Global warming word games

Perhaps, before we 'fix' climate change, we should accurately define what it is.

In a recent New York Times article, cheekily titled "Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus," John Broder notes environmentalists today prefer "climate change" to "global warming."

He quotes Robert Perkowitz, president and founder of ecoAmerica, a non-profit environmental marketing and messaging firm, explaining: "When you say 'global warming' a certain group of Americans think that's a code word for progressive liberals, gay marriage and other such issues."

"Climate change," Perkowitz says, is an easier sell.

One would think so, given there hasn't been any "global warming" since 1998 in that the Earth's average global temperature -- a pretty shaky concept to begin with -- hasn't gone up in the past decade.

Then again, "climate change" -- as it's used by politicians and environmentalists -- is also an inaccurate term.

The climate is always changing. It changed for billions of years before man arrived on Earth, so to use "climate change" when what is meant is "anthropogenic climate change" or "man-made climate change" is absurd.

Anthropogenic climate change is the change caused by man's burning of fossil fuels, as opposed to the natural emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere caused by, for example, erupting volcanoes, forest fires, all decomposing living matter and every one of us when we breathe out.

Then there's the issue of the word "change" in the phrase "climate change" because it begs the question -- "change" from what?

Fact is, we have no "natural" climate against which climate "change" or, more accurately, "anthropogenic climate change" can be measured... [snip]

Finally, my favourite, the "carbon offset" -- used by jet-setting politicians, environmentalists, UN delegates, movie stars, rock bands, professional athletes and other rich celebrities to claim all that flying and voracious energy consumption they're doing is "carbon neutral" because they're paying somebody else not to emit carbon dioxide in the future.

What would be the correct phrase describing carbon offsets, you ask?

That's easy: "Utter bulls--t."

Actually, I believe that's the technical term.

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