Skewing the Facts

In all fairness, I believe that it should be pointed out that the phrase "Global Warming" is was and always has been a misnomer. It led many people to believe that everywhere on Earth was getting warmer all at the same time. As any climate scientist will tell you, this is not how climate change works.

As University of Tennessee—Knoxville adjunct Professor of Information and Industrial Engineering and Northeastern University College of Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Auroop Ganguly [M.S., Civil Engineering, University of Toledo; Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology] put it to Angela Herring of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Stem Cell Institute on March 20, 2012:

“Global Warming…does not begin to convey the range of severe weather-related events and changes in weather patterns that can occur as a consequence of climate change…our more recent research suggested that cold snaps may persist into the end of this century. Thus…extreme cold events on the average may continue to be as severe and long lasting as they are currently.” [2]

In a February 17, 2010 article for the New York Times, Pulitzer-Prize-Winning author and journalist Thomas Friedman [M.Phil., Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford] popularized the term “Global Wierding”, first coined by Bard College Levy Economics Institute Center For Environmental Policy Professor of sustainable Management and Bainbridge Graduate Institute Professor of Sustainable Business Hunter Lovins [B.A. Political Science, Claremont Graduate University; J.D., Law, Loyola Maymount University Law School] and Stanford University Michael and Diane Ming Visiting Professor for Energy and Environment Amory Lovins [M.A. University of Oxford Merton College]:

“Here are the points I like to stress: Avoid the term “global warming”. I prefer the term “global wierding”, because that is what actually happens as… the climate changes. The weather gets weird…The fact that it has snowed like crazy in Washington—while it has rained at the Winter Olympics in Canada…is right in line with what every major study on climate change predicts: The weather will get weird; some areas will get more precipitation than ever.” [1]

1.      Friedman, Thomas. “Global Wierding Is Here”. The New York Times. February 17, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/opinion/17friedman.html?_r=0

2.      Herring, Angela. “What Is ‘Global Wierding’?” Northeastern University. March 20, 2012.  http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2012/03/globalweirding/