Energy Department climate office bans use of phrase climate change

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

A supervisor at the Energy Department's international climate office told staff this week not to use the phrases "climate change," "emissions reduction" or "Paris Agreement" in written memos, briefings or other written communication, sources have told POLITICO.

Employees of DOE’s Office of International Climate and Clean Energy learned of the ban at a meeting Tuesday, the same day President Donald Trump signed an executive order at EPA headquarters to reverse most of former President Barack Obama's climate regulatory initiatives. Officials at the State Department and in other DOE offices said they had not been given a banned words list, but they had started avoiding climate-related terms in their memos and briefings given the new administration's direction on climate change.

The Office of International Climate and Clean Energy is the only office at DOE with the words "climate" in its name, and it may be endangered as Trump looks to reorganize government agencies. It plays a key role in U.S. participation in the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation, two international efforts launched under Obama that were designed to advance clean energy technology.

The office has regular contact with officials from foreign countries, which may have led to the more aggressive action on language than in other offices, a source said. At the meeting, senior officials told staff the words would cause a "visceral reaction" with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, his immediate staff, and the cadre of White House advisers at the top of the department

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/energy-department-climate-change-phrases-banned-236655

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How about "alternative weather"?

[Binders Keepers]

1. I can remember when Repug's ordered employees to substitute "climate change"

for "global warming." What's the new perferred euphemism: "meteorological variation"?

[Jim Lane]

12. I'm not sure that was the history.

The original concern was global warming, but as scientific understanding grew, the issue went beyond increases in temperature. Anthropogenic climate change can sometimes cause colder weather in particular areas, as when melting Arctic ice shifts the polar vortex south. There are also climatic effects beyond temperature.

I thought that it was environmentalists who were the primary movers in substituting "climate change" for the previous "global warming".

[Binders Keepers]

13. I stand by my assertion.

But my memory may be faulty.

[canetoad]

14. I remember the terminology change being driven by scientists

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-15/climate-change-replaces-global-warming-as-preferred-term-for-a-changing-world

The term "global warming," which describes an increase in the Earth's average temperature surface due to greenhouse gas emissions, is widely believed to have been coined in 1975 by Columbia University geochemist Wallace Broecker, according to NASA. Meanwhile, "climate change," which describes a long-term change in the Earth's climate, appeared a few years later in a 1979 National Academy of Science study on carbon dioxide.

A May 2014 Yale University study found that while "climate change" appears to be preferred by scientists, "global warming" can evoke stronger emotions and issue engagement for some groups of people.

[Jim Lane]

17. It appears that we are both right.

The NPR ombudsman was asked about the use of the two terms in NPR's programming, and produced this comprehensive answer. Your memory is confirmed to the extent that Republican pollster Frank Luntz did at one time favor "climate change" as sounding more benign. Later, however, he said that the public reacted equally to that and to "global warming". (It's interesting that the Yale study cited by canetoad in #14 seems to confirm Luntz's original view.)

On my side of the question, the NPR piece states:

The term scientists prefer is actually "climate change," because that encompasses effects other than warming, such as changes in rainfall patterns, melting glaciers and rising sea levels.

I know an activist who went from saying "global warming" to "climate change" but has now moved on to "global climate crisis", which I hope gives Frank Luntz the cold sweats.

[notdarkyet]

2. Dumbasses.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Approved alternate terms include

"Stuff going on outdoors", "waste rationing", and "that thing in the French capital".

[Javaman]

4. Ingsoc. nt

[Turn CO Blue]

8. +1, They can ban some terms, introduce newspeak, but the climate keeps changing.

[Binkie The Clown]

5. Stand on the tracks in front of an onrushing locomotive and ban the use of the word "train".

Let's see how that works out.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Ostriches. The US military knows Climate Change is real and is a security threat. . . nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Call it "long term weather divergence", "CO2 diminishment", "French Capital Commitment", etc. . . nt

[malthaussen]

9. How about "ostrich" or "head in the ground?" n/t

[Freethinker65]

10. Surprised the office of International Climate and Clean Energy can even use their name publicly

How childish.

[Dustlawyer]

11. Oil and coal comapy weather modifications!

[YOHABLO]

15. This is because the BigOil oligarchs don't want you to know the truth.

Hopefully the people will be smarter than that fucking dumbass Rick Perry. You think?

[jpak]

16. climate change double-plus ungood!!!

Fascist bullshit.

yup