[Vision2020] Scitizen: Call it "climate disruption" says John P. Holdren, Director of Woods Hole Research Center

[Paul Rumelhart]

How about "climate devastation" or "climate destruction" or "climate 
implosion"?  Maybe throw the word "gratuitous" in there somewhere.  
"Gratuitous climate destruction" sets the right tone of blame and 
indignation.  "Beleaguered climate forcefully striking back at evil 
people driving Hummers" probably won't fit in your standard newspaper 
headline.

Paul

Ted Moffett wrote:
> John P. Holdren's bio:
> http://www.whrc.org/about_us/whos_who/cv/jholdren.htm
>  
> --------
> http://scitizen.com/climate-change/words-matter-call-it-climate-disruption-says-john-p-holdren_a-13-2227.html
>  
>
>
>   Words Matter: call it "climate disruption" says John P. Holdren
>
> 16 Sep, 2008 10:30 am
>
> *I first saw John P. Holdren/ /speak at the Chicago Humanities 
> Festival last year. I was very impressed by his savvy, big-picture 
> take on the whole climate-energy problem. In particular, I like the 
> phrase he is advocating: "climate disruption".*
>
> **
> I'm not sure of the origins of "Global Warming" but it was in common 
> usage among scientists when I entered the field in the early 90's. As 
> Holdren said, "warming" sounds almost benign; like a balmy day on the 
> beach. The big problem with this phrase is that it implies that it's 
> all about temperature. Precipitation is actually a bigger thing to 
> worry about. It also implies that its uniform ("global") when there 
> will be large regional differences in response and only a warming in 
> the global-average sense. The global average temperature is a good 
> index for scientists to talk about with each other but not much good 
> for policy planning.
>
> "Climate change" is a phrase popularized by Republican pollster Frank 
> Luntz <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Luntz> who advised the Bush 
> administration and Republicans everywhere to use it instead of "global 
> warming". This phrase is incredibly wishy-washy: Its "change": Maybe 
> up, maybe down, maybe no big deal! Personally, I've managed to make it 
> an exact simile for "global warming" and so will sometimes use it but 
> it should really be avoided by scientists when talking to the public.
>
> Now "climate disruption" is much better. The general pattern of 
> climate where you live, the extremes and patterns of precipitation, 
> clouds, snowfall, storms and temperature, are going to be disrupted 
> from their normal patterns. "Disruption" is an edgy, angry word that 
> gets your attention. Its probably not benign. Let's all try to use it.
>
> Another good phrasing that Holdren uses is our three options for 
> dealing with climate disruption: adaptation, mitigation and suffering. 
> We are already doing some of each and what's up for grabs is the 
> future mix.
>
> You can find video of Holdren's talk at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum 
> and a pdf of his slides here 
> <http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/17661/global_climate_disruption.html>.
>
> Originally published on: Climate spin <http://climatespin.blogspot.com/>
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>
>  
>
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