The following guest editorial exceeds the Bureau County Republican’s 500-word limit for Letters to the Editor, therefore, the BCR will offer the same opportunity to someone with an opposing view. Contact BCR Editor Terri Simon at 815-875-4461, ext. 229, before submitting.

Many letters and commentary surrounding the topic of climate change have popped up in the BCR over the past few years. The purpose of this commentary is to add clarity to some of the common opinions and purported facts I have seen.

Before I continue I would like to distinguish between global warming, climate, climate change and weather. Global warming refers to the gradual increase in Earth’s surface temperature. Climate is the long-term trend of temperature, precipitation and other meteorological data. Weather, as distinguished from climate, is short-term variation in the aforementioned variables. Throughout the BCR commentary these terms have been used interchangeably, and for the remainder of this article, global warming refers to human influenced accelerated warming of Earth’s surface temperature.