Tuesday 12 May 2015

spastic global warming

Ted Stevens recently said the following on his co-sponsoring a bill that would impose a cap-and-trade on carbon dioxide.
(bill) is not just a flash-in-a-pan, publicity stunt. . . . is a very modified cap-and-trade concept and it has a balance in it. It is dealing with global climate change rather than a spastic kind of global warming.
I think spastic is considered an offensive word, but aside from that, it looks like Stevens is trying to differentiate between a reasoned, scientifically sound "climate change" and an emotional, irrational "global warming."
I think he might be missing the point. The two terms get used interchangeably, but actually have very different meanings. The simplest explanation Ive seen is from Tim Flannery in "The Weather Makers," who writes,
Greenhouse gases are a class of gases that can trap heat near Earths surface. As they increase in the atmosphere, the extra heat they trap leads to global warming. warming in turn places pressure on Earths climate system and can lead to climate change.
And this on the difference between weather and climate:
Weather is what we experience each day. Climate is the sum of all weathers over a certain period, for a region or for the planet as a whole.
Oh, refreshing clarity!
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