Posted on 12/29/2010 7:01:09 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Time Mag Headline 'Holiday Blizzard: More Signs of Global Warming' By Noel Sheppard Created 12/29/2010 - 9:10am
By Noel Sheppard | December 29, 2010 | 09:10 Noel Sheppard's picture
In today's "Everything Is Caused By Climate Change" segment, the folks at Time magazine offer a howler destined to start your morning off right with a chuckle: "Holiday Blizzard: More Signs of Global Warming."
The contents were even more hysterical:
One theory is that a warmer Arctic may actually lead to colder and snowier winters in the northern mid-latitudes. Even as countries like Britain — suffering through the coldest December on record — deal with low temperatures and unusual snow, the Arctic has kept on warming, with Greenland and Arctic Canada experiencing the hottest year on record. Temperatures in that region have been 5.4°F to 7.2°F (3°C to 4°C) above normal in 2010. As a result, the Arctic sea-ice cover has continued to shrink; this September, the minimum summer sea-ice extent was more than 770,000 sq. mi. (2 million sq km) below the long-term average, and the third-smallest on record. Snow may be piling up in midtown Manhattan, but the Arctic is continuing its long-term meltdown.
Shhh, wait - there's more:
The loss of Arctic sea ice helps accelerate the warming of the atmosphere in the far north, thanks to what's known as the albedo effect. White ice reflects sunlight into space, cooling the air, but when ice melts and is replaced with dark ocean water, the effect is reversed and more of the sun's heat is absorbed. As the Arctic air warms, it raises the altitude of discrete areas of high pressure, which can then alter wind patterns. This, in turn, can weaken the jet stream, allowing more cold air to seep out of the Arctic and into Europe and the eastern U.S. As the authors of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's recent "Arctic Report Card" put it, "There is evidence that the effect of higher air temperatures in the lower Arctic atmosphere in fall is contributing to changes in the atmospheric circulation in both the Arctic and northern mid-latitudes. Winter 2009-2010 showed a new connectivity between mid-latitude extreme cold and snowy weather events and changes in the wind patterns of the Arctic; the so-called Warm Arctic–Cold Continents pattern."
Ah - the famous Warm Arctic-Cold Continents trick. I hate it when that happens.
Then again, this might not be happening, for Time offered readers another theory if the first one seemed a tad convoluted:
Judah Cohen, the director of seasonal forecasting at the environmental research firm AER, has written that increasing seasonal snow cover in Siberia may drive extreme winter weather. Even as the planet has continued to warm and the Arctic has melted, seasonal snow cover has increased in Siberia, especially north of high Asian mountain ranges like the Himalayas. (As the climate warms overall, the atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can lead to more precipitation — falling as snow in places like Siberia that remain relatively cold.) All that Siberian snow creates a dome of cold air near the mountains, which bends the passing jet stream. Instead of flowing west to east, the jet stream moves in a more north to south fashion, carrying cold air south from the Arctic in the eastern U.S. and in Europe.
So, on the one hand, the cold and snow in America and Europe could be caused by the absence of ice in the Arctic.
If you're not buying that one, how about it's being caused by too much snow in Siberia?
Of course, if you like either of these theories, there's still some swampland available for sale in Florida that's getting even cheaper as those buying into Nobel laureate Al Gore's favorite money-making myth flee the southern states fearing it's going to be too warm to retire there.
Snicker, snicker.
Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation. This hypothesis had mixed support in the scientific community, but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of press reports that did not accurately reflect the scientific understanding of ice age cycles, and a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling
See, I can be a global warming scientist too, no facts are needed.........WHERE IS MY NOBEL PRIZE????????
In the 1970s, when I was an earnest young science geek, I tried to explain to my grandmother the coming ice age caused by human pollution. I just couldn't get her to understand the gravity of the situation.
She told me that when she was a girl at the turn of the last century, the newspapers were reporting a coming ice age. This was followed by the heat and dust bowl of the early 20th century. After a period of slight cooling, the "end of the world kooks" were was back to calling it an ice age.
Now I am explaining the same phenomenon to my children. When the weather is warm, end of the world kooks call it global warming. When the weather is cold, end of the world kooks call it global cooling.
Either way, it is all Bush's fault.
I’m shocked they kept ‘global warming’ in the headline. Its all ‘climate change’ now.
BTW, what the heck ever happened to that hole in the ozone? Remember when it was trendy?
Global warming is the Kwanzaa of scientific research.
Tagline material!
Of course, the fact that the big burning ball of thermonuclear fire in the sky is still asleep http://www.spaceweather.com has NOTHING to do with it. /sarc
I opened a can of soup yesterday. I cut my finger on the rim. It had a pull ring and I was not supposed to cut my finger. I did.
I blame it on global warming!
TSgt’s post in #2 says it all... ;-)
I saw that headline this morning LOLed. Then I read the article and LOLed again.
Whatever the cause, so long as Washington DC is submerged by rising sea levels or several meters of snow.
AGW is nothing more than a religion. It is based on faith and faith alone.
Those are some nasty chompers. Spend a buck on your teeth, manbearpig. Yuck.
And, while you're at it, manbearpig... FLOSS!!! You'll be glad you did.
No wonder Tipper dumped his sorry a**.
LOL- good one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.