Global Warming? Climate Change? Climate Destabilisation? Global Climate Emergency? What’s Really Going On

A lot of terms are being thrown around by people talking about climate change, and it can be confusing. Is it global warming or is it climate change? Should we be thinking of it as a crisis or emergency? And why does there seem to be so much hyperbole?

First, global warming is accurate. The Earth gets warmer or colder based on many factors, including our distance from the sun (which varies because the Earth’s orbit is an ellipse), fluctuations in the sun’s heat output, and the gases in Earth’s atmosphere. In the case of the current warming, the main cause is an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – of which we are the main cause.

Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide (NO2). CO2 is a direct result of burning fossil fuels; methane comes from various sources, but feedlot cattle are huge; and NO2 comes from various sources. All can be thought of as adding insulation to the Earth, thus trapping more of the sun’s energy and causing the Earth to warm.

If you are truly sceptical about whether global warming is happening or whether humans are the main cause, you should not be reading blogs by non-climate-scientists like me about it. You should be going back to the science. That’s what I had to do to convince myself. RealClimate is a great place to start, as it is run by real climate scientists. Otherwise, you’re going to have to read the actual scientific reports. I read enough of those to realise that RealClimate and the books mentioned in the next paragraph accurately reflect the science, but it’s heavy slogging.

If you do understand the science or are willing to accept well-sourced books, I have listed many great books in a previous post: One Man’s Journey from Climate Denier to Climate Realist: Why I Recommend Certain Books, Websites, and other Resources.

Global Warming or Climate Change?

Ok, so global warming is an accurate term for what is happening; why not stick with that? Well, while global warming is accurate, it doesn’t capture the whole picture – especially from the human point-of-view. The Earth doesn’t warm entirely evenly; in most places temperatures go up, but in some places temperatures decrease. The overall average is higher. More importantly, however, global warming causes climate change.

More heat means more energy, which means stronger storms, more forest fires, and so forth. While no reputable climate scientist would say that hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming (and Al Gore did not, either), most would agree that it was a contributory factor.

“…major storms spinning in both the Atlantic and the Pacific since the 1970s have increased in duration and intensity by about 50%.”
– MIT study, July 31, 2005

Forest fires have also increased, as most of us on the West Coast of Canada and the United States have noticed. Flood events worldwide are way up. Deserts are expanding and regions are drying up, a major contributor to the horror of Darfur. And you may well have heard that growing seasons are changing, pests are spreading, and so on.

Global warming sounds benign, pleasant even. Who wouldn’t like a warmer winter? In this sense, global warming does not capture the dangerous side of what is happening. Climate change doesn’t do that for most people either. So the growing season gets longer in northern areas – is that so bad?

Scientists understand that climate change is dangerous because they know that every living thing on this planet is suited for this climate. Change the climate and the species on the planet will also change. Change the climate enough, and there will be a mass extinction event, as has occurred in the past – and is occurring now.

Scientists know that humans cannot survive if most other species go extinct – if the web of life breaks.

Climate Destablisation = Crisis

Global warming is destabilising the Earth’s climate and top scientists are saying climate change is extremely dangerous. Thus it is fair and accurate to say that we face a crisis.

Language is critical. The words we use to describe our world determine how we see the world, so it is crucial that those words be accurate. Dictators always seize control of the media for this reason; they must control the message so that people do not see reality as it is but rather as the dictator wants them to see it. Inevitably, of course, reality prevails, but in the case of the climate emergency by the time that happens it will be far too late.

This is what makes climate deniers so dangerous. Certain vested interests have mounted a powerful campaign to influence how we see the “climate debate” – in itself a fraud and fabrication of the deniers. There is no “debate” among those connected to reality: the climate scientists. They know what the data says. The whole idea of a “debate” has been manufactured to keep people unsure and therefore resistant to the kind of action needed to combat the crisis. Climate deniers have become trapped by their own words and ideology, and are blind to reality.

An Appropriate Response to a Crisis

When faced with a crisis or emergency situation, the sensible response is swift and decisive action. If you doze off at the wheel and wake up to find yourself heading toward a cliff, you don’t tune the radio before braking and turning. This is exactly what deniers fear, because we need to put the brakes on anything producing greenhouse gases and turn away from our current self-destructive economic model that rewards excess consumption and waste. They fear this because their business model is built on consumption and waste; their power, prestige, and profit comes from it. The more we waste, the more they make.

An appropriate response to a crisis is to call it what it is and do whatever needs to be done to prevent damage. We are destabilising the climate that supports all life, including us. This is foolhardy and will ultimately be suicidal. We must have the courage to face up to what we are doing and change our ways, or we will join the dinosaurs.

The first step is to acknowledge that we have a problem, and so we must learn to use words that accurately describe our situation. Climate destabilisation leading to a climate crisis is accurate. Global warming and climate change do not accurately convey the danger at all.

A Period of Consequences

When one ignores a building crisis, eventually reality prevails and the disaster is that much greater. This quote from Winston Churchill has become justifiably famous:

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

He said these words in a speech to England’s Parliament a few years before World War II, a period characterised by, well, procrastination, delays, and so forth, largely led by business interests and wealthy people who didn’t want money spent on defence. Churchill was mocked for many years before the war for urging defence preparations be made against the madman Hitler and the incredible war machine he was building.

The parallels to our time are striking. Once again, business interests and the wealthy are blinded by concerns for their own wealth and position and are blocking action. They fund denial campaigns and use an overly business-friendly media to mock those of us who do see the reality of the situation. And once again, our elected leaders have aligned with money and power rather than with the common good.

England came within a hairs-breadth of being annihilated by the Nazis. Millions of people lost their lives in World War II, including six million in the Holocaust. It all could have been prevented by early action to stop Hitler building his war machine. The climate holocaust will dwarf the Nazi Holocaust; billions will die this time unless we take action now.

From that same speech, Churchill had this to say about the response of the leaders of that time:

Two things, I confess, have staggered me…. The first has been the dangers that have so swiftly come upon us in a few years, and have been transforming our position and the whole outlook of the world. Secondly, I have been staggered by the failure of the House of Commons to react effectively against those dangers. That, I am bound to say, I never expected. I never would have believed that we should have been allowed to go on getting into this plight, month by month and year by year, and that even the Government’s own confessions of error would have produced no concentration of Parliamentary opinion and force capable of lifting our efforts to the level of emergency. I say that unless the House resolves to find out the truth for itself it will have committed an act of abdication of duty without parallel in its long history.

And so here we are again. We must use words that accurately reflect the urgency and danger of the situation – words that reflect reality. We face a climate crisis, an emergency of the first order. We must respond appropriately, but we cannot and will not do so until we accept reality. And we we will not do that until we talk openly and honestly about the real danger of the climate crisis. It’s not hyperbole if it’s true.