[strulovich]

> So Luntz suggested shifting from calling it “global warming,” which sounds scary, to calling it “climate change,” which at the time at least sounded much less intimidating. It was apparently luck that it ended up being the more accurate term anyway.

This doesn’t check out, it was a more accurate term so it stuck due to no opposition to it. By then it was clear climate can change not just by warming as a result of man made activities. The movie “The day after tomorrow” came out on 2004 (so production started a bunch earlier) using a popular perception that things can freeze from good old CO2. (They do explain it in the movie, since this was during the transition of terms)