For Some, Global Climate Change Means Survival

We tend to use the two terms “global warming” and “climate change” interchangeably, but it’s worth pausing to note that there is an important difference.

The term global warming is better known, and yet climate change is more accurate. While it’s true that the earth is warming, the changed climate will mean more flooding, more droughts, stronger storms, more severe heat waves, and sea level rise. Places that are wet will get wetter. Places that are dry will get drier.

This is why climate change is not merely a scientific issue, but an issue of survival as well. For countries whose land will be desertified, like sub-Suhara Africa, or flooded, like Bangladesh, climate change will exacerbate current conditions and set the stage for increased rates of starvation and the spread of infectious disease.

Let’s remember that prize awarded to the IPCC was for peace.