What's in a Name? Study shows we need to call it 'Global Warming' to convey any urgency

Republicans are more effective in using emotionally evocative language than Democrats usually have been. They've taken the lessons consultants like Frank Luntz has taught them to heart. Democrats and Environmentalists think enumerating facts that support our arguments is enough to be more persuasive than our opponents, when its proved insufficient in our recent efforts to create national policies that address Global Warming in a meaningful way.

Now a new poll sheds some light on why our calling it Climate Change makes it seem less urgent and a less compelling reason for making substantial changes to the status quo.

Americans care deeply about 'global warming' – but not 'climate change' Yale researchers have found that the two terms, often used interchangeably, generate very different responses

By Suzanne Goldenberg

New research released on Tuesday found Americans care more deeply when the term "global warming" is used to describe the major environmental challenge. "Climate change", in contrast, leaves them relatively cold.

The two terms are often used interchangeably but they generate very different responses, the researchers from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communications and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communications said.

“Those two terms get heard and interpreted in very different ways,” Anthony Leiserowitz, a research scientist at Yale and one of the lead authors, told The Guardian. “The choice of these two terms really does matter, depending on who you are talking to.”

The term “global warming” resonates far more powerfully, triggering images of ice melt, extreme weather and catastrophe. Mention “climate change”, however, and many Americans begin to disengage, the researchers found.

The researchers found naming the issue as “global warming” rather than climate change made it easier to connect. Americans in general were 13% more likely to say that global warming was a bad thing.

The differences were even more pronounced among Latinos, African-Americans, women, and young people.

So spread the word. Calling this unfolding catastrophe 'Climate Change' makes people's eyes glaze over. We need to call it 'Global Warming' instead.