US East Coast, Europe Again Surprised by Snow
An almost coordinated series of winter storms has wreaked havoc on most of the U.S. East Coast, in many European countries as well as in China. It is not hard to imagine the glee of the global warming deniers, who appear to think that because it does get colder somewhere for a few days, or if more than the average amount of snow falls, their beliefs that global warming, or climate change is a hoax are proven and confirmed.
Our advice would be for the deniers to come back when they actually manage to learn the difference between climate and weather.
It should be noted that increased temperatures and increased aberrant weather patterns are not mutually exclusive.
One of the most noticeable effects of global warming is extreme weather. In 2007 we had the California wildfires, the worst flooding in England since the 18th century, severe water shortage in the southern U.S. Now, at the end of 2009 we have unseasonably cold temperatures and record, or nearly record snowfalls on several continents. One can only guess what climate and weather changes 2010 will bring.
So, for those affected by the wintery weather, dress warm, shovel your driveways with a smile, since it might be years, or even decades, before you will be seeing the beautiful white stuff again in such quantities.
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Good point about “enjoying while you can!” One subtle but massive feature of the type of climate change we are encountering is the gradual, but relatively permanent, relocation of water — especially fresh water. It turns out that a great deal of the details which made living here so workable for so long has to do with just “where the water is.”
The expected impacts are reasonable enough. “Real estate” which used to be adjacent to fresh water supplies will lose its value as it dries out. Life in such place will continue to be less and less tenable. Further, the neighbors who still have water will not generally be very interested in sharing “their real estate.” No problem. Fighting a war for a few decades should resolve the matter.
Likewise, the matter of food. Areas where there has traditionally been “enough to eat,” are migrating thanks to climate change. The problem arises when those who used to traditionally eat that food attempt to migrate too. The planetary solution to this seems to be something along the lines of what is called a “Malthusian Correction.” If seven billion mouths are too many, Great Nature will adjust that number to, say, three or four billion. Anyone who expects that “adjustment” to be no more than a minor inconvenience is insane.
Chad, although the “right” coast might be at the moment flush with fresh water – mostly because of the snow – other areas are parched.
Just look at East Africa, or the Middle East, or many western areas of the U.S.
“Our advice would be for the deniers to come back when they actually manage to learn the difference between climate and weather.” This was a profound and wise statement, Politicus. Kudos!
Thank you Cher. It is kind of true, isn’t it?
It is true. I wish that some of these deniers could be wrangled into visiting the melting ice caps. No politics, just a personal visual. And then there are the countries which dam the Nile, forcing drought and starvation in some of the Sub-Saharan countries. Soon one of our next world wars will be over water. There is plenty of sand in those countries for eco-deniers to put their heads in.
Extreme weather happened before man was here and it will happen once we are gone, too. Man’s 0.117% contribution towards CO2 not withstanding.
Harrison, unfortunately the 0.117% figure you keep quoting does not include the almost 100% human contribution to deforestation, by far the biggest contributor to global warming. The vegetation and soils of the world’s forests contain about 125 percent of the carbon found in the atmosphere.
Out of all the “global warming” gasses CO2 actually is one of the lowest performer as far as trapping and retaining heat. All “global warming” gasses except water vapor make up only 3.207% so I wouldn’t worry about it. The rest is water vapor, of which 99.99% is not man made.
It’s all a fraud anyway.
Harrison, I never expected you to “worry about it”, anyway.
Speaking of fraud, what is your position on what the Wall Street shysters have done, since the end of the Clinton presidency, right through the Bush II one?
Wall Street and “global warming” are unrelated. “Global warming” has been discredited anyway although it did waste 20 years of everybody’s time. But hey, Al Gore did get rich from it though his Carbon Trading Credits scheme looks like it hit the rocks.
As far as Wall Street I think the less government forces private industry to make loans to people who aren’t qualified the better everybody else will be. Unfortunately, they are still doing it because that’s what government does (it actually started in the early-90s).
Fannie and Freddie should be shut down.
Harrison, to each his own. Of course we have seen deniers see the light before, but it doesn’t happen very often.
And it wasn’t exactly like the government was “forcing” banks to loan money to unqualified people. It was the crooked industry doing it mainly of its own volition.
I guess in your book Galileo was a “denier” so I gladly stand with him in opposing what some scientists say is true but many others say no.
Actually there was a push, which started under Clinton, to expand minority home ownership. Unfortunately, if you were a “minority” and “unqualified” the first part was all that counted. These bad loans were then packaged together with other investment vehicles which banks then bought and sold but there was no way for anybody to tell which bundled loans were bad and good. Barney Frank is the main offender here then you have Democrats like Chris Dodd who got special deals from Countrywide to push these loans.
Banks and investment institutions are not in business to lose money because they will eventually go bankrupt which sort of defeats the entire purpose of being in business.