**3. Change**

*Global Warming and Climate Change*

of climate.

always the best indicators of climate. For example, certain characteristics (thick, moisture-rich tissue) of so-called succulent plants are commonly thought to be drought- and heat-resistant features. These plants might be most often found in arid and hot regions like deserts or in places that experience periods of drought each year. Every continent, other than Antarctica, is home to succulent species. But not all succulents reside in arid regions or in places having annual dry seasons. For example, *Opuntia humifusa* (the eastern prickly pear cactus) is found in southeastern Ontario, Canada (near Lake Huron) in the remnants of the Carolinian forest (a region that is certainly not a desert, certainly not hot, and not an arid place). Similarly, "evergreen" (non-deciduous) plants are found from the tropics to the subarctic (notwithstanding that some lack cones which distinguish conifers from other evergreens). In fact, humans have modified landscapes to the point where hydrophilic plants can be grown abundantly in desert climates, assuming that sufficient irrigation is provided. Plants (by themselves) are not perfect indicators

Temperature and precipitation patterns and moisture and thermal regimes may, during any given week, month, year, or decade, depart from the norm and leave a false impression of a region's climate. Personal experience is not input into the process of climate classification. Only carefully and consistently collected data are used. One's personal observations about trends in weather (or climate) do not supersede (or even complement) scientific data because people are ill-equipped (eidetic memory or otherwise) to gather and analyze the factors upon which climates are based. Metrics of temperature and precipitation are significantly more precise, reliable, and consistent than personal observation. The data are also more durable. The data are likely to be different from place to place, and this creates patterns of difference across space. Some proximate places may have dramatically different, even contrasting, averages, extremes, and event frequencies. At some point at some distance from a weather station, the long-term conditions may be so different that they can reasonably said to be in different "climates." The variation of data gathered at set locations over time can be analyzed to tell us whether there has

Every location on Earth has a climate and locations are grouped into regions of similar conditions, ultimately yielding a global map of climate regions, which is a pastiche of similar and seemingly static conditions. It should be noted, however, that the limits of a climate are somewhat arbitrarily established (usually based on round numbers, like 20, 40, or 60 inches of precipitation, for instance). Periodically (perhaps each decade), the patterns of the local conditions can be reevaluated and the boundaries on the map of climate regions can be shifted to more accurately reflect the data for the most-recent 30-year period. This is usually done each decade

Very importantly, "climate" is believed to determine many aspects of localities' natural environments. Climates (it is truer to say very long-term—centuries, millennia—weather conditions) influence soil development: soils form very slowly and reflect the prevailing physical and chemical conditions that affect weathering of the parent material and availability of organic matter from decomposing vegetation. Climate, then, also influences the types and abundance of flora and fauna that shape soil development. Climate dictates long-term water supplies. Plants,

**2.3 Recognizing climates is best left to science and scientists**

been change in local and regional climates.

(2020 is prompting a reconsideration of the map).

**2.4 Knowing the agency of climate**

**6**

As a verb, change can be either passive or active. It can refer to a one-time modification of one set condition to another setting. It is therefore passive, one and done (i.e*.,* there was a change, or something has changed). Or it can refer to an ongoing process (in a sense, an evolution), a process that has not stopped and may never stop. Changing or being "in flux" can complicate circumstances when stable conditions (like a climate) are expected and are relied on to plan for short- or long-term futures.
