with 95% of everything stated there. I am definitely NOT a climate denier (see my other posts). However, I prefer to use the term Global Warming. As you say it was the original term. I like it, personally, because the words seem to have more "punch and pizzaz" than Climate Change, which seems a little "wimpy" and a cop-out to dumb down the immediacy of the problem. This is nothing more than a personal preference for me - I don't want to die on a hill debating the word choice. Climate Change is really fine with me and may better widen people's focus to include rivers and lakes drying up and species going extinct or losing population. For example, boats in the Mississippi which are a key part of the Us supply line were slowed due to low river conditions. The same situation has happened to the Rhine River which affects all of western Europe. The water is so low that a 2,500 metric ton freighter can ONLY carry 500 metric tons.

I prefer the term Global Warming because it shows the direct cause and effect between glaciers melting and rising ocean levels - between heating the earth and earthworm habitat moving steadily northward. The term GW better describes the increased absorption of CO2 into ocean water and bleaching and killing reef coral, which is a building block for fish species and the fishing industry. That is a good example of human fossil fuel combustion activity where humans are THEIR OWN worst enemy.