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Someone who calls it global warming is a bit behind the times, and that's typically how the GOP describes it. Sure, if certain areas just got a little warmer, i

Someone who calls it global warming is a bit behind the times, and that's typically how the GOP describes it. Sure, if certain areas just got a little warmer, it'd be easy to adapt to. The problem is CLIMATE change, we rely on our climate for crops, fish, lack of natural disasters, lack of drought, lack of polar vortex, and on and on. Unfortunately, I could believe a university atmosphere promotes ideological fervor and suppresses neutrality in this cancel-culture, overly PC society. But we really do need to stop using the term "global warming" in a serious way, this is bad science.

throwawaysea 7y ago
Isn't global warming exactly what's happening though? The average surface temperature of the Earth is rising. Yes it manifests in many different ways symptomatically but I think the planet-wide effect is ultimately a warming. I guess I see both as being valid terms rather than one being invalid.
- WhompingWindows 7y ago
  Yes, it's happening, though surface temperature is not as relevant as overall temperature (including oceans), because oceans absorb a LOT of heat and are rising in temp faster than the land. In any case, climate change is the better term, it's more generalizable to flooding, hurricanes, polar vortex, ecosystem collapse, coral bleaching, etc. If you use the term global warming, it conveys much less of how broadly the upcoming changes will be seen.
SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
Isn’t climate CHANGE saying “well, we don’t understand it well enough to specifically say what it’s going to do”? Seems like if we are making claims and enacting tax policy right now, we should at least be able to predict it’ll warm or cool. No? If the concern is sea levels rising, is that not warming?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- WhompingWindows 7y ago
  Climate change communicates different areas will be affected differently. For instance, the arctic warms incredibly fast, due to melting ice, reduced albedo, and disrupted polar vortex. In contrast, the USA is not warming nearly as fast as the arctic, but some areas are much more flood prone, hurricane prone, or prone to extreme weather (high highs in AZ, CA, FL, low lows in upper midwest (due to polar vortex aforementioned)). So, global warming is technically true, the average heat content of the globe is rising over time...but it's an outdated, over simplistic term because "warming" does not tell us that each locality is going to face a different reality. It's also used by skeptics to say "well, there's snow, so clearly warming is a hoax" or "well, MN has record low temps, global warming is a hoax." Actually it isn't, but ignorant politicians and voters may think it's a hoax if they only look in their own zip code for warming, and not for climactic changes everywhere.

throwawaysea 7y ago

Isn't global warming exactly what's happening though? The average surface temperature of the Earth is rising. Yes it manifests in many different ways symptomatically but I think the planet-wide effect is ultimately a warming. I guess I see both as being valid terms rather than one being invalid.

WhompingWindows 7y ago
Yes, it's happening, though surface temperature is not as relevant as overall temperature (including oceans), because oceans absorb a LOT of heat and are rising in temp faster than the land. In any case, climate change is the better term, it's more generalizable to flooding, hurricanes, polar vortex, ecosystem collapse, coral bleaching, etc. If you use the term global warming, it conveys much less of how broadly the upcoming changes will be seen.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago

Isn’t climate CHANGE saying “well, we don’t understand it well enough to specifically say what it’s going to do”? Seems like if we are making claims and enacting tax policy right now, we should at least be able to predict it’ll warm or cool. No? If the concern is sea levels rising, is that not warming?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
WhompingWindows 7y ago
Climate change communicates different areas will be affected differently. For instance, the arctic warms incredibly fast, due to melting ice, reduced albedo, and disrupted polar vortex. In contrast, the USA is not warming nearly as fast as the arctic, but some areas are much more flood prone, hurricane prone, or prone to extreme weather (high highs in AZ, CA, FL, low lows in upper midwest (due to polar vortex aforementioned)). So, global warming is technically true, the average heat content of the globe is rising over time...but it's an outdated, over simplistic term because "warming" does not tell us that each locality is going to face a different reality. It's also used by skeptics to say "well, there's snow, so clearly warming is a hoax" or "well, MN has record low temps, global warming is a hoax." Actually it isn't, but ignorant politicians and voters may think it's a hoax if they only look in their own zip code for warming, and not for climactic changes everywhere.