Gobal Warming v. Climate Change

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Sustainability

Climate Change

Global Warming

Edward Hessler

Faye Flam,who i find a go-to science reporter for Bloomberg writes that "As science terms go, 'climate change' is lame. It sounds like something created by a committee. And it's hard to understand as a crisis when we also hear scientists talking about" the full breadth and side effects of changes that this inclusive scientific term includes. This can lead to some vagueness about the concept.

Flam prefers global warming and makes a strong case for its daily use in a recent column. She notes that in a "Yale/George Mason survey found" that for "non-scientists...global warming carried a much stronger suggestion of potential catastrophe." It also has the advantage that it is scientifically accurate and especially that it has resonance with non-scientists. "It correctly implies a serious problem and creates a helpful sense of urgency."

Read Flam's argument which includes other terms that have been proposed as well as how climate change has come to dominate the discussion.

 

I use both terms but climate change more often.