CBC Radio, Altitude and Elevation

​I love CBC Radio.  Last Sunday there was a segment on The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay about fine distinctions in everyday language. As a biologist who studies how biodiversity changes across tropical mountains in the climate crisis (spoiler alert - things aren't good), my everyday language frequently includes altitude and elevation. Although they are often used as synonyms (even by scientists interested in such topics) altitude and elevation are quite different and the distinction between them can be really important – I’ll give you an example.
 
Altitude is the vertical distance between two points not in contact.  The last time you were on an airplane, the pilot was concerned with altitude. Elevation is the vertical distance between a point on the land’s surface and a reference point.  So, when I study tiny insects living on the forest floor between the edge of the ocean and the cloud forest - the distance from that forest to sea level is elevation.  The change in biodiversity across mountainous gradients is, perhaps always (?) a relationship with elevation and not altitude. 
 
I suppose in my altitude analogy, that your pilot was actually concerned about both altitude and elevation - maintaining the plane’s altitude so that there isn’t a crash at a specific elevation along the flight path. 
 
So - hooray for CBC Radio and hooray for reviews in 2007 and 2012 by Christian Körner about this very topic.