Polar bears, Whales, and puppy dog tails

Here is a cold hard fact. Winter happens, Climate change is happening every century, every decade, every year. We have weather every day. The distinction between climate change and in our weather should be distinct but are not portrayed in the media as being separate, and it is for that reason I believe that folks get the two confused.

How often have you heard folks talk about “Global Warming” in the context of current weather conditions:

“It’s so hot, it must be global warming.”
“Our planet can’t be going into an ice age; my garden has dried up due to lack of rain.”
“How come it’s so cold here, I thought global warming was going to keep us warmer?”

I can’t tell you how frustrating it is as an educator to hear miss-information bandied about like it’s the gospel truth. Take the childhood game of telling secrets where one child is given a phrase to say to their neighbor and then ask the neighbor to pass it on. By the time it reaches the third child it has changed slightly. By the time it reaches the end of the line, it may not resemble in any way what the first child heard. Why is that? I think that everyone knows why that is. Simply put, folks forget, fill in and embellish what they don’t know to sound important or in most cases not to sound dumb. Really, it’s because we are bad at recording data verbally and keeping our facts strait.

Another example is when someone witnesses a crash and has to be debriefed by a police officer. The sooner the officer gets to the witness the more accurate the account. After a while, emotions, personal thoughts, bias, and internalized hidden agenda’s tend to convolute the original experience to fit that person’s “world view,” of what just took place.

Enter Global climatic shifts and weather….

Yes climate change is happening.
Yes our weather on a daily basis has some patterns, those patterns over time we call climate. If our weather changes over time then climate changes over time. However, if we look at small data sets like in all science, our conclusion is not accurate what so ever.

There is a body of evidence showing that recent events (last 100 years) that our climate has been changing from a colder mean temperature (average temperature) to a slightly warmer one. A key point that is missed when the global climatic shift, which is natural, normal and cyclical, is that data, even from some of the oldest dendrochronological studies (The systematic study of tree rings showing yearly weather change, growing season, drought, rain and so on) fails to give a complete picture. Any 9th grader can tell you that the evidence is clear, global warming is happening and that we are the cause of it. I know because I have had 13-14 year old students come into my classroom with gross miss information about the science behind what they espouse to be completely accurate. This worldview is carried on into college with my fellow students. The key understanding global climate change is to not look at it as an emotional issue supercharged with polar bears, whales, and the loss of panda habitat. I will be very sad to see those gene sets parish. But to focus on the changes that are taking place on a biological, ecological, meteorological, and planetary geological level and interpret those findings as a change in the NATURE of the planet. Our focus has been for decades now on how our lives as humans are wrecking havoc on the planet and that we should be removed. Folks, if we are removed we can’t enjoy living on the planet.

I believe we are an integral connected species with mother Earth, not a pustule that needs to be cut and drained before it becomes infected. The very notion that we are parasitically drawing the lifeblood from the planet is a pervasive and popular view, which in many cases is hard to discredit given the global changes in forestland, desertification, and species extinction due to over use, over harvest and down right negligence by humans. I think that we should cooperate with nature, feel that we are part of the natural world, and teach stewardship, conservation, land use, and ultimately responsibility towards our species and our future as a collective organism known as the earth’s biomass.

Just my thoughts…
What are yours?