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

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

Here’s another excellent cartoon by Washington Post’s Tom Toles.

We dedicate this one to all of those climate change and global warming deniers.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: change, Climate, denial, global warming, Tom Toles

Despite the outrage from the right and extreme right about the climate bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, the legislation is totally off-base and as its stands, it will barely help the environment at all. As a matter of fact conservatives have focused their fury on the handful of Republicans who voted in favor of the sweeping legislation and have been praising the Democrats who have voted against it.

What we basically have is that science – and you cannot really debate science politically – tells us that there is a climate problem and that unless we take immediate and sweeping steps immediately, the consequences for the ecosystem that our children and grandchildren will live in will be serious and severe.

There is a saying that “everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not to his own facts”. Climate change is one of those cases in which we have facts, despite what the naysayers might be saying. It is of course a global problem and the U.S., or Europe alone, without the cooperation of China and India and the rest of the world will not be able to accomplish much.

Frankly, we have to agree – at least in part with some of the conservatives, as the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill is not really the most efficient way of handling the problem. It will once again create a huge trading market for Wall Street; it will become another object of speculation. The permits to emit carbon, the speculation, and the derivatives will not only increase the overall cost of the program, but will also make our energy costs more volatile.

In short: there are better ways of addressing the climate change than a cap-and-trade system. One is the carbon tax in which you would collect the tax from the polluters and recycle the revenues towards more environmentally-friendly energy producing sectors. That would of course make the dirtier sources of energy more expensive, while making solar, wind and other “clean” energy sources relatively cheaper.

This would make businesses and individuals more interested in investing into these clean sources of energy and into a low-carbon economy in general. Wall Street would also have relatively little – if anything – to do with this process and that after all the mess that the Street shysters have caused for everyone seems encouraging in its own right.

A carbon tax would not only be considerably less complicated and not so prone to speculation as the cap-and-trade option, but it would actually encourage people and businesses to purchase and use less polluting vehicles and appliances and provide a real incentive to produce energy – electricity in particular – in a much more environmentally friendly manner.

The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill will not really reduce emissions, or produce any environmental benefits for at least 10 years. It is also the kind of bill that makes the coal producers perfectly comfortable. Many pollution permits were given to utilities that use the coal. What the bill really amounted to was as it is often the case – another noble idea that was incredibly diluted under pressure from lobbyists and special interests to the point of becoming pretty much useless.

The only thing that seems to make Americans change their wasteful habits is cost. When the price of gasoline exceeded $4 per gallon, everyone rushed to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle and the huge SUVs were almost impossible to sell. Most automakers – particularly those who relied on pickups and other large vehicles felt the pinch the most. Now that gasoline costs considerably less than $3 per gallon, people are not so worried anymore and that believe it, or not is not very good news at all. That’s why we need to have an incentive such as a carbon tax. It would make people and companies see that being greener, less wasteful and less polluting basically costs less in the long run, besides protecting the environment.

In a way cap-and-trade would do that also, to a degree, providing we have a real cap, so we are actually reducing emissions. In that manner the price of energy would go up, based on its carbon content. The cap-and-trade option is a supremely complicated way of achieving anything, as you would have to go through many steps to actually achieve any results. And at each of those steps different interests could intervene. The carbon tax solution would be much simpler, most likely cheaper overall, more efficient and less prone to speculation.

The European cap-and-trade system, known as the Emission Trading System (ETS),  is the world’s largest pollution market, and it offers important lessons for the U.S.  The main lesson is that cap-and-trade, by itself, won’t make much of a dent.

Despite what the naysayers, special interests and conservatives in general might say, we can only hope that the U.S. Senate will not go along with the cap-and-trade model and that it will show some leadership, common sense and backbone and will actually approve a carbon tax climate bill – one that is not diluted by special interests and lobbyists, but the kind of legislation that will actually do both the environment and all of us some real good.

Technorati Tags: Basically, bill, Cap and Trade, carbon tax, Climate, congress, Environment, inadequate, Wrong