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Is this how we ended up shifting from "global warming" to "climate change"? Improved models showing that things won't just get warmer, they'll go all kinds of s

• snowwrestler 10y ago
  The change in terminology doesn't have scientific significance, it was done to try to improve public understanding. Basically "warming" in popular usage means "I can take my jacket off now", whereas warming in scientific usage means "increasing the heat energy stored in a given volume." Scientists have known for a long time that global warming (increasing the heat stored in the atmosphere) would create both local heating in some areas and local cooling in others (it's chaotic). But when a regular person hears "warming" and then the temperature goes down, they're confused. Hence "climate change." Incidentally, predicting the local effects of warming is a major goal of GCMs, and one for which no other tool will do. But it's damn hard (again: it's chaotic).
• flukus 10y ago
  When do you think this shift took place? The IPCC was established in the 80's.