In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare wrote: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Shakespeare's point, of course, was that the true nature of a thing matters more than what we call it.
Dr. John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, might not agree. Holdren says that the term "global warming" is a "dangerous misnomer," which should be replaced by "global climate disruption."
Holdren suggested a similar name change during a 2007 speech at Harvard University, but he made the point twice more within the past couple of weeks, first in his presentation at the 2010 Kavli Prize Science Forum in Oslo, Norway on September 6 and again during his remarks at the Environmental Protection Agency's 40th anniversary celebration of the Clean Air Act on September 14.
According to Holdren, the term "global warming" implies something "gradual" and "uniform across the planet" that is "mainly about temperature" and "quite possibly benign." Instead, Holdren says, what's really happening is "highly non-uniform, not just about temperature, rapid, compared to capacities for adjustment" and "harmful for most places and times."
In other words, Holdren thinks "global warming" sounds cozy rather than catastrophic, and that calling the phenomenon something that offers a more precise description of an urgent problem--one that we ignore at our peril--may help shake people out of their complacency and make them take notice, perhaps even motivate them to take action.
Chances are Holdren's new name for global warming won't catch on, but it's worth a try.
With climate legislation stalled in Congress, no effective international treaties in place to control greenhouse gas emissions, every Republican Senate candidate in 2010 a confirmed climate denier, and polls showing public concern about global warming rising and falling faster than temperatures surrounding a summer hailstorm, something needs to change besides the climate.
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