Term choice in climate discourse measurably shifts public concern and action

Evidence

What environmental changes are called makes a big difference in their social impact. When earth’s rising surface temperature is called “global warming,” people are more likely to view it as worrisome, a personal threat, catastrophic in its effects, already happening, requiring higher governmental priority, and evoking climate activism than if it is called “climate change” (Leiserowitz, Maibach, Roser-Renouf, Smith, & Dawson, 2013). People believe that glaciers are melting faster in the context of “global warming” than in the context of “climate change.” The term climate change, which refers to diverse, long-term changes, is less emotionally engaging than images of high temperatures and extreme weather events evoked by the term global warming. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2703

Categorization

• SHARE: For a researcher into framing or environmental communication — the Leiserowitz finding that ‘global warming’ outperforms ‘climate change’ on perceived urgency is a clean experimental result.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2703
• XREF: connects to: New media expose more climate science while shrinking comprehension needed to act on it. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 844