

Lv 7
David asked in EnvironmentGlobal Warming · 1 decade ago

Was "global warming" changed to "climate change"?

It's seemed to me the terms have always been used interchangeably.

From 1975: "Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?"

From 1979: "if carbon dioxide continues to increase, [we find] no reason to doubt that climate changes will result"

Why do so many people insist on giving so much significance to whether one term is used over another? People say it's so scientists can say that even if it gets cold, they can still say they were right, completely ignoring the actual definition: that climate change is the effect of global warming. If the planet changes its temperature, other changes in the climate system result:

I've asked this before. Can anyone provide a scrap of evidence that the above sources are wrong, and that the name was in fact recently changed?

Can anyone provide me with a single source showing how a scientist decided to start calling it 'climate change' because he/she wasn't sure if it was going to get warmer or colder? Isn't every AGW scientist saying it will get warmer, and only saying it will get warmer?

Is this quite possibly the single worst argument the skeptics make?


Oh, sorry: "That is the question"

12 Answers

  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    As you know, "they" never "changed it" from global warming to climate change. This is a ridiculous myth established to support the myth that the planet is no longer warming. It's getting pretty bad when you need to support your myths with other myths.

    The only person who has ever said we should use the term 'climate change' instead of 'global warming' is Republican strategist Frank Luntz, because he felt the latter term was too scary.

    But frankly, at this point I do prefer to discuss climate change. Global warming simply refers to the fact that the planet's temperature is increasing. That's been established, as have the causes. The serious discussion now is about what climate changes this warming will cause, and what we can do to prevent them.

    That's why there's more discussion about climate change now - not because "they changed the term", but because that's what serious decisions need to be made about.

  • 1 decade ago

    "Climatic change and agricultural exhaustion as elements in the fall of Rome" by an E. Huntington. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb., 1917), pp. 173-208 Is the first firm reference to the term "climate change" I could find, but there could be some references as far back as the 1800s and as soon Jstor is back online I'll do some more searching.

    The bottom line is that calling it climate change is nothing new, but as we have already discussed we can thank Frank Luntz for making the term "climate change" more politically preferable for the right-wing .


    But you said "provide me with a single source showing how a scientist decided to start calling it 'climate change' because he/she wasn't sure if it was going to get warmer or colder?" Fat chance on that one.

  • 1 decade ago

    global warming is the same thing as climate change. if the earth gets a lot warmer, the climate has changed. climate change is just a more general way of naming the problem, for instance, it could aloso mean, say, the climate got waaaay colder, like another ice age, which, ironically, according to some, global warming could cause.

  • eric c
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    The political activists are the ones who have said that we should be calling it climate change and not global warming because it is a more "descriptive' term, "not scientists". It is the political activists who are blaming every single single extreme weather event on climate change. There are people on this board who have said that the flooding in Manitoba, droughts in Australia, hurricanes, are all proof of "climate change".

  • 1 decade ago

    it isnt really significant because it keeps changing.. nobody knows which one it is..

    if its hot outside then its global warming but if its snowing or there is a hurricane then it is climate change...

    what people dont understand is that climate changes on its own and has done so throughout history.. there is no proof that man and industrialization and carbon gases cause global warming.. just because they happen doesnt justify causation..

    people that claim it is global warming or climate change are absolutely right.. climate changes and the earth cools and warms on its own.. but the bigger arguement is whether it is caused naturally or caused by man

  • 1 decade ago


    In fact the media changed Climate Change to Global Warming to sell copy.

    Yet the same denier keeps on posting the same question about GW being changed to CC over and over again.

    This repeat posting, along with the blocking of anyone who can prove them wrong, is a well known tactic of the "acolytes of jello" used to give their leader Best Answer points.

  • 1 decade ago

    Yes, it is a political movement and they decided to change the name to climate change. That was because it stopped warming and warm is generally associated with good to most normal people. If you actually think that wasn't focus grouped, you are more naive that you seem.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Actually, global warming causes climate change, not the other way around.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    It will always be global warming

  • 1 decade ago

    I've heard worse from believers too man! the made up facts is just one of them!

    Both sides of the war have caused atrocities!

    What we can do is reconcile!

    Source(s): Thank Allah your here!!
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