Yes, it’s that time of year again. No, not that Christmas season, a time of spirituality for a few and shopping hell for the many. No, I mean its time for the cries that “Baby, it’s cold out there” …
Snowstorms and freezing temperatures continued across Europe, disrupting Christmas-holiday travel for thousands of people and claiming at least 80 lives.
… and cold and nasty outside here, too …
By Sunday morning, the storm had dropped two feet of snow in parts of Long Island, crippling highways and commuter trains and marooning 150 early morning riders near Farmingdale, N.Y., for more five hours while drifts piled up around them. More than 800 flights at the three major New York City Airports were canceled even after the runways and taxiways were plowed.
The southern suburbs of Boston were also hard hit with some spots, accumulating 20 inches of snow before the storm headed off the coast of Cape Cod.
Washington, which seldom gets much snow, broke its December record, with 16 inches at Reagan National Airport. And Philadelphia had its second largest snowfall, 23.2 inches, since it began keeping records in 1884.
… proves that climatologists are all liars and con artists who don’t know their head from the greatest email scam since that Prince from Nigeria (or Mauritania, or wherever) asked you to send money to him so you can make millions (of nothing). Yes, the right wing message machine is once again lifting up the specter of Old Man Winter as proof positive that anyone who believes in global warming is either trying to steal their hard earned cash through Big Guvmint financed tax boondoggles or an Al Gore sock puppet:
Too bad for global warming alarmists, right? Well it would be too bad if there weren’t these annoying little things called “facts” (complied by that communist/socialist/fascist/statist enclave at the University of Alabama – Huntsville) which keep getting in the way of the grand global warning science conspiracy theories of the right:
Newswise — Warmest November in 31 years
Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.13 C per decade
November temperatures (preliminary)
Global composite temp.: +0.50 C (about 0.90 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for November.
Northern Hemisphere: +0.42 C (about 0.76 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for November.
Southern Hemisphere: +0.58 C (about 1.04 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for November.
October temperatures (revised):
Global Composite: +0.29 C above 20-year average
Northern Hemisphere: +0.27 C above 20-year average
Southern Hemisphere: +0.30 C above 20-year average
Oh, and perhaps I should add these facts as well (from NOAA):
The years 2001-2008 rank among the ten warmest years of the 130-year (1880-2009) record and 2009 will certainly join them as one of the ten warmest years of the global surface temperature record. Based upon several factors, including the known year-to-date (January through October) temperature anomaly, recent historical values for November and December, and the presence of an El Niño episode in the tropical Pacific, the global January-December temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces is estimated to be about 0.56°C (1.01°F) above the 20th century average, which would be the fifth warmest since records began in 1880. However, uncertainty associated with the November and December outcome suggests a range of most likely ranks of fourth, fifth or sixth warmest on record. Regardless of this year’s exact placement, the 2000s decade (2000-09) will be the warmest on record for the global, with a surface temperature about 0.54 °C (0.96 °F) above the long-term (20th century) average. This will easily surpass the 1990s value of 0.36 °C (0.65 °F). [emphasis added]
For those who like their data on global warming trends with a dash of visual aids there’s this:
Okay,maybe there is global warming despite the snow outside my doorstep. But, but, isn’t that the fault of the sun? It has to be, right? I mean man made burning of carbon based fossil fuels couldn’t have anything to do with it, so it must be all the sun’s fault. Uh, not exactly, and not even when you use the study most relied upon by anthropogenic climate change deniers:
The most commonly cited study by skeptics is a study by scientists from Finland and Germany that finds the sun has been more active in the last 60 years than anytime in the past 1150 years (Usoskin 2005). They also found temperatures closely correlate to solar activity.
However, a crucial finding of the study was the correlation between solar activity and temperature ended around 1975. At that point, temperatures rose while solar activity stayed level. This led them to conclude “during these last 30 years the solar total irradiance, solar UV irradiance and cosmic ray flux has not shown any significant secular trend, so that at least this most recent warming episode must have another source.”
In other words, the study most quoted by skeptics actually concluded the sun can’t be causing global warming. Ironically, the evidence that establishes the sun’s close correlation with the Earth’s temperature in the past also establishes it’s blamelessness for global warming today.
In technical scientist speak (for those of you who like that sort of thing) the results of solar rays on global warming are described thusly:
[T]he contribution of solar variability to the temperature trend since 1987 is small and downward; the best estimate is −1.3% and the 2σ confidence level sets the uncertainty range of −0.7 to −1.9%. The result is the same if one quantifies the solar variation using galactic cosmic ray fluxes (for which the analysis can be extended back to 1953) or the most accurate total solar irradiance data composite. The rise in the global mean air surface temperatures is predominantly associated with a linear increase that represents the combined effects of changes in anthropogenic well-mixed greenhouse gases and aerosols, although, in recent decades, there is also a considerable contribution by a relative lack of major volcanic eruptions. The best estimate is that the anthropogenic factors contribute 75% of the rise since 1987 …
The damn shame about reality is that it always spoils a good fantasy. There is no Santa Claus. There is no Easter Bunny. And there is no Vast Left Wing Al Goreified Global Warming Conspiracy. But let me put it in terms that our conservative friends might understand:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
The science is real. It’s verified by thousands of scientists who specifically study our Earth’s climate. Time my dear climate change deniers (at least those of you who aren’t promoting these silly bunch of lies for the ill gotten gains you receive from folks like Exxon Mobil) to face the facts. Put away your inner child and come into the bright sunshine of reality, because that’s really the best hope we have of saving this earth, our one and only our planetary home for our children and our children’s children.
