Dave King: ‘Climate change’ correct term

‘Climate change’ correct term

I am writing in response to the letter in the Gazette “Is it global warming or climate change?” (March 17) in which the writer suggested that the recent freak snowstorm would cause most people to doubt the validity of global warming.

Well, it hasn’t. A near-record percentage of Americans, and of course virtually all publishing scientists, believe in global warming because it is a fact that 11 of the warmest years on record have occurred in the past 13 years.

Nevertheless, we liberals no longer refer to it as “global warming,” not because we are being “clever,” but because that term doesn’t encompass the weird, dangerous and extreme meteorological events that are associated with global warming. These include last summer’s severe drought, the tornado in February, record warmth in March, and yes, freak spring snowstorms, all of which are almost certainly going to increase in strength and frequency until we curb our CO2 emissions.

Instead, folks who wish to be more precise when they discuss the threat these phenomena pose to our security, like noted liberal Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis, use the term “climate change.”

Dave King

Amherst

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