Long ago I coined the phrase “global weirding” to describe climate change issues, maintaining that “global warming” is misleading and causes doubters to point at, oh say, Washington D.C.’s current snow barrage and sneer, “Ha ha!”

This morning a friend, aware of my coinage, sent me a link to Thomas Friedman’s 2/17/2010 NY Times column in which he proposes the very same term:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/opinion/17friedman.html?em

“Global Weirding Is Here”

You’re right, Tom. Global weirding is here. It’s here because I brought it. I invented the phrase sometime in 2009; in fact, I mentioned it again just recently (February 10) in a post to friends who were debating the global warming issue. I wrote: “Can’t we all agree to use the term I made up — ‘global weirding’? I really like it and I think it says it all! –Ann”

Listen, Tom. You already have a bunch of cool phrases to your name in the form of book titles, like “The World is Flat.” But “global weirding” is mine — copyright Ann. Of course, I’ve long been a fan of yours and if you’re coming up with things in your Thomas Friedman brain that I first conjured up in my Ann Clark brain, I guess I should be flattered.

I’m also grateful that you have a somewhat larger readership than I do — maybe now “global weirding” will go viral. Sure, I invented it, but I don’t mind if you popularize it. Just tell ‘em Ann thought of it first.