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A disaster seeking a name

It's widely accepted that the earth's climate is changing, and not for the better.

Once in a century weather events are happening every decade and once in a decade events seem to happen every year or two. Something is happening -- all we need is consensus on what's causing it and how we can address the issue before it's too late.

Initially, scientists told us there was this "greenhouse effect" taking place. This effect, we were warned, was causing "global warming".

When symptoms of this global warming, such as displaced polar vortices appeared to contradict the "warming" claims, governments and scientists scrambled to rename this greenhouse-gas induced global warming and the name they came up with was "Climate Change".

Ah yes, that'll do nicely -- because nobody can dispute the fact that our climate is indeed changing.

However, this is still not a satisfactory piece of nomenclature for some and now we have a new name being suggested...

Perhaps "climate change" is too benign for some. Maybe they think it'll be easier to justify taxes and demands for greater research funding if they come up with a somewhat more threatening title.

In the USA, White House science advisor John Holdren has decided to lift the implied threat level a little and attach the tag "climate disruption" to this phenomenon.

"Disruption" sounds a lot more threatening than "change" don't you think?

So now we're no longer battling a gentle warming of the planet which has created a change in our climate -- we're facing the global disruption of our climate.

Yep, that'll be good for a bunch of new taxes and plenty of cash for the coffers of governments and researchers alike!

Of course I'm saying this with my tongue firmly in cheek -- although I hasten to add that although I'm convinced we are experiencing significant levels of "climate disruption", I remain somewhat on the fence in respect to the root cause.

Yes, treating our ecosphere as a giant ash-tray and chemical waste-bowl is most certainly not helping and is an issue that must be addressed immediately (if not sooner) -- however, it must surely be essential to identify and quantify any non-anthropomorphic factors that are involved.

It's all well and good to go all Roman Catholic and whip ourselves for our sins -- but science ought to be based on research and solid fact -- not driven by some misplaced belief that everything is our own fault and we must be punished for our offending and the offending of our forebears.

From where I stand, the politicians can call it whatever they want - but they *must* accurately identify the true causes and quantify them so that we can come up with some seriously effective countermeasures -- or at least some strategies for surviving the ultimate medium to long-term effects.

And, for the record, I'm picking the next name for this phenomenon will be "Climate Catastrophe" -- that's the obvious next step in the escalation of the descriptive prose.

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