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Tuesday, May. 27, 2025

Was ‘global warming’ changed to ‘climate change’ because Earth stopped warming?

Sue Bin Park, Skeptical Science
no

Both “global warming” and “climate change” continue to be used as global temperatures continue to rise.

The two terms refer to different but related phenomena. Global warming captures increasing average global temperatures observed since the Industrial Revolution. Climate change speaks to the various environmental outcomes of this warming.

The last ten years (2015-2024) were the ten hottest on record, with 2024 breaking the record set in 2023. The last colder-than-average year was 1976. Climate scientists calculate global temperatures by averaging readings from thousands of weather stations, ships, buoys, and satellites around the world.

The 1956 paper “The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climatic Change” outlined CO2’s role in altering climate. Google Books indicates usage of “climate change” predated and surpassed “global warming” since the 1980s.

The only notable political push to favor “climate change” was a 2002 Bush administration memo that claimed the term was “less frightening” than “global warming.”

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Skeptical Science is a non-profit science education organization. Our goal is to remove a roadblock to climate action by building public resilience against climate misinformation. We achieve this by publishing debunking of climate myths as well as providing resources for educators, communicators, scientists, and the general public. Skeptical Science was founded and is led by John Cook, a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne.

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