The facts are that areas of the U.S. and in particular the Mid-Atlantic region have been hit with record, or near-record amounts of snow this winter. Europe got snowed in rather severely as well. As far as we know at this time, avalanches have killed at least 165 people in Afghanistan.

These facts of course are bringing up all kinds of “I told ya’!” comments from climate change deniers.

That great scientific mind, Fox News’ Sean Hannity has said, “It’s the most severe winter storm in years, which would seem to contradict Al Gore’s hysterical global warming theories.”

Republican Senator Jim DeMint posted in his Twitter feed: “It’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries ‘uncle.’” And Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, took his family to the National Mall to build an igloo, which they christened “Al Gore’s new home.” Inhofe described the stunt as “really humorous.” Pretty creative building style for someone from Oklahoma, we think. What we really would love to see is Mr. Inhofe actually moving into the igloo and spending a few days there, freezing his butt off, even as he continues to curse Al Gore.

What all of these scientific geniuses do not seem to be able to comprehend is that weather is not the same thing as climate. Even with their undisguised glee, the deniers should probably beef up on their education, rather than on igloo-building skills.

It is quite possible that some will eventually realize that winter snows do not invalidate the reality that the planet just experienced the hottest decade on record. Scientists have been warning for decades that global warming would increase the severity of winter storms and as we can clearly see, the warning was perfectly justified.

National Wildlife Federation climate scientist Amanda Staudt explains that winter storms are getting fiercer even as the season gets warmer. “The last few years have brought several unusually heavy snowstorms as warmer and moister air over southern states has penetrated further north, colliding with bitter cold air masses,” she said.

In closing, please watch an excellent and very much to the point animation by Washington Post’s Ann Telnaes.

Technorati Tags: al gore, change, Climate, de Mint, deniers, global warming, Hannity, Inhofe, Science, snow storms

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.

Technorati Tags: change, china, Climate, cold, europe, Globa warming, snow, US, Weather

The livestock industry as a result of its reliance on corn and soy-based feed accounts for over half the synthetic fertilizer used in the United States, contributing more than any other sector to marine dead zones. It consumes about 70 percent of the water in the American West – water so heavily subsidized that if irrigation supports were removed, ground beef would cost $35 a pound.

In addition, livestock accounts for at least 21 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions globally – more than all forms of transportation combined. Domestic animals – most of them healthy – consume (not by their choice, mind you) about 70 percent of all the antibiotics produced. Undigested antibiotics leach from manure into freshwater systems, impairing the sex organs of fish. The antibiotic use in animals has also contributed to the growing antibiotic resistance in bacteria, which infect humans.

It takes a gallon of gasoline to produce a pound of conventional beef. If all the grain fed to animals fed people instead, you could feed China and India.

Meat that’s produced according to “alternative” standards (accounting for about one percent of meat in the United States) might be a better choice but not nearly so much better as some would have us believe. “Free-range chickens” would theoretically have access to the outdoors. But many of the so-called “free-range” chickens never see the light of day because they cannot make it through the crowded shed to the opening, which leads usually to a patch of concrete, anyway.

“Grass-fed” cows produce four times the methane – a greenhouse gas 21 times as powerful as carbon dioxide – and many grass-fed cows are raised on heavily fertilized and irrigated grass. Pastured pigs are still typically mutilated, fed commercial feed and prevented from rooting – their most basic instinct besides sex.

Deforestation is the single largest contributor to climate change – far larger that all the transportation-related pollution, power generation and livestock flatulence. As it stands, huge tracts of forests are cut down for a variety of reasons – for wood, farming, industry, human habitation and yes: the factory farming of livestock.

Issues of animal welfare are also related to all forms of meat production. Domestic animals suffer immensely, feel pain and may even realize the fate that awaits them. In an egg factory, male chicks (economically worthless) are summarily run through a grinder. Pigs are castrated without anesthesia, crated, tail-docked and nose-ringed. Milk cows are repeatedly impregnated through artificial insemination, confined to milking stalls and milked to yield 15 times the amount of milk they would produce under normal circumstances. When calves are removed from their mothers at birth, the mothers mourn their loss with heart-rending moans.

Then comes the slaughterhouse, an operation that’s left with millions of pounds of carcasses – called deadstock – that are incinerated or dumped in landfills.

If someone told you that a particular corporation was trashing the air, water and soil, causing more global warming than the transportation industry, consuming massive amounts of fossil fuels; unleashing the cruelest sort of suffering on innocent and defenseless beings; failing to recycle its waste, and clogging our arteries in the process, how would you react?

We are looking forward to hearing from all of you out there. This isn’t an attempt to turn everybody into vegetarians, or vegans, but for a variety of reasons we believe that meat consumption and large-scale livestock farming should be reduced by a noticeable margin.

There are horror stories and horrific videos being leaked out of factory farms everywhere. This PETA video is just one example, featuring a factory pig farm in North Carolina. It is patently obvious the the “people” involved in this sadistic acts are the real animals. To put it politely – scum of the earth. And to think that our jails are full of people sentenced for writing a bad check, or for possessing a small amount of marijuana…

Technorati Tags: climate change, cruelty, Environment, factory, farming, global warming, Health, Livestock, meat, pollution, production

Most climate change deniers seem to be incredibly set in their ways, always ‘knowing better’ and so forth.

Just for them, here is another great cartoon on the subject by Washington Post’s Tom Toles.

Thank you Tom!

Technorati Tags: cartoon, change, Climate, deniers, toles

Even though recently 18 scientific organizations wrote Congress to reaffirm the consensus behind global warming and a federal government report found that global warming is upsetting the Arctic’s thermostat, a new poll says that just 57 percent of Americans think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years.

A new Pew Research Center for the People & the Press  poll shows the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.

Also, the share of people in the U.S. who believe that pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also gotten lower, even as the world gears up for possible action against climate change.

The steepest drop has occurred this year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and international negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have gotten under way. All this in view of mounting scientific evidence of climate change – from melting ice caps to the world’s oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.

The opinions appear to be strongly related to political, rather than scientific views, which doesn’t surprise us one bit. According to the poll, three-quarters of Democrats believe the evidence of a warming planet is solid, and nearly half believe that the problem is serious, far fewer conservative and moderate Democrats see the problem as severe. At the same time, 57 percent of Republicans say there is no solid evidence of global warming, up from 31 percent in early 2007. It appears that the climate deniers are just as staunchly sticking to their guns as in the case of health-care reform.

In general it seems that priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the state of the economy and because of the focus on other things. The relentless lobbying efforts by the industry appear to have convinced quite a few gullible citizens, even though with some exceptions the vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is occurring and that the primary cause is a buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal.

That said: despite misgivings about the science, half the respondents still say that they support limits on greenhouse gases, even if they could lead to higher energy prices. And 56 percent of Americans feel the United States should join other countries in setting standards to address global climate change.

Technorati Tags: americans, democrats, global warming, Interest, lose, poll, republicans, Science