As I write this blog, small snowflakes are raining down from a white/gray sky. I love how peaceful it can be to watch them. At the same time, a part of me is wondering how much snow I will have to shovel. The Northeast United States has had a blustery, frigid February. Maine and Massachusetts already have several feet of snow on the ground, and New York and New Jersey have been counting inches. Compare that scenario to a warmer Alaska and a lack of snow. Yes, I know, Alaska should have snow.

One of my readers asked me to talk about the weather. She said many people don’t believe global warming is happening because it is so cold outside and temperatures are about 20 degrees below normal on the East Coast. It is only February and we have already had 4,421 record high temperatures in the United States versus 737 record lows. We know weather changes from minute to minute, hour to hour, and from day to day. Yet we forget to think about average weather over time and space. Average weather over time and space is called climate. And that is very important.

Our climate has warmed considerably and it is affecting everyone and everything. It means polar ice caps are melting at alarming rates, we are losing food crops to drought, we are losing animal species, we are getting heavier and heavier downpours of rain, and we are experiencing sweltering summer heat. You might ask, why should I care about climate? For one, it is a fascinating subject. Two, we impact the climate by our actions. If we continue to warm the climate, as we do every single day, we change complex pressure and temperature mechanisms which allow us to have predictable, stable weather patterns. Our lifestyles, from what car we drive to how we eat, affect everyone and every living thing around us. Did you know, your choices affect the weather, and the climate? It is time to make changes.