By Any Other Name

Earth Day is coming up.

I've been thinking about the environment as a "brand", and the various problems it faces as "products" under that brand name.

Global warming seems to be the "in" problem these days. For a while, acid rain was the thing to be worried about. The ozone layer was a big deal for a while. Deforestation occasionally creeps back into popularity.

Now, I'm not one of those stubborn people who refuse to believe that the environment is at serious risk. But I can sometimes see how those people keep the blinders on since it seems like global warming is just the latest of many environmental fads. Plus, there's so much (apparently) conflicting information out there. It's quite common, for example, to see stories of bizarre weather that seem to contradict the idea that the climate is getting, well, warmer. "Ski resorts have longest season ever", "Record low temperatures in Eastern Canada", and so on. Inevitably, somebody rolls their eyes in response to these stories and says "Yup, that global warming sure is a problem," with sarcasm practically dripping off their lips.

Part of the problem is obviously education ("climate" is not the same as "weather", patterns are much more complex than "warm = less snow", etc.).

But I think a major issue is very very simple: We need to stop calling it "global warming" and refer to the problem by the much more accurate (but, perhaps, less-sexy) brand name of "climate change". Lots of people already do, of course, but it needs to be the standard term.