Climate change seems to be the most frequent label used in the media and science currently, including among my co-authors (Dai et al. 2017; Duque-Lazo et al. 2018). Three decades ago climate warming was the term of choice in general as well as for my international institute (Beek & Gils 1992). The reason for moving from warming to change seems obvious. But when did the switch occur? Was is gradually or more suddenly initiated by a conference, publication or other event? Or by better understanding?
@ Nirmala Thanks for pertinent reference
@ Guoyu Ren Thanks for interesting references; could you help me by providing the year of your relevant paper?
Indeed as the NASA reference explains, a spatial scaling issue plays a role. Warming at the global scale and change other than warming at the subcontinental scale. On the latter, if the gulf stream would slow down by global warming, it may result in colder winters in NW Europe.
But my question on the timing of the terminology change, if any has not been answered yet.
Although the number of people who use the expression of climate change has increased rapidly in recent years, the number of those who think it is too early to say is quite high.
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