Climate change vs Global Warming

musicismylife78

Its interesting how these two terms are now interchangable. They mean basically the same thing to most people in the u.s.

However I take issue with the terms. Climate Change can be good or bad. In fact the climate changes even when humans live in utopia and are living sustainably. Before columbus came, Native Americans lived in a climate that was being changed, at that time, being changed for the better. They cut and burned some forests down, and that was a healthy thing to do. They killed some buffalo. This is all to say climate has changed since time began.

Global Warming however is only bad. I cant think of anyone who thinks its a good thing. Global warming as a term implicates us as humans as well.

I think we as a society should start adopting Global Warming as the catch all phrase here or something new, but Climate Change to me is dead and silly.

tara

climate change is the new word for global warming, climate change isn't about things taht ocure naturally, it refers to something caused by humans. it's no longer called global warming because the earth will not warm equally everywhere, and some places will actually get colder. now, i forget that part of my ecology class, so i can't give you the details, but the term global warming isn't correct. generally the poles will warm a lot more than the rest of the world, and the equator not so much. rain patterns will also change, and that is the 'climate' and has nothing to do with temperature. make sense?

sourdough

Personally I prefer climate change because it tends to be a better reflection of what is happening. Global warming is accurate because of the global average temperature is rising, however it does not reflect the fact that some areas will not become very much warmer at all. Areas near the equator will see almost no difference in temperature, however climate patterns will change everywhere, including areas where temperature has not changed radically. Furthermore, climate change encompasses other effects such as increased precipitation or drought and extreme weather patterns.

I just find climate change to be a much better descriptive terms of the reality that goes beyond temperature.

When you refer to the first nations cutting trees and hunting buffalo etc, that is not climate change. That is environmental change which is different. Climate refers to long term weather patterns including temperature, but also precipitation levels etc. Climate change is not necessarily bad, however at the rate it is changing it moving at a rate where the natural world cannot adjust at the rate of change. This is resulting in mass extinctions as many breeding/spawning cycles etc are thrown out of whack.