4 ms·

i prefer to use "global climate change" instead of "global warming" to avoid confusing people with only a cursory understanding of how climate works.

Locke1689 17y ago
People tend to confuse climate and weather, i.e., it's cold out today so there isn't global warming and "we can't predict the weather a week in advance, how can we predict climate years in advance??!11!".
- cantastoria 17y ago
  wrt to you last "confused person" question. Has there been any study of how accurately climate models can predict climate (e.g. average global temperature) even five years out from a given year? Just to clarify... If I gave a climate model all the temp data from 1888-1990 and then said ok, what's the AGT in 1995? Would it be correct? I guess the difficult part would be finding a model that hasn't already been modified so it would be correct for 1995. You'd have to use the 1990 version of the modeling software.
btilly 17y ago
People who are inclined to be confused will be confused regardless. The rest of us already understand this point.
ax0n 17y ago
Or we're not retarded, but still enjoy making a mockery of the concept of (A)GW often in the name of snark alone. "skepticism" optional even if implied by the mockery. Also, it was yet another wonderful snowy, cold day for a bike commute. This is the only time of year people give me a whole lane to myself.
dschobel 17y ago
I thought that the scientific community had by and large backed off from the earth cooking to the more easily provable position of CO2 levels rising/oceans acidifying?
ellyagg 17y ago
That may be why you use it, but in general that phrase is used because it's more general, so it's easier to attribute any sort of anomalous climate phenomena to human causes and thus drive public policy.
azgolfer 17y ago
No one has more than a cursory understanding of how climate works. That's why there was no science called 'Climatology', until people realized it was a vehicle for doing 'Post Normal' Science. http://buythetruth.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/climate-change-and-the-death-of-science/ http://buythetruth.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/climate-change-a...

Locke1689 17y ago

People tend to confuse climate and weather, i.e., it's cold out today so there isn't global warming and "we can't predict the weather a week in advance, how can we predict climate years in advance??!11!".

cantastoria 17y ago
wrt to you last "confused person" question. Has there been any study of how accurately climate models can predict climate (e.g. average global temperature) even five years out from a given year? Just to clarify... If I gave a climate model all the temp data from 1888-1990 and then said ok, what's the AGT in 1995? Would it be correct? I guess the difficult part would be finding a model that hasn't already been modified so it would be correct for 1995. You'd have to use the 1990 version of the modeling software.

btilly 17y ago

People who are inclined to be confused will be confused regardless. The rest of us already understand this point.

ax0n 17y ago

Or we're not retarded, but still enjoy making a mockery of the concept of (A)GW often in the name of snark alone. "skepticism" optional even if implied by the mockery. Also, it was yet another wonderful snowy, cold day for a bike commute. This is the only time of year people give me a whole lane to myself.

dschobel 17y ago

I thought that the scientific community had by and large backed off from the earth cooking to the more easily provable position of CO2 levels rising/oceans acidifying?

ellyagg 17y ago

That may be why you use it, but in general that phrase is used because it's more general, so it's easier to attribute any sort of anomalous climate phenomena to human causes and thus drive public policy.

azgolfer 17y ago

No one has more than a cursory understanding of how climate works. That's why there was no science called 'Climatology', until people realized it was a vehicle for doing 'Post Normal' Science. http://buythetruth.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/climate-change-and-the-death-of-science/ http://buythetruth.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/climate-change-a...