One of the largest topics of late is climate change, and I believe it is unfortunate that it gets so politically charged.  There is a lot to be gained from a good open discussion.  People often have differing opinions, because we all have different perspectives.  I would cite the parable of the blind men and the elephant. To summarize the story, 5 blind men approach an elephant and all of them take hold of a different part.  One man says that elephant is like a snake after grabbing the trunk, another grasps the leg and describes it as a tree, another touches the side and says it is like a wall, another grasps the tail and describes it as a rope, and finally the last grasps a tusk and describes the elephant as a spear.  Any of us that understand the traits of an elephant knows how it all fits together, and we can see how these men need to communicate with each other to fully grasp the idea of an elephant.  The problem is that if each man repeats his own experience dogmatically, then they will likely never come close to comprehending the elephant in the room.

Our Climate is Complicated

Comparing our climate to 5 primary traits of an elephant is a gross oversimplification.  Any climate that can be differentiated by human experience can be measured by many aspects including, but not limited to temperature, humidity, average wind speed, altitude, air composition, sunlight exposure, soil chemistry, water circulation, animal population composition, plant life, etc.  Anyone who has fought over a comfortable temperature in a climate controlled environment knows how subjective even our perception of an accurately measured temperature can be.  To top all of that, our Earth’s climate is very cyclical in nature.  In areas like the Wasatch Front, we depend on the cold winter temperatures and precipitations to build up snow that stores water that is usable throughout the summer.  If the mosquito population inside your house changed significantly, you would likely consider your climate to be inhospitable and would demand a change.  Given all of that, most of us don’t understand how to design a system to maintain a comfortable temperature inside our own living quarters.

Our Earth is Older than Our Species

If you ask a geologist, they will likely tell you that we have a lot of evidence pointing to the idea that the earth has existed as a planet for at least 3.5 billion years.  There are a lot of places where you can look at the earth and see that onions and ogres aren’t the only things that have layers.  I recently took a trip to Goblin Valley State Park ( I have been there many times, but that is a topic for another post ).  Right now the climate of the valley of goblins is very much like an alien planet, enough so that it was chosen as the location to film a portion of the movie Galaxy Quest.
Many scientists have analyzed the layers of the rock there and have come to the conclusion that the area used to be underneath a large inland sea.  The chemical compound of some of the large whitish-green mounds or layers are basically large deposits of ancient fish poop.  If you cannot tell from the picture above, then I will tell you from my own experience that Goblin Valley hasn’t maintained enough water to support a population of fish since long before people ever discovered it, let alone enough fish to make deposits of poop that are 10’s of feet thick.  I am going to make a plug that you try to visit Goblin Valley, but make sure to bring plenty of water to drink.  The climate has changed a lot before people ever existed.

Only A Sith Deals In Absolutes

There is nothing about a Star Wars quote that makes it inherently true, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to tie in a geeky quote that fits my narrative.  Returning again to our elephant, each of the blind men has their own experience, and if they believe that their perception is either entirely true or entirely false, then they can never learn the truth.  Anakin Skywalker shut out the advice of a caring friend using the platitude that “you are either with me or against me.”  When we make enemies of other people, we create an enmity and a firewall that prevents us from convincing them of our opinion just as it inhibits us from learning anything new from them.  If we want to keep our channels of communication open, then we need to practice soft skills to make sure that we don’t make enemies of the people around us.

Never Assume

The scientific process also rarely defines laws.  As I was taught in school, the scientific process starts with a hypothesis, then you look for a way to test your hypothesis with an experiment.  The results of your experiment should lead you to some sort of conclusion, but that conclusion is only valid within the scope and parameters of your experiment.  If you want to expand the scope of your conclusion, then you must develop a new experiment and test it again.  Most of the scientific papers that I have read are the result of studies that often run for years to decades.  This means that the iterative process of learning from our experiments is often a slow one.  Any global assumptions from a single scientific study can be nothing more than jumping to a conclusion without the rigor of validation.

Consensus Does Not Make Truth

Stating that something is true, does not make it true.  Renee Descartes postulated that we can believe our perceptions and that they will always lead us to truth.  He based this on his belief in a benevolent God.  The scientific method as an experimental and iterative process allows us to validate our assumptions and build a foundation on which we can learn and build further experiments.  Sharing the results of our experiments or those that we have observed or studied can have the positive effect of expanding the minds and perceptions of those within our influence, but it does not guarantee that others will share our same conclusion.  Each of us, as the blind man with the elephant, brings to the discourse our own perception and experience.  Stating that scientists have come to a consensus on man made climate change is dogmatic in nature without supporting information.  There was a time when the consensus of the scientific world was that the world was flat or that the earth was at the center of the universe.  People then took those as hypotheses and devised experiments such as attempting to find the edge of the earth or measuring the movements of stars and planets in the heavens.  These discoveries shattered our world as we knew it as a society, and we should expect our world to change as we learn more about it.

I write this post, not to come to any specific conclusion about the existence or non-existence of human caused climate change, but as a plea.  I have learned enough in my trips around the sun, to know that I really know very little.  I invite everyone to open their minds to the idea that it is possible for your assumptions to be wrong.  We should all look for ways to validate our assumptions and build knowledge.  There are always at least two outcomes for our hypothesis when we experiment, and one of those is that we can be wrong.  Let us not get caught up in political narratives and agendas that can turn our friends into enemies, but let us instead take what knowledge and truth we have and share it with others.