In Seattle we are experiencing our THIRD snowstorm in as many months, of course it probably won't hang on too long like that last two. So ... even I am now asking: Aren't we suppose to be getting warmer? There's another storm heading from the East to, hitting eastern states that they mentioned. Right now I am seeing an inch fall ... right in downtown.
ugh....everytime there's a cold day or a snowstorm, it gives global warming deniers impetus to advance their, well,
denials.
The climate is warming slowly. It's not supposed to be overnight. Scientists anticipate at least a 2 degree (Celsius) jump for the average global temperature
by the second half of this century, but it could be far more than that. It's an urgent problem, but it doesn't mean that winter is over yet. Cold days and snow storms still happen
for the time being, but if you keep track of the amount of days (per year) when the daytime high never reaches above freezing point (32 F) -in places where winter temperatures are supposed to almost always be below freezing point, like most of the northern USA- you'll probably notice that number of freezing days dwindling over the years. That's certainly what's happening here in Chicago, where I live. We still get snow and bitter cold days, but the number of days below freezing point is fewer than what I remember growing up. This season, we had a pretty normal December and January, with cold days and ample snow, but February this year has been unseasonably warm. And I'm not talking about a few days here or there; I'm talking about the entire month of February. Right now, as we speak, it feels like early spring outside. It feels like it's the last week of March. Yesterday I didn't need a jacket in the afternoon; it's not supposed to be like this for at least another month. And back in the fall, the leaves started changing colors later than normal. For about 2 years in a row, October felt more like September, and November felt more like October. But you know, when warm winter days like this occur (and they occur more and more often), the global warming deniers go into hiding. But when a snow storm hits the news, then all the deniers have a party, and go on their usual evirosceptic rampage. But where are all the deniers on a warm day like
today? The sad reality is that
according to NASA, the ten warmest years on record as of January 2008 had all ocurred after 1998. Yikes! But leave it to global warming deniers to downplay science and go into hiding on warm days like today.
There's a lot of industries out there tied to fossil fuels who have hired the same PR folks who were employed in the 1980s to deny the negative health effects of smoking. These PR firms are now working hard to mislead the public; they're trying to create the impression that scientists are in disagreement with each other global warming and its causes, and they're also trying to create the impression that evidence used by scientists is murky. Don't fall for this bullshit, folks. You might come across some news articles that present "new evidence" suggesting that global warming may not be happening, but know that these sceptic articles are fabricated by the PR firms,
and not a single sceptic article has ever been published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal.
