A nicely concise definition of ‘global warming‘ describes the phrase to be a noun, with the meaning”An increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, especially a sustained increase sufficient to cause climatic change.”
Global warming is a noun.
First we note that the two words “global warming” used together are considered a noun.
A noun is a person, place or thing so we understand that the phrase “global warming” is some thing.
From the definition we can guess that “global warming” is something that is probably a phenomenon
indicating an increased temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, the air surrounding the earth.
Not the air over our hometown or region or country but the air, the atmosphere of the globe, the sphere
that is our planet earth. The measurement is of the layer of atmosphere close to the earth’s surface,
both over the land and the sea.
Average temperature is something weather announcers talk about.
Notice the phrase “An increase in the average temperature” and think about what that might mean
in general. When your local weather forecaster says the ‘average temperature of this week’s daily
winter temperatures recorded at noon is 53.3° F” what does he mean?
We can understand that every day at noon the temperature is recorded, written down for the record. For
seven days in a week there are seven temperatures recorded for each day at noon. Adding the seven
temperatures together gives a sum. The sum of the seven noon-day temperatures divided by seven
days results in the average temperature for that week.
September 1 Noon 58° F
September 2 Noon 59° F
September 3 Noon 62° F
September 4 Noon 47° F
September 5 Noon 45° F
September 6 Noon 51° F
September 7 Noon 49° F
58° + 59° + 62° +47° + 45° + 51° + 49° = 373°
373° ÷ 7 days = 53.28 = approximately 53.3° F per week
So we can understand that an “increase” in the average daily, weekly, monthly or yearly (annual)
temperature will refer to a rise in the temperature, a higher average temperature.
“Climatic change” is the grammatically proper way to use the adjective “climatic” to describe the noun
“change.”
The short hand “climate change” became popular when a public relations fellow suggested that those against regulation of pollution to help decrease the rate of global warming use the words “climate change” interchangeably with “global warming.”
Reading the definition we see that climatic change is described as being caused by global warming. The amount of the rise in the average global atmospheric temperature is the rate at which the increase temperature occurs. The faster the rate of increase the more of a climatic change can be expected.
Scientists may not have even noticed this attempt at language manipulation for political purposes. That is because scientists were already using the phrase “climate change.” Some scientists felt more comfortable using “climate change” rather than “global warming” to describe the temperature rise phenomena because different locations on earth experience the change caused differently. But the shift to the climate is certain because the temperature increase impacts the oceans and the ocean currents are the conveyor belts of energy that runs the engine of climate.
The original definition we have been working from follows.
“Global warming is “An increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, especially a
sustained increase sufficient to cause climatic change.”
Now we can form our own definition using our new vocabulary and packing the definition with as much
information as we reasonably can.
*** “The phenomena termed global warming is the average of air temperatures recorded around the
earth (in the atmosphere close to the earth’s surface, above both land and sea) which under the
appropriate circumstances will cause a shift in climate (climate change).” ***
Global Warming
Global warming basics
