Please can we have a climate change topic?

It's been happening across the last few decades

And you don't see the irony in what you're saying here?

The problem with calling it Climate Change is that it would be legitimising something which, actually, has not been verified...

Even those who don't think global warming is happening understand that climate change happens.

And Global Warming HAS BEEN VERIFIED, ffs.
Global warming is not a theory. It's data. It's been happening in the last few decades.

We call it climate change not to induce people in error that the warming happens across the globe. Some parts can get colder.

Even oil companies accept it's happening. Exxon is planning Arctic oil exploration based on it.

The only point that can be under dispute is how much humans have affected it.
And even oil companies have come to recognise that using up fossil fuels and releasing it's CO2 is a contributing factor.

What you're saying is similar to saying that having an AIDS/HIV infecrion prevention thread is legitimising that HIV causes AIDS. It bloody well does and it's not legitimising, it's accepting what the bloody scientists who do the damn work tell us. Because they're the ones who do know this stuff. Not opinion makers on the radio or TV who couldn't describe the scientific method to save their lives.

And by they, I mean people like me. Ordinary people who have children and do their work to the best of their ability and with the greatest possible honesty.

The problem with calling it Climate Change is that it would be legitimising something which, actually, has not been verified...

I agree that there should be a thread for the loons who are continuing to pretend that human caused climate change doesn't exist. That will finally enable the overly polite people trying to discuss the realities of climate change to ignore those people by simply referring them to the other thread.

I would be very interested in this - am one of the panicked and despairing and would love a place for rational discussion.

I don't think a topic will help.

Science and Nature Club has few threads and that's much broader. Post in there?

Totally agree with filmbuff.

Please do consider this - definitely needs more (rational) discussion to counteract both the blatant lies on one side, and the despair on the other!

Another vote for this, if it will make it easier for people to discuss the issues.

I agree that we should have a Climate Change topic - this is going to become an issue which affects all of us, so the sooner it's put in place, the better. It has very little to do with ethics, really!

All of us, no matter how much we earn or where we live, are going to be affected by climate change. Our children, doubly so.

We definitely need a climate change topic. And I think the ongoing "science vs skeptics" thread is an excellent idea, all the other climate change topics I've seen on MN eventually get derailed by someone posting non-science.

Agree! I was looking for one the other day.

I don't think there's a need for a separate topic.

Good idea. :)

Climate change topic - yes please! And there could be an ongoing science vs sceptics thread on 'yes it is happening, yes it is serious' so all the other threads in the topic wouldn't get derailed.

I'm one of the few who does post on climate change threads, but I don't think the subject has much resonance with the wider MN community?

There are quite a few relevant threads lately but people from those don't seem to be coming over here to add to this request. (I have tried asking. Perhaps better from someone who's a very established user who keeps the same name for ages?)

yes please

Forgot this bit:
...as a general subject which might be mentioned in In The News, AIBU, Chat etc.

I think calling it Environmental Issues and Ethical Living, just makes it sound like only something hippies students and "environmental campaigners" care about.

I agree that there is a potential problem with that. But it was after looking at threads that had led to other boards starting, and seeing how many posts there were for topics that seem like minority interests (e.g. Preppers) , that I thought that if there weren't considered enough posts for a whole new board, that this would be a possible solution. Somewhere rather than nowhere to discuss more specific stories and studies, rather than cilmate change as a general subject.

Global warming is a less useful term because it's easy for people who haven't much background to think "we had a really cold winter so it's not warming up". Climate change is a more formal way of putting the descriptively accurate idea "global weirding" (Thomas Friedman) where weather and climate behave in ways that human civilisation has not been used to, where for some places the pressing issues are flooding or storms rather than its being too hot.

I think calling it Environmental Issues and Ethical Living, just makes it sound like only something hippies students and "environmental campaigners" care about.

It needs to be a mainstream topic that affects families, communities, individuals, everyone. Or else it just gets stereotyped into a lefty daft thing that normal folk don't worry about because they are too busy surviving and shopping and worrying about where they park their car.

It should be called Global Warming. or Man Made Climate Change.

Yes - while the subject itself is (depressingly) still controversial, there are communities on the forum who are doing eco-conscious things who are only really noticeable when there is yet another bunfight over something like vegetarianism. That's a shame, because the best bits of Mumsnet for me are those where there is a lot of support on offer instead of people yelling at each other (I'm totally biased, but I LOVE the gardening forum for this). Perhaps a separate forum could foster more of this??