diff --git a/src/env.cpp b/src/env.cpp
index fd985c818..67debe426 100644
--- a/src/env.cpp
+++ b/src/env.cpp
@@ -1220,12 +1220,11 @@ void env_stack_t::set_last_statuses(statuses_t s) {
 /// defaults. They will be updated later by the `get_current_winsize()` function if they need to be
 /// adjusted.
 void env_stack_t::set_termsize() {
-    auto &vars = env_stack_t::globals();
     auto cols = get(L"COLUMNS");
-    if (cols.missing_or_empty()) vars.set_one(L"COLUMNS", ENV_GLOBAL, DFLT_TERM_COL_STR);
+    if (cols.missing_or_empty()) set_one(L"COLUMNS", ENV_GLOBAL, DFLT_TERM_COL_STR);
 
     auto rows = get(L"LINES");
-    if (rows.missing_or_empty()) vars.set_one(L"LINES", ENV_GLOBAL, DFLT_TERM_ROW_STR);
+    if (rows.missing_or_empty()) set_one(L"LINES", ENV_GLOBAL, DFLT_TERM_ROW_STR);
 }
 
 /// Update the PWD variable directory from the result of getcwd().