That damn Yankee Doddle really started something. If he can stick a feather in his hat and call it macaroni then the door is wide open. Creative use of language has its place, but it’s not the best way to communicate facts. Math is a really good language for communicating facts.  We agree that 3 is 3 and 6 is 6 and so on. To say “big” or “little” gives us some information, but we have math that narrows down the fact. 6 is exactly twice as big as 3.  Numbers are symbols. Math is a language. It is a very useful tool for communicating facts.

I’ve seen dozens of references that point out that “they used to call it global warming and now they call it climate change”………….

“Global Warming” refers to the fact that the Earth now contains more heat than it did in the past. We can tell this by the amount of ice that has melted at the poles and at glaciers around the world. You don’t need any thermometers or expensive instruments to see that this is a fact. If the net amount of ice is less, then you can be sure it is getting warmer. The additional heat also causes atmospheric changes that become weather changes that become “climate change”. What thought process could think that “global warming” and “climate change” are interchangeable terms. “Global warming” and “climate change” are two entirely different concepts. Climate change is a result of global warming. The people that make a point of ridiculing climate scientist by claiming that there is a “thing” that used to be called global warming and that now is called climate change are making their own macaroni moment.

This particular exercise – Global Warming/Climate Change – is to illustrate the communication challenge that we face. The recognition of the power of NEWSPEAK has been around at least, since Prof. Doodle made his famous assertion. Orwell made it central in his famous narrative on Big Brother.  Today, the Owners, no doubt, have legions of writers that spend their days creating the macaroni that is today’s  NEWS.