Lets rename "Global Warming" something like "Pollution Death"

                                                      Oh NO!  Its the Dreaded Pollution Death!

In places like Alaska, when temperatures drop to -40° in the winter, its hard to get too upset about "global warming."  In fact global warming starts to sound pretty good.  Alaskans often joke about it in the winter saying things like "Where's that global warming?"   And "Sure could use some of that global warming"

The same thing happens in Chicago and the Midwest, or Scandinavia, or New England, or Canada, or just about anywhere that gets cold in the winter.  When you are out in some cold winter weather, global warming sounds about as scary as a warm fireplace and a hot chocolate drink.

Maybe its time to change the name of global warming to something .... scarier.  Something that will get people's attention.

The first person to complain about the term "global warming" was James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis.  Lovelock hated the term global warming because  “Warming is something that’s kind of cozy and comfortable. You think of a nice duvet on a cold winter’s day.   Lovelock, after considerable thought, argued that it would be better to call it "global heating" because "Heating is something you want to get away from.”   

Well, pardon me, but the term "global heating" really isn't any scarier then "global warming."  When its -40° outside I'll take either global warming or global heating......or both at once.   No----if we want to scare people about global warming we've got to do better than "global heating."

 Harvard Professor John Holden gave a speech a few years ago at the American Association for the Advance of Science and suggested changing global warming to "global climate disruption".  Then a few months later he changed his mind and said global climate disruption isn't scary enough and suggested using "global climate instability" instead.    Uhh......what was that scary term again? Global climate ...indecision???

Maybe re-naming global warming actually isn't a job for a scientist.  Maybe we need a political spinmeister or an advertising guru like Seth Godin.  Well, Mr. Godin has already offered his suggestions---he says scientists need to stop talking about global warming and start talking about either "atmospheric cancer" or "pollution death."

OK.....that works.  No way people are going to joke about wanting more "pollution death" no matter how cold it gets in the winter.