climate change is happening. (implied in a term used by people all over the world now — extreme and catastrophic climate change caused by humans is happening).

don’t get caught up in semantics. there are bigger issues in the world, Mr. or Mrs. Hi.

“Climate change” is often implied to mean humans are changing the climate in a bad way. But climate change is just the climate changing like it always has. Misleading.

A more precise term would be “human accelerated global warming” – human influence is adding to an existing process. Instead, “human induced global warming” is often used to imply the cause is the sole responsibility of people. Misleading.

When you attempt to frame the debate by using misleading terms, expect people to question your credibility even if your underlying arguments are 100% correct.

But if your arguments are 100% correct, then you wouldn’t need to use terms that mislead.

The science behind this is about as universally accepted in the scientific community as anything in the world — not because other scientists are unaware of it but because the science is clear. Scientists from NASA to NOAA to the British Antarctic Survey have come to essentially the same findings repeatedly and independently using different data (the only thing that has been changing much is how rapidly the climate seems to be changing — keeps speeding up, it seems). That a Thief or Hacker who cherry-picked quotes from someone’s emails over the course of many years (and still couldn’t squeeze much controversy out of them) makes you question the science of climate change is actually very sad. That is how backwards things are.

@Hi: yes, “climate change” has been happening all throughout history, but at a much different pace and, thus, resulting in much different consequences than the human-induced climate change that is happening now. i would prefer if they had been more accurate in coining this term, calling it ‘climate change catastrophe’ or ‘rapid climate change’ or something else more accurate. but it is a term representing a phenomenon that has not been happening all through history — unprecedented greenhouse gas emissions and catastrophic climate change.

a little further reading on this subject:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/weekinreview/06zeller.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/02/copenhagen-climate-change-james-hansen

This is about the email controversy — representing both sides a little: http://www.physorg.com/news179052414.html

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