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Comment by _8j50 | Hacker News Reader

Hear me out: "Climate change" is a terrible phrase, of course climate changes, when talking to regular people that's like saying "water flow" to describe flooding. "Climate destabilization" or something akin to that would communicate what is happening better to the people that vote.

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At this point, there's been

- Inadvertent climate modification*

- Global Warming

- Anthropogenic Global Warming

- Global Heating

- Climate Change

- Climate Crisis

- Climate Emergency

I don't disagree with the thrust of your point, but the same argument you make against 'climate change' could also be made against 'climate destabilizaiton', since destabilization can have human and non-human causes (for example, the rise of plant life, asteroids, or the periodic advancement and retreat of the glaciers)..

The first term in the list above seems to capture the point a bit better, since 'inadvertent' strongly implies human agency is involved.

In practice, 'human caused' is implied in the terms 'global warming' and 'climate change'. For my money it's better to stick with those terms, and add 'anthropogenic' if there is potential for confusion.

* Thanks, wikipedia!

A lot of people (anti-vaxx types) don't buy it because of supposed incorrect past predictions bu science, they believe science is misinterpreting the cause of the change, so it is important to emphasize that you are not unsure about the cause and it is a very serious thing. Most people believe things when people they trust say so, since they know they lack the expertise themselves. So getting important people, politicians, celebrities use the best possible term I think is crucial.

> So getting important people, politicians, celebrities use the best possible term I think is crucial.

Getting them to be consistent in their messaging is even more important.

I agree, but clarifying your message is not being inconsistent.

Propaganda never works.

Umm... it works very well on most people, that's why i lt exists. If you doubt this, examine your own beliefs and look for propaganda.

It works temporarily. I prefer education.

"Artificial climate change", then?

Three decades of cooling was a concern.

No End in Sight to 30 Year Cooling Trend https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/05/archives/international-te...

That was a bit of a blip in the data. It has been warming in general in recent times.

Climate breakdown is commonly used in the UK.

It's symptomatic of the fuzzy thinking that tends to infect the area and this article especially. Of course the Earth's climate has been changing ever since it formed, some billions of years before capitalism. You can't really fix 'climate change' for that reason and that it's not really a measurable thing though if you say wanted to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere you could put a price on releasing or removing CO2 and capitalism would roar ahead on doing that.

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