A chance encounter with Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, the Fox and National Geographic series presented by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, caused an "A-ha!" moment for me not long ago. During one episode, Tyson walked on a beach explaining the fundamental differences between weather and climate, accompanied by a rambunctious Labrador retriever that bounced left and right, forward and back responding to any number of stimuli that influenced him from one moment to the next. Weather was like the dog, said Tyson: changes in winds patterns, front positions, rainfall and other input had a butterfly effect that made long-term weather forecasts all but useless and subjected us to changing daily conditions. He was like climate: his overall trajectory was influenced by the fluctuations of the dog's ramblings and reflected the averages of his meanderings.
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