Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Down To Earth

At least it’s not inadvertent climate modification anymore

Many of our astute readers may notice that over the course of a year or so we have steered away from using the term global warming, instead choosing the more encompassing, and more accurate term climate change.

Here in Spokane and the Inland Northwest, the reasoning was very clear after some 80 inches of snow blanketed the region. “So much for global warming,” is a phrase we heard often. Aside from being snarky and ineffective, that's just not supported by science - and DTE is all about science.  So who would we be if we didn't clear up this conception.  And not to sound pretentious, but having to debate the technicalities of climate change versus global warming with less informed people was taking away from our quest to engage in more science.  Not to mention that we were typically debating with the type of person either predestined for arguing just to argue, or with negative preconceptions hell bent on debunking wildly accepted theories.

This isn’t a chicken or egg argument or even an either/or scenario – both climate change and global warming are scientific explanations to serious problems our planet faces.  According to a post on The Huffington Post“Today most scientists use the term "global warming" when referring to surface temperature increases, while "climate change" is used when referring to everything else that contributes to the increases in greenhouse gas emissions and all other effects.”

Now that that’s settled – here’s a brief history of the terms global warming and climate change.

1970: referred to as "inadvertent climate modification."

1975: the first reference to the term "global warming." A 1975 article by by geochemist Wallace Broecker appeared in the journal Science titled: "Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?"

1979: a National Academy of Science study abandons the use of the term "inadvertent climate modification."

1980's: the term "global change" began to be used.

1988: "global warming" is popularized by NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen. According to NASA, it was the highly publicized Congressional testimony of Dr. James Hansen in 1988 in which he stated that, ""global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and the observed warming," that saw the term "global warming" become a popular reference in the mainstream media



Down To Earth

The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.