Global Warming Versus Climate Change: We Used to Have Winter
Editor’s note: This post is part of the Green Moms Carnival, which is hosted on our very own MC Milker’s blog The Not Quite Crunchy Parent. This month’s topic is global warming.
I recently assisted in a historical slide show of our small mountain community, and when this slide came up of the US Forest Service ranger station in 1931, a senior citizen who had lived in our valley since she was a young girl said, “We used to have winter.” This statement sent butterflies to my stomach, and it made me reflect on what my own grandparents used to tell me about winter. Their stories of trudging to school in several feet of snow always felt like old exaggerated tall tales, but were they? What will we tell our grandchildren about winter?
When talking to children about what is happening to our seasons, I feel it is important to use correct terminology.
We really aren’t experiencing just global warming, but we are experiencing climate change. The term “climate change” includes changes in weather systems as part of its definition, rather than simple “global warming”, which refers to the overall warming of average temperatures.
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These terms are not interchangeable, and I believe that climate change more accurately portrays the long term crisis we are potentially facing. This issue in semantics may not seem important in the big picture, but I believe in equipping children with the proper terminology. The Grinning Planet describes the difference between climate change and global warming:
Climate change is about much more than how warm or cool our temperatures are. Whereas “global warming” refers to increasing global temperatures, “climate change” refers to regional conditions…
Even though the main threat right now is warming planetary temperatures, climate change can also mean global cooling…
It’s worth remembering that global warming is based on an increasing average global temperature. Some parts of the planet (such as the Arctic) are getting warmer much faster than other areas. It’s even possible that some regions could actually experience regional cooling at the same time the planet as a whole is experiencing global warming.
Climate change more accurately describes what is happening and what could happen if we don’t fix this problem now. Global warming is more of a mainstream term, and yes, I sometimes err and use the terms interchangeably, but we owe it to our children to try to teach them accurate terminology for a problem they will be addressing in throughout their entire lifetimes. Let’s hope they don’t have to tell their grandchildren, “We used to have summers where we could go outside.”
Thanks for the thoughtful post and the terminology reminder: “climate change” sounds so much more chilling (no pun intended!) than the unfortunately over-used “global warming.” We already have to say “we used to have passenger pigeons” and a number of other now-extinct species - I hope we can all do our part to help avoid adding more animals (and seasons) to this list.
Even with climate predictions of global warming, I have been surprised that most of the recent winters where I live (in New England) have been consistently above average temperatures. That just doesn’t hold statistical value as a trend. This winter is a reminder that eventually things approach a mean. It is so cold and snowy this winter here. I am told that Arctic sea ice has suddenly grown this winter out to the same extent that it was in 1979 when global cooling was the big concern and that the polar bears have thus bought themselves at least a few more years.
[...] Fairs took place on frozen rivers across the country. We’ve got into the habit of thinking that Global Warming means warmer, wetter winters, but suppose it doesn’t? Suppose our climate becomes unpredictable [...]
Sadly, we’ve been conditioned by the press to think that any variation in weather or a ‘bad’ storm means human-caused catastrophe. I have sobering news. There’s always variable weather and there will always be bad storms.
With all this ice melting, I’m waiting for the sea levels to rise. How come I still have to walk the same distance to get to the beach? How come it was the same distance 100 years ago? How come a map of Florida in 1922 looks the same as it does today?
When I don’t have to turn my heat on in October here in Massachusetts, then I’ll believe ‘global warming’. Until then, it’s 100% bunk.
The press has done a good job of brainwashing people. The weather is here for all to see: trust your own observations.
Climate change..IT IS a natural process. Your grandparents USED TO have winter then it changed now it is changing back….ALL part of Nature it is natural and nothing to get freaky over.
[...] sending a message. This December the world’s leaders will meet in Copenhagen to discuss the climate and amend the current climate treaty. It’s time to put pressure on our leaders to [...]