We live on a blue planet where the element H2O takes many different forms.

As steam, ice and, above all, water, it is the main player in the hydrological cycle, which is constantly changing as it travels from the sea through evaporation, cloud formation and precipitation.

Water, one could say, is the climate driver and driven at the same time.

There is an often shared meme that shows a bucket filled with milky cloudy water.

A carrot floats on the water.

The title is "Climate Change Snowman".

The melting of snow and ice in particular has become a symbol of global warming not only with the signet of the polar bear.

The melting ice of the glaciers represents an irreversible loss and a harbinger of the climate crisis.

"The right to be cold", as the inhabitants of the Arctic countries demand for themselves today, and "the right to heat" in this country are inextricably linked in this interplay of emissions and global warming.

However, snow is repeatedly cited by climate science deniers as a reason for doubts about climate change or as an alleged argument against it.

The necessary but difficult distinction between weather and climate is ignored.

In another cartoon, the reports from a megaphone labeled "state broadcaster" are noted on two image fields.

"The persistent cold weeks are local weather and do not refute global warming!" is the comment in the first image field.

You can see a grim man shoveling meter-high snow.

In the second panel you can see the same man sweating.

The megaphone rang out: "The persistent weeks of heat are proof of global warming!" The cartoon, which is skeptical of the media and science, shortens the two reports as if climate researchers were only selecting the facts that confirm "their" truth.

The snowball in the US Senate

Referring to one's own local weather experience and contradicting climate research analyzes is now part of the common repertoire of politicians who question climate protection policy.

Climatologists and meteorologists in particular advise them not to confuse weather and climate, as happens again and again.

Republican Senator James Inhofe, for example, brought a snowball to the rostrum at the Senate session in Washington, DC in February 2015. He wanted to discredit and debunk Democrats' climate policies by challenging the research that had just found that 2014 was the warmest year on record.

As he freed the beautifully shaped snowball from its plastic bag, he said, "You know what that is?

That's a snowball.

He's from outside.

So it's very, very cold out there.

Very atypical for this time of year.” Saying, “Now Mister President, catch that one!” Inhofe threw the ball in Obama's direction.

What is clever about this rhetoric is that with the snowball it suggests direct evidence that seems compelling.

It is aimed at one's own experience and so-called "common sense".

The snowball is intended to prove the abstract curve representations and the complex methods of finding the truth within climate research as null and void.

Look, it's still cold!

Then everything is normal.

Anyone who objects to this argument must be a schoolmaster, must explain how weather and climate differ and why a cold winter in Washington unfortunately does not change the fact of global warming.

Because this knowledge is complex, it's difficult to resist a snowball's move-talk, which relies on mere gestures rather than words.

The senator in particular would be obliged by his office to inform himself and to think through the scientific findings.

This also includes the fact that weather and climate are not the same.