(Seattle, Feb. 14, 2010) During the past week, the shrieks of global warming critics reached a fever pitch as the nation’s capital and other cities stretching from the Mid-Atlantic to New England struggled to recover from record-setting snow. Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C. declared that “its going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries uncle.” Senator Inhofe R-O.K. and his family built an igloo in honor of Al Gore and put up signs asking people to honk if they liked global warming.
But a few weeks of extreme winter weather in one small corner of our planet cannot wipe out centuries-long upward trends in global temperatures. It doesn’t even have much sway over global averages for the month of January. In a recent report, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that globally, January 2010 was the fourth warmest on record. Yes, much of the continental United States did experience below average temps, but the Northwest and much of Canada (persistent rain is hampering Vancouver Olympic organizers) were much warmer than normal. Here are some other highlights from the study:
- The land average surface temperature in the Southern Hemisphere was the warmest on record for January.
- Global ocean average surface temperature was the second warmest on record.
- Worldwide land and surface temperature for January was the 12th warmest on record.
But some may ask? How can you have massive snowstorms in the midst of global warming? Actually, most climate scientists believe that extreme weather events; i.e. hurricanes, heat waves, torrential monsoon rains, droughts and even snow storms will become more common as the planet warms. The worldwide symptoms of human-induced climate change advance unabated. Glaciers and polar ice caps are accelerating their retreat. Oceans continue to acidify, destroying coral reefs and underwater ecosystems. Ever expanding deserts, egged on by persistent droughts and poor land use practices, are swallowing up thousands of square kilometers of formerly productive land yearly.
Most climate experts agree that the real lesson that Americans should learn from ‘snowmadgeddon’ is that the nations of the world need to redouble their efforts to craft a binding global agreement to forcefully confront climate change, or face a future ravaged by even more destructive and deadly weather events…including bigger winter snowstorms.
Written by Dr. Jonathan Harrington
Jonathan Harrington
