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Skeptics on Human Climate Impact Seize on Cold Spell
NY Times ^ | March 2, 2008 | ANDREW C. REVKIN

Posted on 03/01/2008 11:31:07 PM PST by neverdem

The world has seen some extraordinary winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year: snow in Johannesburg last June and in Baghdad in January, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance after a record retreat last summer, paralyzing blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe’s average temperature.

It is no wonder that some scientists, opinion writers, political operatives and other people who challenge warnings about dangerous human-caused global warming have jumped on this as a teachable moment.

“Earth’s ‘Fever’ Breaks: Global COOLING Currently Under Way,” read a blog post and news release on Wednesday from Marc Morano, the communications director for the Republican minority on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

So what is happening?

According to a host of climate experts, including some who question the extent and risks of global warming, it is mostly good old-fashioned weather, along with a cold kick from the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is in its La Niña phase for a few more months, a year after it was in the opposite warm El Niño pattern.

If anything else is afoot — like some cooling related to sunspot cycles or slow shifts in ocean and atmospheric patterns that can influence temperatures — an array of scientists who have staked out differing positions on the overall threat from global warming agree that there is no way to pinpoint whether such a new force is at work.

Many scientists also say that the cool spell in no way undermines the enormous body of evidence pointing to a warming world with disrupted weather patterns, less ice and rising seas should heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and forests continue to accumulate in the air.

“The current downturn is not very unusual,” said Carl Mears, a scientist at Remote Sensing Systems...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: New York
KEYWORDS: agw; climatechange; globalwarming
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(oversized) Graphic: An Unusually Cold Winter
1 posted on 03/01/2008 11:31:09 PM PST by neverdem
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I suppose if the UN can claim last years hot spell as evidence of their climate theory, others can claim this years blizzard evidence against it.


2 posted on 03/01/2008 11:38:46 PM PST by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: neverdem; All
Global Warming Snow Sign
3 posted on 03/01/2008 11:42:54 PM PST by musicman
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To: neverdem
Here are the columnist's words:

More clucking about the cold is likely over the next several days.

...And so, if the author's bias wasn't already obvious from his employment with the New York Times, the above line seals it.

But here is my favorite:

Michael E. Schlesinger, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, said that any focus on the last few months or years as evidence undermining the established theory that accumulating greenhouse gases are making the world warmer was, at best, a waste of time and, at worst, a harmful distraction.

Are there any real scientists here who can tell me the difference between an "established theory" and (I suppose) an "unestablished theory"? Thanks.

Finally:

Discerning a human influence on climate, he (Schlesinger) said, “involves finding a signal in a noisy background.” He added, “The only way to do this within our noisy climate system is to average over a sufficient number of years that the noise is greatly diminished, thereby revealing the signal. This means that one cannot look at any single year and know whether what one is seeing is the signal or the noise or both the signal and the noise.”

Mr. Schlesinger, I think I know where the noise is coming from. You can shut up now. Most of this column is a "but but but" stammering mish-mash of lame excuse-making by the "global warming" hoaxers.
Wow, is it ever nauseating.

4 posted on 03/01/2008 11:50:24 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: D-fendr

Man they are trying to spin this! People should not believe their own eyes when they see its a severe winter. They need to trust “experts” who say that it isn’t. Per the GW expert: “it is mostly good old-fashioned weather”. When exactly ISN’T it?


5 posted on 03/01/2008 11:50:47 PM PST by boop (Democracy is the theory that the people get the government they deserve, good and hard.)
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To: boop
When exactly ISN’T it?

Whenever it supports the "global warming" hoaxers' "established theory", lol.

6 posted on 03/01/2008 11:53:04 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: neverdem
LOL check these fruitcakes out !

Greenpeace Naked Glacier March

7 posted on 03/02/2008 12:01:03 AM PST by KTM rider (Why cut off your nose to spite your face, when you can just hold it instead)
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To: Lancey Howard
"Global COOLING Currently Under Way"

See, all those Kyoto efforts have been paying off. Keep up the good work.

yitbos

8 posted on 03/02/2008 12:05:20 AM PST by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds." - Ayn Rand)
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To: KTM rider

Whoa, Dude....crazy people in that vid. Lots of jokes come to mind too.


9 posted on 03/02/2008 12:10:33 AM PST by swampdweller (Live Free or Die Hard)
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To: neverdem
Dude. It’s cold. You don’t like it warm? You must be in de Nile.
10 posted on 03/02/2008 12:10:33 AM PST by kinoxi
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To: neverdem

Here in Wisconin we are in the grips of one the worst winters on record.


11 posted on 03/02/2008 12:11:38 AM PST by LukeL
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To: boop
"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."
- Mark Twain
"Who you gonna believe: me or your freezing eyes?"
- Al Gore

12 posted on 03/02/2008 12:21:39 AM PST by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: KTM rider
Greenpeace...

I checked them out. Are they human beings? THAT'S scary! The yodeling or whatever in the background fits the on-screen action. It adds the nuts to the fruitcakes.

13 posted on 03/02/2008 12:30:37 AM PST by IIntense
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To: LukeL
Here in Wisconin we are in the grips of one the worst winters on record.

Dude, this is WISCONSIN, get your statement right!:

Here in Wisconin we are in the grips of one the worst best winters on record.


14 posted on 03/02/2008 12:34:21 AM PST by PackerBronco
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To: PackerBronco

Not to great when you miss a ton of school, have to scrape your car 3 times per week, have your mailbox snowed in, slip on ice packed sidewalks and driveways. I hate to think of the mounds of trash burried under all this snow, that is still sitting bagged up on curbs.


15 posted on 03/02/2008 12:41:49 AM PST by LukeL
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To: KTM rider

“It’s about the softness of their bodies and the hardness of the glacier”. Gimme a break!!


16 posted on 03/02/2008 12:47:57 AM PST by paristwelve (.......the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them)
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To: neverdem
the enormous erroneous body of evidence pointing to a warming world

There, fixed that darn typo.

17 posted on 03/02/2008 12:52:45 AM PST by CaptRon (Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: neverdem

As any good Global Warming Nazi will tell you, any evidence to the contrary, including unusually cold weather, is FURTHER proof of Global Warming!


18 posted on 03/02/2008 12:57:46 AM PST by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: Lancey Howard

Are there any real scientists here who can tell me the difference between an “established theory” and (I suppose) an “unestablished theory”
Yes, the difference is measured by who gives you the grant money.


19 posted on 03/02/2008 1:05:32 AM PST by sonic109
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To: bruinbirdman
"See, all those Kyoto efforts have been paying off. Keep up the good work."

LOL! ...good one, birdman.

I don't understand the hysteria about warming or cooling trends. Whiteouts are a bit of a pain during driving excursions in occasional storms, but twelve foot drifts and dry cold are fine (especially after the drifts harden up enough to walk on). Warm weather is nice, too. High humidity is the only condition that really bothers me. The eastern and southern lowlanders can keep their humidity.
20 posted on 03/02/2008 1:08:58 AM PST by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt.)--has-been)
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