The other day, a reader asked why I call climate change “climate change”, instead of “global warming”. The short answer is that, from my perspective, climate change does a much better job of giving people an accurate mental picture of what is going on. Global warming sounds like the world is just going to get hotter, and while that’s technically true on a global-average-temperature-basis, it doesn’t really reflect what’s happening locally.
And, frankly, what most people care about is the stuff that happens locally.
Today, Treehugger posted this NOAA video, which does a really good job of explaining one reason why a rising global average temperature can end up creating different climate change outcomes in different places. It’s a great 4-minute primer on why “global warming” is more than just warming.
Via Chris Tackett