Global warming - the wrong name?

Question

Isn't climate change a more appropriate term? I know the polar ice caps are getting smaller. But some places will actually get colder because of changing weather patterns. Ireland, for example, is at risk because the north Atlantic drift could change direction resulting in a cooler climate. With this in mind, would climate change be a better term to use than global warming?

Answer 1

Climate Change works better for political environmental purposes.  CC eludes to human activities effecting the climate and better allows human blame for all weather extremes; heat, cold, storms, drought fit better under the term Climate Change.

Promoting Global Warming  when it's cold or cool for the season can be a tough sell.  CC better necessitates a need for environmental conservation and human kind consumption.

That there has SLOW, but accelerating, Global Warming doesn't get the point accross as well and may just be part of a normal natural cycle.

Climate CHANGE well then what's or better, WHO is responsible for this change and What had WE better DO?!!?



Top 11 Warmest Years On Record Have All Been In Last 13 Years

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2007) — The decade of 1998-2007 is the warmest on record, according to data sources obtained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global mean surface temperature for 2007 is currently estimated at 0.41°C/0.74°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.20°F...

...Since the start of the 20th century, the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74°C. But this rise has not been continuous. The linear warming trend over the last 50 years (0.13°C per decade) is nearly twice that for the last 100 years...

...2007 global temperatures have been averaged separately for both hemispheres. Surface temperatures for the northern hemisphere are likely to be the second warmest on record, at 0.63°C above the 30-year mean (1961-90) of 14.6°C/58.3°F. The southern hemisphere temperature is 0.20°C higher than the 30-year average of 13.4°C/56.1°F, making it the ninth warmest in the instrumental record since 1850.

January 2007 was the warmest January in the global average temperature record at 12.7°C/54.9°F, compared to the 1961-1990 January long-term average of 12.1°C/53.8°F...

Global 10 Warmest Years Mean Global temperature (°C) (anomaly with respect to 1961-1990)

1. 1998 0.52

2. 2005 0.48

3. 2003 0.46

4. 2002 0.46

5. 2004 0.43

6. 2006 0.42

7. 2007(Jan-Nov) 0.41

8. 2001 0.40

9. 1997 0.36

10. 1995 0.28

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...

Answer 2

no, the temperature of the earth is increasing due to carbon dioxide and other gases. A small change in the temperature of the earth can be of great impact to the weather conditions.

Hence global warming.

Answer 3

I think the term should be called Climate Change.

It fits the problem.

Good question!

Answer 4

Yes climate change is the right name .This has been the way of things since the very beginning of time.It will be OK.It is not  crises it is only normal.

Answer 5

Yes, you are right. Global warming will in some cases cause areas of the planet to actually become colder. Climate change is more accurate.

Answer 6

overall most places will be warming and the overall average tempature of the earth will rise too thats why the general term is global warming .... i think

but yes it should be called climate change

Answer 7

Yes it is just climate change and global warming is just a big scare to make people worried.  Anyone who has studied any science should know that things happen in cycles and this holds true for the climate as well.

Answer 8

there should be a clear distiction between human induced change and general climate change as otherwise people will hear climate change and link it to human activity.

Answer 9

It should be referred to as global moderation.  CO2 a greenhouse gas should actually tend to moderate the temperature with most of the warming on the coldest winter and night temperatures.  Climate change is just an expression of what climates always do, they change.  As a geologist, this fact is extremely obvious to me, but apparently isn't so widely known in alarmist circles.

Answer 10

Climate change sounds more natural, what is happening now is not just a natural thing.  I think Global Warming is a better term because it is the root of the problem.