Global Warming or Climate Change?

This is something that seems insignificant, but seems to have a significant psychological effect.  I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard an political analyst talking about why Congress hasn't made much progress with mitigation legislation.  He seemed a little liberal, as he was basically blaming the conservatives in Congress (although in this case I can't blame him) for our "environmentalist's block."  But he did bring up a very interesting point:

The republicans were more likely to be in receptive towards legislation or propositions that addressed "climate change" instead of "global warming."

Now that I think about it, it sort of makes sense - since the idea that the Earth is getting warmer seems ludicrous to many people who live in places where temperatures have not risen (because global warming is of course a rise in average global temperatures), they dismiss "global warming" as too untenable to be acted upon.  However, the same people find it harder to refute the idea of "climate change" - perhaps because it's rather foolish to suggest that the weather is not always changing.

In any case, other than exposing one of those funny little quirks in human psychology, this serves to exemplify a very important lesson: by the time human beings come to a consensus on the global warming/climate change dispute, it'll be the next Ice Age.  And the war over words will go on...