We here at EnviroWonk are big fans of New York Times environment reporter Andy Revkin and his DotEarth blog, which dissects the most pressing climate change issues from every angle. We see Andy as an/the opinion leader on a lot of things. So, we wanted to write him a public letter and maybe give him some fodder for a DotEarth post.

Dear Andy,

Most scientists, politicians and citizens have concluded that climate change is one of, if not the most important issue facing our country and the planet today, and that changes need to be made now to avoid catastrophe. That said, others do not agree and feel more debate and research is needed. We feel that one reason for this could be the way the public and especially the mainstream media talks and thinks about climate change issues, which, as you well know, can be as important as actions taken by scientists, politicians and the public.

At least in the United States—it's better overseas—the public and media use the terms "climate change" and "global warming" interchangeably, despite the fact that they are two very different things. Climate change includes many important factors, including rising temperatures (global warming) in some places, falling temperatures in others, sea level rise, migration of flora and fauna and many, many others. Global warming is simply that: rising temperatures, which affect only some parts of our changing planet.

However, using the term global warming with such regularity, as Al Gore popularized with "An Inconvenient Truth," is misleading. The term fuels skeptics arguments; cold winters with record snowfalls, to the untrained eye, easily debunk global warming’s case.

We've spent some time exploring the web and academic journals to see who's talking about the rhetorical importance of the differences between "global warming" and "climate change," and we haven't seen much of a dialogue. We are hoping you see this as an important an issue as we do and that you will use your column to address this matter.

Thank you,

EnviroWonk

Comments (2)

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They are the same
written by Mark, July 29, 2008

I believe the reason there isn't much dialogue about differences between the two, is because they are the same. Global warming is the phenomena of rising *average* global temperatures. Global Warming can cause localised cooling in certain areas because higher average global temperatures mean more energy in the global weather system, potentially intensifying winds, currents and cooling. It can have flow on effects on wind and ocean currents causing cooling in different places and warming in others.
The only reason "climate change" exists is because people who don't want to think hard enough to realise local cooling can come out of global warming use the fact it is cooler in one particular location as an excuse to say global warming isn't happening. It's unfortunate that we've had to create a new terminology to replace a technically accurate one due to intellectual laziness.

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