Climate Change or Global Warming?

Climate change or global warming?  Potato, potahtoh, tomato, tomahto. 

I'm sure the climate change advocates kick themselves every once in awhile when they hear the terms "global warming"; they wish other terms had been chosen to express what is happening to our planet.  The trouble with the term "global warming" is that when we have brutal winters like the last two, it gives fodder to Inhofe and his ilk who say, "Global warming? Where?"

A more accurate description of what is happening to our planet Earth is climate change.  I remember the brown winters in Oklahoma.  Brown winters had no snow, brown winters found me outside a lot playing basketball with the neighbor kids.  Brown winters found me wishing for snow.  Brown winters were full of moderate temperatures, short days, long nights, but no ice storms and blizzards. Snow was a treat, maybe coming every three to four years, not something to be dreaded.

The climate is changing and it is because of humans.  The Industrial Revolution brought more than labor saving devices.  It also brought factories that belch noxious fumes, automobiles that do the same.  Perhaps the largest change has been that not only the Western world, but the Rest of the world, wants and is gaining access to automobiles and everything else that we have enjoyed for over a century. And why shouldn't the Rest of the world have these things too?  All these emissions can't help but change our earth's atmosphere, and this change affects our global weather.

Humans do make a difference in their environment, for better or worse.  Even if one believes there is no climate change or global warming, live as if there  is.  We should conserve energy where we can, when we can.  We should be more mindful of our daily choices, from what we eat to what we wear, to how we clean, to what the temperature is in our homes.   Encourage alternative energy sources. 

Be more mindful.  Think.  This can only improve us.