Global warming is polarizing because it involves the two profoundly different worlds of science
and of human affairs. The objective methods of science (which hedgehogs favor) produce
results with which everyone, in principle, can agree, for example results concerning the threats
rising atmospheric CO2 levels pose. However, science has limitations and is silent on ethical
issues such as the following: in our response to global warming, what is the appropriate balance
between our obligations to future generations, and our responsibilities to those living in abject
poverty today? The numerous answers to this question depend on subjective factors such as
religion, ethnicity, culture... To find a solution acceptable to as many people as possible,
compromise is a requisite, compassion a virtue. Nelson Mandela, a hedgehog when he fought
apartheid, became a fox when, as president of his polarized country South Africa, he prevented
a civil war by being compromising. The same approach can promote responsible stewardship of
planet Earth by complementing warnings of imminent gloom and doom, with songs that extol the
wonders of planet Earth, the only planet known to be habitable. The seasons, the huge annul
global climate changes everyone experiences, can serve this purpose, and are also excellent
vehicles for gaining familiarity with the powerful methods of science, and with its serious
limitations. By exploring Earth's glorious diversity of seasons -- different regions get rain in
summer, or winter, throughout the year, or seldom -- we discover that all of us on this planet are
inter-dependent "no man is an island" and that the present is a precarious moment in
Earth's eventful history, a time for caution and circumspection.