Back in 1896—when the ink on the Industrial Revolution was barely dry and folks still thought burning coal was just a good way to stay warm—Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius sat down with a pen, a brain, and too much time on his hands. He figured out that pumping carbon dioxide into the air might just turn this blue marble into a slow-cooked casserole. He didn’t call it global warming or climate change—he just called it science.
Then came Guy Callendar in 1938. He did the math and found that CO₂ was stacking up like unpaid bills—and it was getting hotter. But the world was too busy goose-stepping toward World War II to give a damn about the thermostat.
By 1956, a New York Times article picked up on Gilbert Plass’s work and dropped the phrase “climate change” into the mix, just as a warning shot. Then in 1966, the science journal Science published an article literally titled “Climate Change.” The evidence was piling up. The warnings were getting louder. And the response from the powers that be? Meh.
Finally, in 1988, NASA’s James Hansen kicked the door in with a sweaty Senate testimony and declared “global warming” a real, measurable threat. That phrase hit like a punch—it had urgency, heat, and the kind of ring that made people look up from their TVs.
Which is exactly why it didn’t last.
In 2002, political strategist Frank Luntz advised the Bush administration to ditch the term “global warming” for the less-alarming “climate change.” Why? Because it sounded more neutral. Like the planet was just going through a phase.
And that’s the con. They didn’t change the name because the science changed.
They changed it because the truth was bad for business.
That’s why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned the phrase from all governmental communications and publications—business comes first.
Let’s be clear:
“Global warming” is the fever. “Climate change” is the full-body disease.
We’re not just talking about a few hot days in July. We’re talking:
- Melting glaciers and rising seas that swallow coastlines inch by inch
- Acidic oceans that choke out coral reefs and gut the food chain
- Mega-droughts and flash floods that destroy crops and displace millions
- Wildfires that rage like hell’s own arsonist across California, Greece, and Australia
- Supercharged storms and heat domes that cook cities from the inside out
- And yes—record-breaking heatwaves that turn sidewalks into frying pans and make air conditioners a matter of life and death
Climate change is not just a shift in weather. It’s the Earth’s life support system glitching out in real time. It’s A-fib for Earth. A planetary systems failure dressed up in polite vocabulary.
Now—some guy on Facebook recently claimed “climate change is just weather.”
Well, I’m not a scientist.
But I am an investigative journalist, and here’s what I know how to do: track facts, chase sources, connect dots, and call bullshit when I see it.
And calling climate change “just weather” is like calling a Category 5 hurricane a light breeze with attitude.
If your house floods every 500 years, that’s weather.
If it floods five times in ten years, that’s climate change.
- And if you’re still calling that weather? You might want to sit this science conversation out and go holler at some clouds.
This isn’t just “Mother Nature being moody.” It’s the result of 150 years of pumping CO₂, methane, and hot air (mostly from politicians) into the sky and pretending the bill would never come due.
So yeah, we changed the words.
The scientists used “climate change” because it reflected the full body of evidence.
The politicians used it because it sounded softer.
But the damage?
That part is very real, very permanent, and very much not weather.
The planet isn’t just changing.
It’s breaking.
And calling it anything else is like saying your roof just “adjusted” after a hurricane ripped it off the house.
So next time you hear someone try to water this down with a folksy “We’ve always had weather,” go ahead and smile.
Then hand them this column—and maybe a fire extinguisher.
Because this isn’t a season or just “weather.” It’s an alarm.