We need myths to help us understand things that we are not meant to understand. Myths serve a real purpose. It doesn’t bother me that myths exist that run contrary to what I believe. Anything that helps another person make sense of their life and function more properly within it cannot be a bad thing. That being said, I need to comment on the biggest myth that seems to be planting itself into common consciousness these days, global warming.

There is no way that we can know what affect we are having on this planet. While it logically makes sense that we cannot be doing a service to the planet through all of the pollution that we create, it doesn’t make sense to attribute it to global warming. I will wholeheartedly agree that there are some strange things happening with the weather these days. I will even agree that it is happening on a global scale. But climate change and global warming are two separate things.

Our recorded history is relatively short in comparison to the length of time that our planet has existed. Our weather data goes back only a sliver of time in comparison. How can anyone say that the global warming exists?

I watched Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” the other day. He didn’t convince me at all. I got really tired of seeing his line graphs. Those graphs didn’t seem to prove anything. How do we know that the Earth doesn’t have cyclical changes of weather and that this trend is normal and to be expected? How do we know that this current change of weather is not part of the evolution of our planet?

Climate change is something that does exist, worldwide. This much is obvious and documented. A recent episode of Daily Planet touched on this. A world traveler told the cameras that everywhere he goes; the local people talk about it. They tell him how it is drier or wetter or hotter, etc. They don’t seem to know why, they haven’t heard of global warming. The interesting fact is how that our climate change isn’t solely related to heat. In fact, last week we had record low temperatures across North America. We are getting late snowstorms even now, in spring. Global warming – no. Climate change – yes.

I know that I may sound like a crazy person for not believing in this latest myth, but I’m not. I know that we need to make some drastic changes to the way we live. We need to cut down on pollution in every single way that we can. I do my part. I am very green. I recycle. I walk, take the bus, bike, or even skateboard to get to places. I have a car but I have truly cut down on using it this year. I do my part for the environment. I clean up trash around the neighbourhood when I see it.

If people choose to accept the global warming myth as fact, it might be a good thing. Hopefully it scares people into looking closely at the interaction we have with this planet. We need to drastically change things now. I agree with that. If this myth helps to that end, then I say “Great!” That is what myths are for after all.