Global warming was mentioned in passing in the 80's and most of the 90's but the scare tactic the left was really pushing was the ozone hole.
When that didn't get any traction the ozone hole must have magically fixed itself because the left dumped it and ran with global warming. 1997 was a very warm year. Not the warmest on record but warm enough for them to peach death by burning up the planet.
Then when the earth just wouldn't co-operative with their plans, they came up with a catch all name change. Because it didn't matter if the earth was going to burn up or become an ice planet, they were prepared.
And the solution to solving climate change is to stop free market economics. Because science. Everyone knows that when people are just too free that the earth's climate will dramatically change and kill us all. The science is settled. Freedom is what causes all of the earth's temperature fluctuations. Fortunately freedom stopped being the cause of the ozone hole, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.