User:Mu301/Climate change

Global Warming vs. Climate Change

See [https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate_by_any_other_name.html ''What's in a Name? Global Warming vs. Climate Change''] for an overview of how the terminology has changed over time. (through 2008)

There has been a significant shift in search engine "hits" for the two phrases with a crossover point about five years ago where CC became more common than GW and a similar longer term trend occurring earlier in books.

Academic publications
The references in this list analyze popular usage and perceptions of the terminology. Some are written from the perspective of strategic communication while others merely try to understand how different demographic groups understand the terms. Many of the studies are out of date as usage has evolved recently. There are few recent (since 2015) works in this area. I tried to select quotes that define or compare the most common phrases. They are not intended to summarize the conclusions of the sources.

Sources are listed in chronological order with most recent at the top.








 * In general, global warming refers to the rising global average surface-level temperatures that scientists have linked to human activities (chiefly, fossil fuel combustion that creates heat-trapping greenhouse gases), whereas climate change encompasses broader changes to the state or variability of the climate (e.g., increased precipitation, ocean acidification)


 * Even though climate scientists distinguish between climate change (CC) and global warming (GW) (with CC being the more general term that refers to changes in a broad range of climate conditions over time and GW referring to only the global earth temperature increase aspect of climate change), the general public and the media often use the two terms interchangeably.