[Coral-List] Coral-List Digest, Vol 101, Issue 3 Expert Disagreement in Climate, Science

[Booth, Charles E. (Biology )]

Gene Shinn concluded his commentary on global warming vs climate change by
saying:  "I suggest we drop the
term climate change and say what we mean-----global warming.²

The use of global climate change instead of global warming is quite
straight forward, and not at all nefarious or deceitful:

The rationale for the terminology change was addressed in a NASA.gov blog
(among other places - I just happen to have this reference handy):
 What's in a Name? Global Warming vs. Climate Change, by Eric Conway
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate_by_any_other_name.html


In addition to the direct effects of rising temperatures on organisms, the
terrestrial climate is clearly changing:  Precipitation patterns,
temperature extremes, mean temperatures, wind patterns, etc, which is
altering animal and plant communities in various ways, e.g., the timing of
biological activities (phenology) such as leaf fall, new leaf formation,
flowering, insect reproduction, initiation of migration,mismatches between
animals and their food supply (e.g., insect larvae and their plant food;
hatchling birds and their insect food) and mammals whose change in coat
color is now out of synch with the onset of winter or snow melt in the
spring. These impacts been well documented, for example:

Visser ME, van Noordwijk AJ, Tinbergen JM, Lessells CM(1998) Warmer
springs lead to mistimed reproduction in great tits (Parus major).Proc R
Soc Lond B265:1867­1870
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1689367/pdf/F5T9NG559TP4RTB7_26
5_1867.pdf


Willmer, P. (2014) Climate Change: Bees and Orchids Lose Touch. Current
Biology  Volume  24, Issue 23 pR1133­R1135, 1 December 2014
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/issue?pii=S0960-9822(14)X0023-0>,

Mills,L.S. Et al. (2013) Camouflage mismatch in seasonal coat color due to
decreased snow duration  PNAS 110(18): 7360-7365
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/18/7360.short



Gils, J.A van et al (2016)Body shrinkage due to Arctic warming reduces red
knot fitness in tropical wintering range.  Science  1Vol. 352, Issue 6287,
pp. 819-821    http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6287/819


Huey, R.B. Et al. (2010) Science 328: 832-833
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/328/5980/832.full


"Global warming² does not convey the impacts that rising temperatures are
having on plant and animal communities; climate change, I would argue, is
a better choice.


Chuck Booth

------------------------------
Dr. Charles E. Booth
Dept. of Biology
Eastern Connecticut State University
Willimantic, CT  06226

Ph:  860-465-5260 (office)
FAX: 860-465-5213
Email: booth at easternct.edu




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