WHAT’S IN A NAME? GLOBAL WARMING VERSUS CLIMATE CHANGE

The report finds that 'global warming' and 'climate change' are not synonymous for many Americans, with 'global warming' generally being more engaging and evoking stronger negative emotions, a greater sense of urgency, and higher levels of personal and familial threat. While the terms are largely synonymous for Republicans, the use of 'climate change' appears to reduce engagement among Democrats, Independents, liberals, and moderates.

• Americans are more likely to hear and personally use the term 'global warming' than 'climate change', despite being equally familiar with both. In a January 2014 survey, 45% of respondents said they hear 'global warming' more often compared to 12% for 'climate change', and 35% personally use 'global warming' more often than 16% use 'climate change'.
• The term 'global warming' evokes stronger negative emotional responses than 'climate change'. Overall, 76% of Americans rate 'global warming' as a 'bad thing' compared to 63% for 'climate change'. This difference is particularly pronounced among Hispanics (+22 percentage points) and African Americans (+20 percentage points) when rating the term as a 'very bad thing'.
• The two terms trigger different mental associations. 'Global warming' is more strongly associated with 'Icemelt', 'Alarm', 'Flood', and 'Ozone'. In contrast, 'climate change' is more frequently associated with 'Weather' and the phrase 'global warming'. Within the weather category, 'global warming' is more likely to be linked to 'extreme weather' (38%) than 'climate change' (27%).
• The term 'global warming' increases certainty and perceived threat. Americans are 7 percentage points more likely to be 'extremely sure' that global warming is happening (27%) than climate change (20%). Furthermore, 'global warming' generates a higher sense of personal threat (38% vs 30%) and threat to family (42% vs 33%) than 'climate change'.
• The use of 'global warming' leads to higher priority ratings for government action and a greater willingness to engage in activism. More Americans believe the president and Congress should make 'global warming' a high or very high priority (36%) compared to 'climate change' (30%). Additionally, 29% of Americans would join a campaign to reduce 'global warming' versus 23% for 'climate change'.
• The impact of the terminology varies by political affiliation. For Republicans, the terms are generally synonymous, although 'global warming' can still generate stronger feelings of threat and a higher belief that it is affecting U.S. weather. However, for Democrats, Independents, liberals, and moderates, the term 'climate change' appears to reduce issue engagement.

APA

Center for Climate Change Communication (2014). WHAT’S IN A NAME? GLOBAL WARMING VERSUS CLIMATE CHANGE. https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/May-2014-Global-Warming-vs.-Climate-Change.pdf

Chicago

Center for Climate Change Communication. WHAT’S IN A NAME? GLOBAL WARMING VERSUS CLIMATE CHANGE. 2014. https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/May-2014-Global-Warming-vs.-Climate-Change.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for Climate Change Communication |title=WHAT’S IN A NAME? GLOBAL WARMING VERSUS CLIMATE CHANGE |date=May 2014 |url=https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/May-2014-Global-Warming-vs.-Climate-Change.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforclimatechangecommunication2014whats, author = {{Center for Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{WHAT’S IN A NAME? GLOBAL WARMING VERSUS CLIMATE CHANGE}}, institution = {Center for Climate Change Communication}, year = {2014}, month = may, url = {https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/May-2014-Global-Warming-vs.-Climate-Change.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }