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RE: We need to do something anyway.
Global warming is an unfortunate term adopted early on. Climate change is better. Given humans infinite capability for denial of inconvenient facts, every cold snap is cited as proof...
Extreme weather is a result, the arctic lobes are much more variable then recorded history, this sends short term extreme weather both north and south.
Global Warming is about the global trend for the averages to go up.
RE: We need to do something anyway.
Right now in Boston, we have -16 C (+3 F), near the record low temperatures for this day from 1927 when they suffered -17 C (0 F). The wind chill is -28 C (-18 F). It will be neither too pleasant nor too easy to walk outside, even for the last of the real men. It's going to be the second coldest day in this century so far in Boston: the coldest day was 1/15/2004 when Al Gore gave a major speech about the global warming in New York City (this frequently observed type of correlation is known as the Gore effect).
According to Wunderground, other places have already breeched their daily record lows. For example, -11 C seems enough in Philadelphia. -13 C (+9 F) in Stamford, CT seems to tie the record from 1982, and they may have already broken it. The flag at Buffalo airport, NY froze in full-wave mode. Recall that the freezing point for flags is rather low. ;-)
The winds from North and Northwest seem to go on. They're the main reason why the high on this day will be a record low for January 26th in much of the East Coast.
Cold weather is also moving to North Dakota and is already creating headaches in Utah. Alaska saw record low temperatures today, too. Frigid weather is expected to go on throughout February in Colorado. Denver's January has so far been the seventh coldest January on record.
Western and Central Europe has experienced some snowstorms. For example, 100 flights were cancelled in Prague. 100,000 families in France were cut out of electricity. Snow arrived in Spain, too. The picture above is a signpost for Madrid.
When the winter was balmy, every other journalist would find a climate scientist who would say that this could really be a result of the "climate change". Once the weather becomes frigid, you won't find any articles about the climate. Suddenly it's only the cold facts themselves - cold weather - that is reported. Isn't it interesting that warm weather is related to the climate but cold weather is not?
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We need to do something anyway.
I think science is supporting the fact that the earth is as a whole is growing warmer; especially in the arctic studies where the effects of even a slightly higher temperature seem to stand out more.
Science also shows that greenhouse gasses from whatever their cause have the potential and ability to raise temperatures on the earth. The contention is whether or not the gasses caused by man are the only thing causing this rise in temperature, or if it is mostly due to a natural cycle. It seems like even if it could be proved it was part of a natural cycle, our contributions on top of it can’t be helping.
The low in Manhattan yesterday was Seven degrees Fahrenheit below the average low.
I live in Massachusetts and this has been the warmest, mildest winter I or anyone I’ve talked to ever remembers. I have never been able to consistently be outside in my shorts and T-shirt for as long and as many times as this year. There were several weekends in December where if I wasn’t a human being and knew the date by the calendar, I would have said it was late May. The buds on the trees were coming out, and the crocuses were starting. This though, was caused by El Niño, the weather people are saying. Take heart; as I write this it is miserable winter again. The wind is blowing and it’s about 15 degrees out.
The real issue is of course is the last question of the news article:
If global warming is a true crisis, is slapping more tax on "Big Oil" going to help?
These political moves seem to just be a way for politicians to give the illusion that they are “doing something about it.” I would be much more interested in a slow, deliberate move towards other energy sources to remove our dependence on foreign oil, and at the same time reduce the greenhouse gasses which are not so good for other pollution reasons anyway. Taxing the oil companies may make our energy costs go up. The only thing good about that is it could create a greater will in every person with scientific capability to perhaps develop a new or better energy source. (Who is John Galt?)
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