A better definition of global warming.

Some people have been saying that global warming should be referred to as climate change so that people understand the principle better. But climate change could mean anything I guess from the turn of winter into spring to the fluctuations in the weather from year to year. Perhaps we should call it climate change due to global warming.

I'm saying this because I've just read another article where someone thinks that global warming just means that the climate is just going to get warmer and warmer uniformly across the whole planet. It has been pointed out time and time again that this is not the case.

Quote from the article

"Glaciers are melting, holes are detected in the ozone layer, emission of greenhouse gasses is rising, yet we have just gone through an unusually cold winter and spring is unseasonably late arriving - it is hard to get alarmed"

It's been known for some time that the effects of climate change are having an effect on the gulf stream and that the likely effect of that is that the temperatures will change because of this and could get noticeably colder as time goes on. There are many elements that the weather turns on across the planet and this means that there's going to be different effects as the eco systems break down and change. No one knows for sure what will happen, just that it really does not look like good news. The melting of the ice will effect many changes away from the ice caps.

The scientific thought behind what is happening now was put forward over a century ago by some British scientists. It isn't something that's just being fished out of thin air to fit what's happening now. Obviously what's happening now is far more comple that the original thoughts on the subject. And the fact remains that, regardless of scientific models, the future has to remain somewhat of a mystery because of the complex interaction of the elements of the eco system.

But not enough of a mystery to see where some effects will be felt. It's just that there might be other reactions resulting from different events too.

I doubt if some parts of Europe will be quite so gung ho about the effects of global warming after the droughts that have affected them over the past couple of years.

But global warming doesn't necessarily mean that everything will be heating up in one full swoop. The complexity of the eco systems means that some places could get colder as the effects that have kept warmer weather nearer the land change.