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Should global warming get a new name?
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by Rob Peters | February 18, 2008 at 09:55 am
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Is global warming too cutesy a term? Some scientists and writers say the phrase doesn't capture the gravity of the problem and have suggested phrases like "global disruption," "global heating," and "atmosphere cancer" instead.
It reminds me of Orwell's Doublethink--where words and catchphrases are deliberately constructed with hidden political messages.
Is that what's happening here? Does the phrase impose an opinion on the person using it, and if so, what's a better alternative?
John P. Holdren, the head of Harvard’s center on science and technology policy, is sick and tired of “global warming” — not just the problem, but the phrase. As the respondent to a panel on climate and the press at this year’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston (I was on the panel), he urged the media, and scientists who talk to the press, to substitute “global climate disruption” for that all-too-comfortable pair of words.
“We’ve been almost anesthetized by this term,” Dr. Holdren lamented. The atmospheric buildup of long-lived greenhouse gases is setting in motion centuries of shifts in climate patterns, coastlines, water resources and ecosystems, he said — hardly a transformation one would describe with a gentle word like warming.
1. the name.
Global is good.
Warm is good.
Even greenhouses are good places.How can “global warming” be bad?
I’m not being facetious. If the problem were called “Atmosphere cancer” or “Pollution death” the entire conversation would be framed in a different way.
2. the pace and the images.
One degree every few years doesn’t make good TV. Because activists have been unable to tell their story with vivid images about immediate actions, it’s just human nature to avoid the issue. Why give up something we enjoy now to make an infintesimal change in something that is going to happen far in the future?
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (9)
at 10:37 on February 18th, 2008
The Big Burn Up
at 14:24 on February 18th, 2008
BULLSH$T! How about that for Global Warming's new name. lol
at 14:32 on February 18th, 2008
Global warming has long been abandoned by US Republicans after the Luntz memo came out in 2003. Case in point:
"Climate change is less frightening than global warming. As one focus group participant noted, climate change "sounds like you're going from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale." While global warming has catastrophic connotations attached to it, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge"
If it were up to me, I'd name it:
"A heated global debate between politicians"
at 15:27 on February 18th, 2008
I think climate change is the most accurate and hence least political and hence best name for whatever is happening to this place.
at 15:42 on February 18th, 2008
The term "global warming" is a specific example of climate change, which can also refer to global cooling. In common usage, the term refers to recent warming and implies a human influence.
Hagop Kazazian has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:01 on February 18th, 2008
This is perhaps the most reproduced image of all time. It was taken by the astronauts onboard Apollo 17. For many people, this image changed the way they saw the planet. It is a perfect image in any collection dealing with our changing planet.
woodleywonderworks has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:20 on February 18th, 2008
we have to do something to change. this is what we are doing to our planet
JOSHNYC has contributed a photo to this story.
at 15:13 on February 19th, 2008
It's getting hot in here.
raurkrules has contributed a photo to this story.
at 06:31 on February 20th, 2008
Not my drawing, I took the pic at an Environmental-related conference in Bangalore, India in July'07. (Cute draw tho!) I guess I prefer "climate change" better, but its also a bit misleading. Sure, I'd go for something more powerful. -Ajay
sanaking has contributed a photo to this story.