Difference between Climate Change and Global Warming

The term “global warming” is inaccurate and created a global knowledge debt around the real mechanism for climate change as far back as 2007. The same, and possibly greater problems, concern our use of the term “biodiversity” and its relationship to animal conservationWhy is animal conservation important? Animal conservation is important, because animals are the only mechanism to create biodiversity, which is the mechanism that creates a habitable planet for humans. Without animals, the energy from today’s plants (algae, trees, flowers etc) will eventually reach the atmosphere and ocean, much of it as carbon. The quantity of this plant-based waste is so More. All these concepts have to be understood correctly in order to make sense. If we don’t, we leave ourselves open to criticism and slow down acceptance of the principles needed to reverse catastrophic impacts on human life support.

Global warming was first mentioned in about 1989 and was most popular as a search term on Google in about 2007. This was a year after Al Gore published “An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It” (see Google Search Trends report, below).

When the Independent Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) did its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, it found “warming of the climate system is unequivocal”, and “very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations”. Since the first report in 1992, the term global warming was mentioned 23 fewer times than climate change.

Despite the scientific accuracy, it was too late to influence public and political communications.

The term “global warming” was firmly embedded in the international psyche. So much so, I still hear people today, in 2021 saying “global warming isn’t happening, just look at cold it’s been in Texas recently!” [Point of note, I’m editing this article three months later and the southern US is in the grip of its hottest summer ever].

Why climate change is a more accurate definition than global warming

On average, the world is warming but this is a linear concept for a complex system. The human mind likes to think linearly … global warming means it gets hotter.

What we’re really talking about is increased energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More. The Universe doesn’t care if its hot or cold. The natural laws that underpin climate change are about what form the energy is in and how it is distributed within our biosphere – the only linear concept we should be thinking about, is the difference between order and chaos(Of energy and ecosystems). Ecosystems are thermodynamically driven. Disorder occurs when energy dissipates and becomes more chaotic. For example, the release of hot air into the atmosphere results in that energy is freer to disperse (maximum entropy). The opposite is true when energy is locked into biological processes, when it is stored inside molecules (minimum entropy). Stability in ecosystems occurs More.

The more free energyThe energy of a system that is emitted as waste and is not part of ecosystem processes. There is always some free surplus energy as this creates the basis for evolution where new species exploit gaps in the ecosystem where free energy becomes available. Surplus energy can occur as a result of disruption or disturbance. When free surplus energy reaches More there is in a system, the more chaotic it is. Unpredictable floods, tidal surges, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, monsoon, seasonal rainfall and dust storms shatter world agriculture and displace huge numbers of people.

Increasing carbon dioxide makes things, on average, warmer but this affects the distribution of energy. Earth’s biosphere receives heat from the Sun and because energy can neither be created or destroyed, an increase in heat energy, means an increase in other energy types. Heating the Earth results in a change in the pattern of wind (kinetic) energy because the heat excites particles that expand.

It doesn’t mean everywhere becomes windier and hotter.

It’s more like the water in a bowl. The more you destabilise it by shaking, the greater the change in levels at the side. The water level at the bowl edge goes above and below the stable average but the distribution of the effect changes, as you move towards the centre of gravity.

If you’re unlucky enough to live near the edges of the bowl, you’ll be more seriously impacted.

If you blow over the back of your hand, it feels cold but the air from your lungs is warm. The stronger you blow, the colder your hand feels but the hotter the air gets, closest to your mouth. This is why Texas got colder weather. It also works in reverse. Australia has been on the wrong side of the equation and ended up with catastrophic bushfires and the same may be said for California.

Changing the narrative about climate, warming and biodiversity

Even when we talk about climate change, we’re really talking about collapse of biodiversityWhat is the definition of biodiversity? When we ask, what is the definition of biodiversity? It depends on what we want to do with it. The term is widely and commonly misused, leading to significant misinterpretation of the importance of how animals function on Earth and why they matter a great deal, to human survival. Here I will try to More. That is another term that has been horrendously misinterpreted, so much so, that the majority of global conservation policies I read, confuse it with species richnessThe number of species within a given area. Note, this is often confused with biodiversity but is very different. Species richness is not equal in all areas. Desert species richness is lower but the scale and intensity of species function can still be significant as biodiversity is not about number of species, it's about ecosystem processes. More.

We just entered the United Nations decade of biodiversity and one of the most important reports from the IUCN’s Guidance for using the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions (2020) incorrectly defines biodiversity as: the diversity of life in all its forms—the diversity of species, of genetic variations within one species, and of ecosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More.

The report states that climate change “is becoming the main driver of biodiversity loss in the coming years, affecting species, habitatsWhat is habitat for animals and people? Habitat, hence the word "habitable" describes the natural surroundings in which any animal (or human) lives, that houses basic needs, such as food and shelter. Vegetation, for example, is habitat for animals. On its own, habitat is not necessarily stable or sustainable, which is why it differs from an ecosystem. Habitat in disrepair More and ecosystems”. It’s the other way around. They are talking about species richness, not biodiversity.

Biodiversity is what stabilises the biosphere and reduces climate change. We’ve made climate about warming and biodiversity about extinction, prohibiting ourselves from connecting the two and how they relate to conservation and human life support.

Climate change is caused by biodiversity loss, whether that’s through burning fossil fuel or habitat destruction. Biodiversity is about the interaction of species, to create the structure, function(Of an ecosystem). A subset of ecosystem processes and structures, where the ecosystem does something that provides an ecosystem service of value to people. More and processes that result in life support for all animals, including humans.

A change in the narrative will be critical

It may seem trivial but simple ideas communicated in few words can spread like wildfire: Make America Great Again, Take Back Control, I Have a Dream … human language is a powerful tool but also a blunt remedy for communicating complex ideas. A couple of words out of place, can create decades of correction.

The good news is, more people are searching the term “climate change” now, with the lines crossing in about 2016, so we must be doing that right.

That narrative now needs to incorporate biodiversity principles in order to make sense. That will mean a huge effort to alter people’s perceptions about what biodiversity means to them.

The story we’re currently telling, in a few words, doesn’t add up– there is no way I could explain to anyone, how species richness relates to global warming, unless I first reframe the conversation as biodiversity (structure, function and process) and climate change (reversing chaos). The current story we’re telling is divergent.

It’s one of the reasons why the global conservation movement finds it so hard to convince anyone that conservation matters and it leaves conservationists open to political criticism.

In the link below, I review a report by Pew where the lead author has incorrectly ascribed marine habitat restoration to sargassum, rather than wildlife. An otherwise useful contribution to the narrative, shoots itself in the foot, by overlooking the role of wildlife and biodiversity. Good luck trying to convince Bolsonaro that the weed that’s killing his tourism, is good for the environment!

Needless to say, as this is the subject of my work, the lack of focus on wildlife-driven processes and the fact that humans have equivalent needs to all other animals, are facts that are inherently missing from most of the global dialogue.

I’d certainly like to see this change.