“It’s Climate! What Did You Expect?”

Climate is the pattern of weather that one can expect over a long duration of time, whereas weather is the actual variance of daily sunshine or cloud cover, precipitation, and temperature. In order to reconcile the idea that both weather and climate are highly variable, we must understand that both climate and weather will always be changing. A much as we, as humans, like to assume consistency and predictability, the very complex system that is climate cannot be perfectly calculated and predicted. As humans, we like to observe and record data, as well as presume patterns in phenomena. We also have a tendency to assume that the way the world has functioned in the fifty years or so as we know it, or the hundreds of years of recorded history from which we can draw conclusions, is the was that the world has always been. Of course, we have only recorded history and our own experiences to shape our understanding of the weather and climate. Because we have such a limited view of climate, we tend to forget that for billions of years, this planet changed shape and functioned without humans. Undoubtedly, its climate also varied over time. It is imperative that we, homo sapiens, are willing to accept uncertainty in regards to climate, and that the global climate has continually changed for billions of years, and will continue to change, with or without us.