Last week there is was a picture of a polar bear starving to death because there was no ice for him/her to walk on to get food. Translation: warm weather is a bad thing. Today, we have reports of the freezing cold temperatures. Translation: cold weather is a bad thing. No surprise, newspapers always spin the news as bad to scare us.
1
According to many of these posts, 97 % of peer-reviewed climatologists must be involved in an intricate and diabolical plot to embarrass the fossil fuel industry and make science deniers look ridiculously uninformed.
6
Can any weather event event be just a weather event anymore? Soon we won’t have a weatherman giving us the weather. We will have the climate change man giving us the climate change.
1
The climate has been cooling in fits and starts since the Holocene Climate Optimum peaked between 7,500 to 5,000 years ago, when temperatures were much warmer than today. The cooling is produced by the Milankovitch Cycle—predictable changes in the Earth’s orbit—which combines with changes in the tilt of the earth orbit and the present positioning of the continental plates to produce very long glacial periods (ice ages) and very short interglacial periods (warming periods). The glacial periods last millions of years while the interglacial periods average about 10,000 years. In geological time, the current interglacial period has a few minutes still to go. There have been other brief warming periods during the cool-down similar to the one we are now experiencing. The only difference is that manmade carbon emissions are now contributing to the present warming period. If manmade carbon emissions can prolong the current interglacial period, they may be doing as much good as harm. However, it is unlikely that manmade carbon emissions will offset the Milankovitch Cycle. The probability is that the ice sheets will soon return, once again covering the northern tier of the United States beneath kilometers of ice.
3
There is a longer term upside to this cold weather: killing various bugs and invasive plant species that have been thriving in the absence of really cold weather.
4
So I read the comments, are we really blaming President Trump for the cold weather? What is wrong with the general public in the country? Are we that stupid to think burning of fossil fuel over the last 12 months has caused this cold weather. We really are dumbing down our schools.
Climate changes takes place over decades, hundreds of years of burning fuel and manufacturing chemicals blowing them to the atmosphere in hundreds of millions of tons per year.
Do people know we still manufacture chemicals that destroy the ozone? yes 8 years of democrats controlling the White House we are still producing these chemicals. Long term solutions today will effect climate changes 100 years from now.
2
It's more appropriate to call this period climate chaos. It's the chaos of weather before things will just be just much much hotter in a few decades. And since it appears not much is being done about this world-wide (in fact, the U.S. along with other nations seems to be gearing up on drilling), I guess we will just get used to it, like the frog in the slow boil.
3
As I read through these comments, I wonder to myself, "how old are these guys?" It's as though everyone is 20 years old or younger. Why is it that people think that one cold weather event is so extreme that it is "proof" that global warming is a hoax? Has the world become this stupid?
I remember quite well how these cold snaps were common and frequent. Now they are reported as the most extreme cold events ever. Football games were usually snowy this time of year, and blizzards in wintertime took no one by surprise. Neighbors helped each other out. It was not out of the ordinary. It was expected as it was necessary. Cold weather, like decency and good manners, used to be normal, not extraordinary. Climate, like good folk, was dependable. It did not change within the span of a single generation. Indeed, global warming is not a misnomer by any stretch of the imagination, but denying this obvious trend stretches it past the breaking point and leaves us with global insanity.
13
I have asked hundreds of my undergraduate and MBA students if they believe climate change is real. Their answer is a simple yes, and they are puzzled that I would even ask. Then I ask whether they have ever read a serious article questioning the validity of climate-change theory. The number who have can be counted on one hand.
This speaks to a core problem these days: people are unwilling to consider opposing views, are rarely exposed them, and when they are, choose to ignore them. They then attribute opposing positions as an indication of moral insufficiency.
With a theory, even very weak data is seen as supporting it. Without a theory, that same data does not allow the theory to be developed. These statements are empirically based.
In the current climate, almost all weather is seen as evidence of climate change. Hot weather, really cold weather, dry, wet, windy ... About the only weather not seen as evidence is day-in and day-out average weather. Which goes unnoticed.
Individuals cannot see evidence of climate change. In the last 130 years, the earth has warmed by less than one degree. That's not perceptible. Climate-change evidence requires complex statistical models. And to date, the science behind climate change research is weak. Stated simply, it is not sufficiently predictive.
Climate change has become more evangelical than science. You're either on board with it or scorned. And that is not particularly helpful to the efforts to better understand the phenomena.
5
This is just flat out wrong. There's a reason nonsense has been weeded out.
Climate scientists are skeptics. This type of thing, not so much.
11
The one and only way to get this country back on track--in terms of climate change and just about everything else-- is a Democratic majority in 2018. It's all or nothing at this point.
20
Here in Oregon, we are seeing wine grapes planted where Christmas tree farms used to be....but there's no climate change, nope, uh uh.
19
I lived in Chicago a few blocks from Lake Michigan from 1967 through early 1970 and in Freeport, IL, 40 miles west of Rockford and 20 miles south of Monroe, WI, from 1970 through 1972.
I well remember seeing ice on the shores of Lake Michigan. In Freeport, where I did not have access to a car during the day, I bundled up my toddler and my baby and walked to stores on "warm" days of 0°. Nights went down to -20° on a regular basis, so those days that reached 0° actually felt relatively warm.
That said, I'm very grateful to be back in coastal SC, where "cold" days means under 50° and during the night temperatures seldom go below 32°. though we are expecting temperatures in the teens this week.
4
Living in Phoenix, I am well familiar with temperature extremes of a different sort. When you are affected by extreme cold or extreme hot, terrible damages follow. Deaths, isolation, extreme discomfort, and the inability to carry on with normal life are among the consequences. If it’s 120 or 20 below, those affected must deal with the present situation. We are not mice in a climate change experiment. We need compassion and hellp not theorizing as to whether our agony is just weather or the result of climate change. Decency calls for help before theoretical reflection.
2
Climate change means more snow in the Northeast. I live in the Northeast and I like snow, so I like climate change.
In the Boston area, 135 years of record keeping shows that 6 of the 8 heaviest snowfall seasons have occurred in the past 25 years.
1. 2014-2015: 110.6 inches
2. 1995-1996: 107.6 inches
3. 1993-1994: 96.3 inches
4. 1947-1948: 89.2 inches
5. 2004-2005: 86.6 inches
6. 1977-1978: 85.1 inches
7. 1992-1993: 83.9 inches
8. 2010-2011: 81.0 inches
Please leave climate change alone. The additional snow is lots of fun. Defenders of science should read the 2006 report "Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of Snowstorms in the Contiguous United States".
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/JAM2395.1
Dear Dan M,
We hope you're kidding in your comment, "I like climate change."
If you're not kidding, good luck to those in your family who come after you, because at the pace we're currently destroying the earth, Boston's next 135 years of climate record-keeping will reveal a planet in speedy decline, much of it already ruined by our excesses, 10s of 1,000s of species extinct, our own suffering horribly from sparse food supplies, poisoned air and waterways, and unmanageable overpopulation...
7
Trump is denying climate change, and in this case making fun of it, not because he really doesn't know what climate change is but because he doesn't want to pay for it. He tweets so he gets more support from uneducated or ignorant people.
The US has produced the most amount of green house gases after the Industrial Revolution along with a few other countries. The poorer countries that are suffering already and will continue to suffer further from the effects of climate change have in comparison contributed very little to the overall global production of green house gases. That is why the Paris Climate Agreement obliges countries like the US to pay for the devastating effects of climate change in poor countries. To politicians like Trump and their followers, the suffering of other, less powerful, countries resultant from the industrial production of developed countries, is therefore irrelevant in their version of reality.
9
Over millions of years the earth has had warming and cooling cycles all without man
If mankind is contributing to the current natural inevitable warming cycle it’s only because of over population
So for those who believe in the religion of man man global warming what we need to do is eliminate a billlion or two people and their pets. Problem solved.
4
What puzzles me is how folks who live in areas like those mentioned in the article who have a history of cold, heavy snow winters, don't seem to prepared very well. Guess they expect the government to save them. Common sense would suggest that one should have two weeks worth of non perishable foods, a propane heater, and stored water.
Go to YouTube and type in Storm of the Century - the Blizzard of '49 from Wyoming PBS and one will see massive blizzards occurred long before climate change became a term.
2
The article uses the currently accepted term "climate change" because the old term "global warming" was a very unfortunate choice. "Warming" sounds pretty innocuous and fails to encapsulate the vast range of harmful impacts. We're basically adding energy to the system and that results in an intensification of climate patterns, extremes, and changes in cycles that we are accustomed to. Europe's climate is only favorable to human habitation because of the Gulf Stream sending a steady flow of warm air up from the Caribbean to the Continent (compare average temperatures in Europe to comparable latitudes in North America). It is conceivable that Climate Change could shut down or change the direction of that current and thus that what once was called global warming could cause it to get much colder, even as the global average temperatures continue to increase. Similarly, changes in Jet Stream patterns could be causing the Midwest and Northeast to suffer through more extreme winters even while Arctic continues to warm and lose ice cover vital to so many species. But still "Climate Change" is not a great label either because climate inherently is highly variable across all time scales. "Climate intensification" might be better but what might be even better is if we stopped fighting the abstract "climate change" debate (is or isn't it) and got back to protecting the rainforest for its own sake and reducing toxic pollution for human health and increasing fuel efficiency, etc.
8
Two years ago on Christmas Day in NYC it was 68 degrees. Where were all the climate change deniers then? Weather is variable, climate change is a fact that 98 percent of scientists agree is happening and caused by human fossil fuel use.
19
Instructions for Climate Change Deniers: open your freezer (it's in your kitchen). Stand next to the open freezer door for about an hour or two, depending on room temperature. Is the area surrounding your open freezer getting colder? Meanwhile, the contents of your freezer should be thawing. Do you get it?
While we can't shut the freezer door, it's also pointless to argue about who opened it in the first place, man or nature. The fact is, the climate is changing, and we can be like the fabled ant who is industrious and prepares for the coming winter, or the lazy grasshopper who sings away the summer only to find itself starving to death in the cold.
15
Extreme weather events are the oldest story in the book; their very unpredictability is what, all he way down through recorded history, has made them endlessly newsworthy and interesting. Donal Trump, on the other hand...
3
There are several intelligent reviews of this phenomenon. It is important to note that in fact the planet is currently warmer than usual, especially at the North Pole. The North Pole's weather has traveled south and that is what is causing our cold. Have a look (if you can read a map: the reds are hot, blues cold):
http://cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#t2anom
Here's one intelligent article about from real weather/climate experts:
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/new-years-freeze-out-it-can-still-get-...
Climate is the statistics of weather over time. Our planetary disruption, due to global warming, is likely to produce more of these extremes. Winter has not yet been canceled.
Here it is from conservative (but still rational) Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/12/28/a-response-for-p...
"A Response For People Using Record Cold U.S. Weather To Refute Climate Change"
16
My mother used to say that every negative situation had a positive side to it. I have seen these positive sides this past week with the fridge temps in Chicago. Neighbors are checking on neighbors about their heat, food and transportation needs, other neighbors are bringing hot meals and necessities like toilet paper and hot coffee to other neighbors, and I've seen total strangers helping push out stalled cars or jump dead car batteries in the alley. It's seeing and hearing about this level of kindness and generosity that helps keep my spirits up and my heart warm, knowing that folks are thinking of others besides themselves. Good luck to the residents of Erie, PA and other folks in places suffering from record-breaking snowfalls and frigid freezing temperatures.
11
Haven’t I heard all of this before?! The weather describing and forecasting legion of doom! I’m sure they will be back in the summer describing those scorching temperatures!!!
3
Yes they will and if you paid attention you would know why.
9
What Trump was really saying in “let’s talk about me”, and we are.
8
By the way, Trump's dumb little comment comes against the background of his Administration's having dumped the rules passed after the Gulf Oil Spill, because they're "incomvenient for the industy," or some such thing.
Gee, and here I woulda thought that it'd be a good idea to try and avoid dumping another couple hundred million barrels of oil into the oceans.
9
I'll be watching Time Square New Years Eve celebration from my TV room (temperature set at 75). Obviously volunteer reporters are needed to replace the frozen ones on Broadway and 5th every hour on the hour.
2
Lowering our thermostats to 68 was good stewardship during the energy crisis and it's good stewardship now.
5
I hope this event does something to wake Americans up about the dire and irreversible situation the world is in. There is every possibility that this sort of event will persist every few years in the same US and UK regions until the Arctic is nothing but bare ocean all year round, and then it's anyone's guess as to what sort of weather systems you will get next. If you have any care for your children or grandchildren, stop using fossil fuels now in every way possible. Oh, and thanks to a certain political party being purchased by the fossil fuel industry you will need to vote appropriately as well.
7
Trump's tweet illuminates how inaccurate and imprecise the term "global warming" is to describe climate change. This term should be retired from common use.
33
No matter what anyone says "should" happen the terms are already in common usage. Here's a slightly more accurate summary, showing how they are parts of the same thing, words being approximations of meaning:
We are emitting heat-trapping greenhouse gases which are accumulating in earth's atmosphere, increasing the energy (heat) in the system (global warming), which is disrupting our planetary circulation (climate change).
6
Whatever ya wanna call it, why should I worry when there are 490 Million pounds of cherries ? I like cherries, so this climate change thingy is great for a guy like me.
http://www.capitalpress.com/Orchards/20170712/pnw-cherry-crop-will-likel...
Capital Press; July 12, 2017 8:20AM
YAKIMA, Wash. — The Pacific Northwest fresh cherry crop is half harvested and now estimated as the largest in history.
In May, it was forecast at 22.7 million, 20-pound boxes but consensus was it could easily be larger. In late June, Northwest Cherry Growers, the industry promotional arm in Yakima, updated the estimate to 24.5 million boxes. If reached, it will surpass the record crop of 23.4 million in 2014.
1
When I think our society has become completely self-absorbed and indifferent to its most vulnerable members, I find out a 12-year-old kid trudged through 3-foot snowdrifts to bring a plate of ham, mashed potatoes and green beens to an elderly shut-in, and I think maybe, just maybe, there's still some hope for us.
15
Extreme warm weather - global warming caused by Republicans
Extreme cold weather - global warming (its complicated and too hard to explain) caused by Republicans
Solution - we need to seize more of your salary and property. Do not fear. We will spend it wisely - as WE see fit.
1
Trump, like Inhofe, show their ignorance again. There are indications, climate change is affecting the jet stream and the way it interacts with the polar vortex, allowing for the colder artic air to penetrate farther south than would be expected. Just the opposite of what Trump would think.
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For those who do not understand, some physics on how global warming can cause stronger arctic blasts of cold air to invade lower latitudes: this is complicated, but one of the drivers of colder air coming down from the arctic into our lower latitudes is related to the warming itself. Note that warm air rises. As it does so, colder air, which is heavier, tends to ride under the rising warm air. When the sequence of additional warming events combine with the natural cooling of the arctic in winter, the movement of colder arctic air can be both blocked further north (at the pole) by slightly warmer low pressure, allowing the colder arctic air to flow south under the warmer air at the lower latitudes, which is lighter than the low pressure air at the pole. The warmer our air is before such arctic blasts arrive, the colder and longer lasting such arctic blasts can be for us, as we are experiencing now.
At some point, this winter, our air will return to a warmer state than is typical when conditions change so the arctic air retreats back to the arctic. However, we may well have more arctic blasts like this before the winter is out.
61
Thanks, this was a helpful explanation. Wish we'd get a visual/illustration of it to really 'get' it, too.
1
I remember, when I lived in NJ, all the Boys Scouts would dig out the fire hydrants. I remember, because I had three in my neighborhood to dig out. A lot of work!
2
Whining about climate change as if anyone had a guarantee that the climate wouldn't ever change. Who told you the climate had to behave a certain way? Can climate scientists point to a period in history when the climate DIDN'T change? No. On the contrary, the climate changes constantly. The climate changed prior to industrialization and prior to civilization, and it's changing now, and the size of your carbon footprint has nothing to do with it.
3
Oh ye of little understanding, in a word, baloney!
The Arctic is unusually warm, as is much of the rest of the planet. This polar vortex has traveled south. The earth's circulation continues to be broken by climate change/global warming.
Winter has not been cancelled, but blocked patterns are becoming much more normal.
Three years of unusual warmth, and the first cold spell brings out unskeptical "skeptics" in droves.
Climate is weather over space (whole earth and atmosphere) and time (decades), the statistics and trends of weather. Overall, highs are overwhelming lows, seasons are moving, years are warmer, seas are rising, etc. etc.
The scientists are capable of thought and observation: that's how they manage to get their doctoral degrees.
8
The fact that your body constantly changes, and always has--good thing, too, or you'd be dead--doesn't make the cHange called cancer a Good Thing,myou know.
The WEATHER changes. The climate remains fairly stable over long periods--our civilization relies on this--or did, until lately.
Guess what changed?
5
You forgot to add that no one cares if the human race is wiped out in the process. Party to the end.
1
Here is how you try to explain extreme cold in an era of planet warming trends and climate climate change to the President and his followers.
“Have you have ever been sick with the flu and suddenly feel so cold that nothing you do can warm you up?”
That is what climate change is like for the Earth.
3
Why can we make TV's safe from kids, but not stoves?
I have a simple test to see if I should listen to what someone has to say about climate change. I show them two cups of coffee, one hot and one that has cooled off. I ask them why one is warm and the other one is not. They often say that one has cooled off which is true but then I ask them what happened to it when it cooled off. If they don't know that the water molecules in the cooler cup have slowed down they have nothing of value to add to the discussion. Our ignorance of the most basic scientific facts is one of the reasons we have gotten ourselves into this mess.
23
Jim,
Thank you.
That is what Jimmy Carter tried to tell us but we listened to the someone who had nothing informative to tell us.
Here it is thirty eight years later and Reagan is still considered a good president and the man who tried to stop climate change and a growing inequality gap is considered a failed president.
Carter was a scientist and Reagan was an entertainer, Carter understood and Reagan believed. Carter is brilliant but Reagan was a celebrity. We are victims of preferring image over substance and I fear we have doomed our species.
25
Fire up the Midwest factories. Let’s make America warm again!
9
Why are liberals unable to,take a joke? They take themselves so seriously.
8
You are assuming that Trump meant it as a joke. I am a liberal with a sense of humor. Trump has shown over and over that he does not have a sense of humor. Remember, he was the first president to skip the White House correspondence dinner.
I'm pretty sure that he was NOT joking.
43
I don’t know, maybe it’s because there is nothing remotely funny in what Trump said — his seeming disregard for the welfare of those who will be impacted by this, his cheap shot at science, and his ignorance of the dangers of a possibly prolonged cold snap. (Either that, or his delivery needs work or he needs better writers.)
“Stay warm this weekend, folks, Happy New Year.” THAT’S all that needed to be said, if he felt so compelled to say anything at all.
Political ideology has nothing to do with this. Recognizing truth and decorum does.
38
Since when did Trump have a sense of humor? He does not understand (or care to understand) the difference between weather and climate ... you are welcome to try to explain it to him.
9
With Trump’s massive ego and love of all things superlative, will he eventually tweet to take credit for the COLDEST New Year’s EVER?
But seriously.
It’s imperative that we keep in touch with our neighbors and friends as this cold snap continues. Make sure they have power, and can communicate if they need help. Many elderly, some afraid of maybe being seen as a “bother,” may not reach out on their own. Check in. Careful using space heaters, candles, and ovens for improvised extra warmth. And keep the doggos and kitties inside.
Many power companies offer programs to provide payment assistance during the winter months. Consider enclosing a donation with your next bill to help someone keep his furnace running, or to a charity that will see an increase in requests for assistance going forward.
Trump, at the end of the day, isn’t really worth the effort. Taking care of each other, however, is. Maybe that will be the one positive takeaway from his administration.
19
Granted that Trump has an ego. And he obviously lets his mouth run too much. I think you'll probably find most at that level in business and politics have "large" egos. It's just that liberals ignore the fact that their own also have them. How convenient! At least he's not banging interns in the oval office. Did you approve of that?
Trumps policies will make it easier for us to take care of our own, as it was intended under the Constitution. In the absence of a bloated federal government, communities tend to take care of each other and there will be attempts to return power to the States (see 10th amendment, which many Dems and Reps have no respect for). Which, as you say, is a "great" thing.
@Steve: Trump’s policies — as in the tax cut that will further hit the middle class? As in no affordable health care, which will hit them even harder? As in Republican policies, straight out of the Ayn Randian playbook? And, speaking as someone who worked in social services for many years, mostly with those who are most endangered by this weather — the homeless — I can say that both the federal and local governments have huge and important roles to play, along with the private sector, which we all know Trump would rather do without.
But, all this is beside the point. In your haste to bring politics (as well as a Clinton, quelle surprise!) into the discussion, you miss my point entirely: Just be neighborly and good to one another.
1
Climate vs weather.
Bernie Sanders, 28 Dec 2015:
"Nobody can recall a Christmas Eve where the temperature was 65 degrees. Why is it that we're not effectively addressing climate change?"
65 degrees at a Christmas Eve is Global Warming -
(now conveniently renamed into all-encompassing and impossible-to-argue-against "Climate Change". Giving credit where credit is due - for this extraordinary smart rename. And why the first 20 years people used this "Global Warming" title and not "Climate Change" from the beginning?)
But minus 30 at a Christmas Eve is just weather.
4
Who said that what Bernie says about global change is any more gospel or believable than what Trump says? Now if it were a scientist who said it you might have something.
4
areader,
Back in the 1970s The Ecologist addressed the issue of climate change. Nobody expects the majority of the American public to have the background to understand even basic science.
The Ecologist told us the average temperature would go up (climate) and warm periods would be warmer and cold periods would be colder (weather). Jimmy Carter understood and warned us but the corporations preferred to keep us in the dark and gave you Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Only eighty percent of Canadians believe in man made climate change because 20% of our population prefer their brains being numbed by US pablum.
10
Read this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/opinion/sunday/climate-change-global-...®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region
2
From a different and more educated man this would be seen as tongue in cheek. From trump it's just more of the same ignorance. Man induced climate change will deliver all types of "weather" extremes: cold, hot, drought, heavy rain, severe hurricanes, rising seas and disappearing ice caps. It's a matter of the factual and alarming averages over time, not today's weather forecast. But hey, we voted for entertainment and shock not informed leadership, so enjoy people.
114
It's a fact of mother nature. Or did all you geniuses think the weather would never change? The fact is the climate is hardly changed compared to your experts' dire predictions 20+ years ago. Check out some of your spokesman's (Al Gore) predictions.
@Steve: Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth was quite accurate. The attacks on him and others who have publicized the facts (Mike Mann, SkepticalScience, the IPCC, etc. etc.) are an organized effort to delegitimize the truths he shared with us all. Where he was wrong, he corrected the record, unlike Inhofe, Trump et al.
For example, in 1000 pages there was a typo where ice melt was predicted for 2350 but they missed that it came out as 2035. We've never heard the end of it.
When was the last time you made a typo?
I suggest that scientists and reality-based evidence, which is piling up, is a lot more accurate than a lot of snarky attack-based phony information. The vast agreement among the world's scientists over time should make you pay attention, not find gotchas that don't make sense unless you ignore the world all around you.
5
Al Gore is a politician, not a climate researcher. The researchers said it would be warming on average. This is going to be the second or third warmest year since records began in 1850. More significantly, we're nearing the end of what is (barring massive volcanic eruptions) be the warmest decade since records began.
The 2000s are the current record holder. That replaced the 1990s. That replaced the 1980s (which replaced the 1940s).
Four consecutive "warmest decades" in a row is a trend. And the sun's output has reduced very slightly during the same time, so we know the heat isn't extra solar input.
Scientists also predicted warming would be greatest at high latitudes. Measurements show that to be happening, too. Here's a record of atmospheric temperatures from satellites - click the selection on the upper right and see how much faster "North Polar" has been warming compared to other areas or the global trend.
http://images.remss.com/msu/msu_time_series.html
And that sea-level rise is from warmer waters expanding, combined with meltwater flowing to the sea. Heat does that.
2
This arctic cold snap is related to climate change, just as much as are heat waves in Arizona, hurricanes in the Caribbean and wildfires in California. Melting arctic ice, and an overall climb in arctic temperatures, have slowed down the polar jet stream, causing it to wobble, rather than run in a more truly circular pattern that keeps arctic weather in the arctic. That wobble reaches south, and brings cold arctic weather with it.
Ignorami have long used extremely cold weather to say there is no global warming. But indeed there is. Counterintuitively, perhaps, warming is what's causing the extremely cold temperatures we're seeing. And Con Man Don is, arguably, the king of the ignorami.
46
Can the climate change experts PREDICT anything? Or is it all due to climate change after the fact with clever explanations. If you paid attention during high school science (real science), you would know that your theories are supposed to predict future behavior of systems.
1
They can accurately predict long term trends - they cannot predict the weather.
So if you were to watch the Al Gore documentary from 2006, you would see the predictions made at that time concerning a rise in average temperatures, a rise in sea level, melting of the glaciers in Greenland and the ice shelves in the Antarctic - ALL of which have happened as PREDICTED by the climate scientists from that time.
11
Given that the denier crowd's continually howling about the various projections of climate change, a xlaim that the science hasn't made predictions is medium silly.
1
Trump never misses a chance to show off his ignorance. His comment shows he does not understand the basics of climate change and the polar vortex, “In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record,” he wrote. “Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming.” The warming trend causes the vortex that usually keeps the cold in the poles to waver, sending the cold further south in the US. Now he will tell us the cure is to burn more of that coal he left in the stockings of the poor with his tax plan. His ignorance breaks all bounds, just like the new cold snaps.
47
What I'm not getting are the findings about the Arctic warming faster than anywhere else on earth (relative to its historic baseline presumably). Ergo, where's all this cold weather coming from? Vertical mixing?
The Arctic is warming faster, but it is warming from a much cooler average than lower latitudes - permafrost in one part of Siberia extends a bit more than a mile deep, and one researcher found sub-sea permafrost that's been frozen half a million years. https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/frozenground/how_fg_forms.html
Here's some background on the jet stream and how kinks in it can shift polar air down to lower latitudes - it's from the 2014 winter: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/us-temperature-extre...
1
I hope all the deluded idiots who voted for Trump have noticed his complete lack of concern for their safety.
52
I think supporters of man made climate change theory are disingenuous... when it gets really hot, they eagerly point to climate change as the cause... but when it gets really cold.. they are quick to point out that it is just weather...!
6
These cold spells have historical precedents. The heat that we have experienced recently has been unprecedentedly frequent. Try to keep up.
7
This is inaccurate and, as is typical of the uneducated people Trump loves, confusing weather and climate. The point is that extremes are extending farther on both ends of the temperature spectrum
12
Extreme cold in the winter is a direct result of climate change. Global warming has a reciprocal effect. But you probably wouldn't know that, because climate change skeptics like yourself rarely bother to read or listen to the scientific studies.
18
Did anyone notice that the people suffering here are in areas that voted for Trump? That’s why he mocked AGW: right now AGW seems pretty ridiculous to them. So despite what most of the commenters here think, this was a politically savvy thing to do.
Until my fellow leftists understand how to talk to people with a different world view and culture, the political situation in this country is just going to get worse. That means learning empathy for people you think are insane, delusional or even evil. Once you learn to talk with them, then maybe you can find some common ground that can lead to political action.
(ProTip: that doesn’t mean trying to “educate” them - it probably won’t work and it will just alienate them.)
7
Richard, if facts and logic don't work, you need to go for the next tool in the box, alpha-dog withering scorn based on a bedrock of intellectual understanding. They don't want to be "convinced". They want to be led.
14
Calling ignorance and outright refusal to believe scientific research a 'different worldview' is dangerous folly.
18
Sometimes there is no common ground. Probably God is sending a message of disapproval about them and Trump. They can't have it both ways -- God punishing people they don't like with bad weather, but for some reason they never apply the same logic to themselves. Probably because it lacks logic.
5
The proper term is global climate instability.
12
To stop climate change, stop buying products from the countries that spew the worst toxic chemicals into the air and water (Mexico, India, China).
If you own anything made in those countries, you're part of the problem.
And then there's the fuel/carbon used to transport the stuff to the US.
True climate change believers must refuse to buy products that are made abroad and shipped here. Pay more. Put your money where your mouth is.
7
re: Honeybee, "True climate change believers must . . . "
Words like "belief" imply some sort of mystical choice based on blind faith.
Substitute "accept" or "recognize" or words that describe the reaction of the person to the existence of a fact.
5
I have not bought a gallon of gas in 10 years now and have not been on a plane since 1991. And I buy most things second hand or find them out on the curb. And for the record, I am not a believer in global warming:) Historically speaking, scientists have a lousy track record starting with EVERY scientist claiming the earth was flat, the earth is the center of the universe, and that if you flew past the speed of sound the plane would disintegrate.
Meanwhile, I see all of the global warming prophets such as Al Gore and Bill Gates living in homes that consume more energy than small villages while flying around in private jets. Mr. Gates has a 24 bathroom home for a family of five and yet my city electric company keeps sending me letters saying that I use more electricity than my neighbors do:)
14
The carbon footprint per capita of the US is much, much higher than any of those countries. You are contributing to global warming simply by living the american way of life...
5
It's sad seeing all those guys (it is normally guys) who think that a cold spell anywhere is obviously proof against global warming. Because, well, warm isn't cold, right? They call for real science but have no clue how science works. They know not the difference of climate and weather, nor do they grasp concepts like temerature averages, trends, and the oscillatory nature of circulatory systems. I guess those Einsteins would also think that when a terminally sick person has a good day or appears to be better in any one respect this clearly means he cannot be ill.
112
Besides, all the cold air is probably from melted Arctic and Greenland ice, and ships (especially seeking petroleum, *sigh*...) are now passing through the melted north so often that it'll melt and blow downward even faster.
But Welling, please let those meathead-man Einsteins stay in their liddle[sic, per covfefe] world of alternative facts. It'll make the Great Sane-ami that rolls through our Congress in 2018 all the sweeter.
In the meantime, I repeat my apologies to you and all others outside these United States for our (as our last sitting President Barack Obama so beautifully put it) "temporary absence of American leadership". If it means anything, Clinton won.
12
not until climate change hits the bottom line for big corporations that will we see this administration and republicans in general finally wake up to what is happening all around the world. Sad that we elected the most unqualified person ever to handle this country in these challenging times.
4
And the weatherman in chief struggles in recognizing the difference between climate and weather.
10
I can't help but wonder if the recent eruption of and ash ejection from Mount Sinabung in Indonsia has anything to do with the sudden cold snap.
1
It's actually because I planted a bush 2 years ago, which brought new butterflies 1 year ago,,, and they rest, as they say, is occurring now. Be careful about what you plant. That's what I learned from all this.
4
no ... explanations elsewhere.
1
Our anti-science President and his merry band of creationists and flat earthers can't just be content to extend his prayers to those people affected by the extreme weather. Nope. He has to pick up the political football and run into his own end zone with it. Climate change is probably responsible for the recent instability in the polar vortex. Whereas weather patterns would set up in late Autumn and remain that way until early Spring, now the weather consists of extreme changes from week to week. To our President it's just "fake news...Chinese conspiracy".
8
Our know-it-all president doesn't know the difference between weather and climate. He thinks if he looks out the window and sees snow, that means there's no climate change. I suppose he also thinks if he fills up on a couple big Macs, that means there's no hunger in the world.
13
The Arctic has gotten so warm that it is pushing the cold ir down to North America Get used to it folks. Hotter summers, colder winters, more intense and frequent tornados and hurricanes, unpredictable storms. The cost of dong nothing about climate change is going to bankrupt us .. that it, if we survive!
12
Anyone remember the storm of 1888?
1
Just barely.
1
Just read a book about that winter storm. Very interesting reading as it shows society at a point just before telephones (not that their wires would have survived.) New York lost touch with most other cities as telegraph wires came down and trains stopped running.
Immediately after NY started burrying their overhead wires.
Sharks also are at peril due to ... 'global warming'. Although, presumably 'global warming' is also causing sharks to freeze to death.
What doesn't global warming cause?
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-sharks-19221
3
Well, Prof, I can say conclusively that global warming is not responsible for teaching people like you much of anything.
Have you no subtlety, man? No curiosity?
Global warming, which we use here because we are no longer allowed to say climate change, is not about warming at all, or not exclusively. Hence 'climate change'.
The same growing body of knowledge (facts, to you) that made us aware that this is all one big system and that one kind of change in an area can produce a corresponding (though opposite) change elsewhere is why 'Global Warming', as term, has become nothing but a taunt from people like senators who bring snowballs to capital hill and claim nothing bad is happening.
5
Does Trump believe that its Global Warming that provides the sunny days for his frequent golf outings at his Florida estate?
4
Let's ask Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico how global warming effected them this year.
6
first jacquie -- it affected them, not effected.
2nd -- there is no evidence that these hurricanes were caused or enhanced by CC.
1
Ralphie - Warmer air means more moisture, heavier rain etc. There's all kinds of evidence.
3
then DR, you would expect a correlation between temp and precip -- warmer years showing more precip. Except that doesn't happen. Weather -- and climate -- as more complex than that. It's multi-variate.
If you live in the water you'd best know how to swim.... or learn fast....
2
Send some environmentalists down there to save the sharks.
Where's "global warming" when you need it?
2
Gee, Mike - what's your point? The term "climate change" is the term used to describe our era's atypical weather. "Global warming" is almost as relevant a term in this news story as "snowflake" is when discussing oppositional voters.
Oh, and it's "send some environmentalists UP there to save the sharks", because Wellfleet and Orleans are northeast of us in the tristate area.
3
Ignorant tweet by Trump. But then nothing new.
10
It doesn't really matter whether or not Trump is being intentionally disingenuous or is merely ignorant about the difference between weather and climate. In any case, take a moment to examine the Daily 2m Temperature Anomaly map at the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer dot org website (cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#t2anom). This data set shows the actual global pattern of global temperature departure from normal for today. To put this cold snap into perspective, today the world is, overall, an average of 0.5C above the 1979-2000 mean, while in the Arctic, it is 2.8C above normal today.
2
I understand the hardship people suffer with snow and ice in say, Georgia, but in Erie, PA??? Getting several feet of snow dumped on you in just a few short days is hard work and exhausting, but northern folks are usually well prepared for this kind of event. There is no excuse for people to be snowed in and stranded other than a lack of planning. If you are to unfit to shovel, hire someone. Have a back-up heating source, and keep plenty of non-perishable food in the pantry.
1
If you live in Vermont (as I do) surely you must know that five feet or more of snow is incredibly difficult to move and it doesn't matter who you hire to clear it from your driveway if the city can't keep the roads clear.
10
Climate change advocates always have it both ways. When it is hot, sunny and dry blame climate change. When there is record cold and snow, blame climate change. They can't lose. Well, at least in their own minds they can't.
3
You're showing your ignorance, and it ain't pretty.
Global warming has a reciprocal effect on extreme cold in the winter. Read the literature, or listen to the climatologists.
6
Record-breaking hurricanes.
Record-breaking fires.
Record-breaking heat.
Record-breaking cold.
You will suffer, Paul. Whether or not you snap out of it in time to lessen yours -- and everybody else's -- suffering, I don't know. But you will suffer.
While that's a very nice picture of the Chicago River, cold-related deaths in Chicago are far less than heat-related deaths. The TV and news channels are constantly reminding listeners to check on elder neighbors and folks they know who live alone to see if they are okay. Warming facilities and shelters are open to accommodate those in need.
My heart breaks for the stray cats and other creatures who must find food and shelter in this weather to survive every day. Many do not.
I've lived through my share of snow storms with unbelievable snow fall. Hang in the Erie, PA. Many an individual can sympathize with your current plight. Try and stay warm and remember, only 81 days to spring. Take care of yourself.
6
La Nina causes the jet stream to dip down in what is now called a Polar Vortex. El Nino causes the jet stream to stay north. It's really that simple.
And Trump thinking he's funny or wise by cracking about it while people freeze to death shows how little the Trump GOP thinks of their constituents.
50
Ignore the tweets and follow the action. The EPA is accepting public comments about a proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan. The CPP is a crucial component of lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and Scott Pruitt has no intention of replacing it with a rule of any substance. Although perhaps if the agency is flooded with public comments, the CPP might be spared. At the very least, documented opposition to the proposal could be useful in a court action.
The public comment period closes in two weeks, on January 16th, 2018. Information and instructions here:
https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/clean-power-plan-pr...
Some suggestions for commenting can be found here:
http://saveepaalums.info/Clean+Power+Plan
24
And Mr. Trump and his cadre of Republicans do not believe in global warming. Perhaps they should spend the weekend in Watertown or International Falls and then decide.
6
Let's get some things straight. 1st, while the climate people have asserted that global warming will lead to various types of climate events, particularly extreme weather, it isn't local climate change per se that has been the impetus behind agreements like the Paris Accord. It is global warming that is the issue. I've not heard one reputable scientist come out and say that local climate changes are somehow a recipe for global disaster.
Second, just peruse a few of the articles in the Times in the climate section and you will find multiple articles (and breathless comments) attempting to link
extreme weather events of 2017 to climate change. That in and of itself is ridiculous as climate is long term. Even the horrific hurricane season was not the worst on record -- we've had worse years in the 19th and early 20th centuries when ACGW could not have had an impact.
Third -- Trump was simply making a joke at the expense of those who want to link every weather event (yes, that's you alarmists) to CC. Get a thicker skin.
Fourth, weather varies from year to year. In the part of CT where I live Jan avg temps change 8-12 degree F from year to year.
Finally, given the different types of weather events, the size of the globe, each year we are bound to have many extreme weather events -- COLDEST EARLY JAN IN MONTANA HIstory -- for example. Hottest July 31st in Buenos Aires since 1953. Most (or fewest) tornadoes in central Kansas in 100 years!!!!!
Get a grip.
5
Joking about climate change as President Trump did in the midst of deaths and frightening situations associated with this bitter coldness is simply bad form. It has nothing to do with anyone’s feelings (“thin skin”). The president can and should do better.
78
<< I've not heard one reputable scientist come out and say that local climate changes are somehow a recipe for global disaster. >>
Huh?
I don't know whether it's worth replying to this, but one person has already "recommended" it, and we are all citizens together, all carrying responsibility for this situation we are in.
As an antidote to Ralphie's confusion about climate change, I recommend this particularly clear summary from today's nyt of how climate-change effects are analyzed:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/opinion/sunday/climate-change-global-...®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
If that's too hard to understand, maybe you could look up some simple logic exercises to start exercising your mind. It might be hard at first, but not only is it its own reward; it also will help you fulfill life's basic obligations.
5
True, but he won't do better-he doesn't have the character to realize he's being insensitive. Scary that we have 3 more years with this guy.
American society is so messed up.
Here's an idea: it's the holidays. STOP. DON'T WORRY ABOUT DOING ANYTHING OR GOING ANYWHERE.
Spend alone or family time for your own sanity.
1
Holidays? We're not talking holidays. We're talking life or death. Most people, especially people in small apartments, do not have the resources to feed themselves beyond a few days of isolation. This isn't mere lazy planning. How much can you rationally plan for, especially if you're poor and/or if your storage ability is limited? If your furnace breaks, your house could drop below freezing within a day. How many people have fireplaces and firewood or other means for keeping themselves warm when the air is 18 degrees? Elderly isolated people may have no one who knows they're alone in their houses and no way to communicate if their power dies. Even if you plan for all that - how about if you have an asthma attack that your rescue inhaler can't manage from breathing the cold air? Or you lose power and your medical equipment can't operate?
Personally, I'm not especially vulnerable. I have space and money to stock up, I have woodstoves and firewood to keep myself warm, I have winter sports gear that can help me get to my neighbors to help *them*, I have spare batteries for my phone to call out if I do need help. But I remember being 22, fresh out of college, poor, with an unreliable car, in an era before cell phones, and brand new to the idea of caring for myself with that kind of forethought and organization. And I think a lot of people up here are far worse off than I was then.
108
EVERYONE, rich or poor, can and should have a stash of dried beans, rice, flour, water, and other staples in case of emergency. They should also have the means of heating a small space without electricity (bricks, an empty tuna can, and some isopropyl alcohol make a good emergency heater, and the bricks can be stored under the couch). Poverty is no excuse for ignorance.
Burrrr is all I can say to this well written article. When the hardy folks in Erie are buried and paralyzed by snow it does make one wonder...
4
“Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming.”
Obviously weather is not a problem for our hardworking president. This year, Trump has spent $91,655,424 of American taxpayer money on golf trips.
33
Earth doesn't care what Trump says and she will soon show him who is boss.
36
A well timed avalanche in his vicinity would be nice.
5
Climatologists predicted a very cold winter, followed by a very hot summer, linked to global warming. The Potato-Head-in-Chief makes light of this potentially catastrophic combo to do what? I suppose to amuse his anti-science self, staff and constituents.
This man has smarmy malice and small meanness in his heart. Beware, Earthlings..
19
Or....you could move to Seattle where it is currently in the mid-40s, sprinkling lightly, and the trees are already budding in anticipation of spring. My daffodils will be up in about five weeks and the grass is green.
2
It says something about the weather that your feet are still cold to the point of being beyond painful, even after you’ve been in the car with the heater going full blast for almost an hour. And I’ll always treasure that thrill of coming home, turning up the thermostat, and hearing nothing happening.
Note to Don: Global warming has to do with weather extremes — hot, cold, flood, fire, drought — and not solely with what you see on your yard thermometer next to the bird feeder. But keep spewing that Flat Earth nonsense. Our laughter will help keep us warm.
12
Climates change all the time guys...get real. We get HIT some winters and some winters we DON'T
10
That year-to-year fluctuation is normal and it's the changing weather, not the changing climate. The changing climate is the trend over time.
2
Climates don't "change all the time." Weather does. Climate is roughly defined as the average weather over a 30 year period. Weather is the result of short-term effects as the earth (and its air masses) try to distribute uneven heating from the sun, due to latitude.
Consider investing more of your time into reading about the subject.
2
Some winters is not climate.
Take all the winters in 100, 200, 500, whatever hundred years, if you have records that are reliable, and the average of that is climate.
1
Too bad none of these people in any of these locales were smart enough to pick a German American New York City real estate baron father and a Scottish born and bred mother and get elected President of United States in order to have a Florida palace aka Mar-A- Lago and golf course aka West Palm Beach to escape weather meant for peasants. MAGA!
5
Reading his article reminds me again why I don't need to read the comics anymore for a laugh. It's winter. It's cold. Trying to connect below average temperatures with political ....er climate "science" is just absurd. There is just as much if not more reason to believe that this cold weather is due to global cooling than global warming. Nice try pushing your socialist agenda. Thinking people aren't buying it.
Thinking people are buying it, you know, those who aren't dripping with snark, denial, delusion, unwillingness to read up on the subject and not just be a mouthpiece for some guy who just wants to make money, money, money.
Reality, - I don't mean the myopic reality that today is really cold - the big picture, doesn't reflect the nonsense you are pushing.
19
Has Global Warming/Climate Change/Cooling aka Global Money Making democrat Hype, been replaced by real science based on evidence yet?
The proponents can't predict next weeks weather or next years Hurricanes or even rainfall in California temperatures in New York or wind speed, earthquakes and fog. The biggest enemy of the planet is the greed of pseudo intellects.
6
Precisely. The generations of tomorrow will look back and chuckle at the hubris of scientists who fooled so many with their fraudulent, politically motivated climate predictions.
True wisdom must also account for understanding our collective lack of knowledge.
The promulgation of useless "Higher Education" is to blame. It could be that the canard of the Socially Relevant studies curriculum is the single most drain on middle class income. In the mid '50's it was the plethora of Bachelors of Business Administration Degrees for most those who knew or cared less about business than you do about poverty and caste systems in India and the Arab world when it does not impact the US.
What in the world were you a professor of and at what institution of allegedly higher learning? And how long ago?
1
Trump's understanding of global climate change is revealed - he does not know the difference between climate, and weather. His ignorant arrogance is showing.
15
We will take every last snowflake here in the Rockies. We know what to do with it!
3
This is hilarious. A long article about terrible things happening to people in difficult conditions, with one little paragraph about a tweet from President Trump, and all anybody can focus on is the tweet. Look at all that compassion! Your hatred is making you blind and irrelevant...and he's got you talking about him again, doesn't he?
5
Apparently the wise old head in the White House has failed to realize that this IS global warming.
9
Well, Al Gore has been warning us about global warming doomsday. Temporary remission?
2
If you bothered to watch the Al Gore documentary from twelve years ago on impending climate change effects, you would see that the hotter summers and COLDER winters and sea level rise and melting of the glaciers in Greenland and the ice shelves in the Antarctic predicted by climatologists back then have ALL come to pass. Extreme cold in the winter is a reciprocal effect of global warming.
3
Riddle me this. If global warming is for real then why does Al Gore live in a home the size of a small village and fly around in a private jet and ride in stretch limos to warn me about my carbon footprint? He could sit at home and skype his messages to every stage in the country without ever getting on a plane.
Bill Gates travels around doing the same. He lives in a 24 bathroom home for a family of five.
And I keep seeing all of the commentors on any forum driving their SUVs alone all the while chanting that we must do something.
Why did I read story after story that ski resorts would close if it was going to be colder in the winter?
I blame Global Warming
4
It's called "climate change", and this is yet more evidence for it actually happening.
3
As well you should, when known by its correct name: climate change. Hotter summers, colder winters.
3
Meanwhile, here in Flagstaff - 7,000ft up in the mountains in northern Arizona - we have had only one very light dusting of snow, and essentially no precipitation since August, I believe. We normally have downhill skiing and lots of snow, sometimes as early as mid-October and continuing through March. This year, days are still in the 50s and 60s, and it’s T-shirt weather for doing outside chores. My Icelandic horse has her usual VERY heavy coat, and it’s almost too hot to ride her. Today I’ll be taking her up another thousand feet in the mountains to ride, seeking some coolness. Yep, climate change is here!
97
Same at my cabin up at 7,600 feet in the Sierra Nevada, Barbara. Light dusting of snow once or twice, highs hovering consistently around 50 degrees where normal might be 30 degrees. We're living in the future we hoped we might avoid.
4
Here in Western North Carolina, where it's currently a balmy 33 degrees, last night our weatherman posted the average temperatures for the past 15 years. Every year, hotter. 2017 was just above 2016. Subtle, yes--no 2-degree increases--but definite; a steady drumbeat. We're starting to see it in the summer AC use. This is wholly beyond our Belover Leader. After all, he doesn't have to pay the utility bill. QED, there's no problem. Yeesh.
22
Your weatherman is lying to you. I've attached from the NOAA database (the official temp data base) for N. Carolina the annual avg temps from 1920 -2016. What you see is no increase in avg temps for all of North Carolina over the last nearly 100 years.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/us/31/0/tavg/12/12/1920-2017?b...
You can play around with this and look at the westernmost climate divisions (1-5) -- you can also look at the summer months. Again no upward trend. Just year to year variation. Now, your weather man may be referring to Global Average Temps -- but the problem with that data is that it is based primarily on estimates, not actual measures. In short, in my opinion as a numbers guy, the global data set isn't worth much.
And by the way -- from a climate perspective a warming trend for a decade or three isn't alarming.
1
So how do you explain the melting of the glaciers in Greenland and the ice shelves in the Antarctic, and the sea level rise which will soon leave a number of coastal cities around the world sitting in a foot of water every time it rains?
2
rischles -- the sea level rise has not done much of anything yet --- it is projected to rise according to computer models. Sometime in the next 100 years or so. As far as Greenland and the Antarctic, we really don't know that much about what's going on in either place. As you might recall, we humans have little data on weather patterns or the behavior of glaciers in Greenland or Antarctica, we've barely been there. Sure, it's possible that the glaciers and ice shelves blah blah are melting -- but is it unusual? Is it due to something man has done? Climate changes, we all know that. And it varies naturally from year to year and over periods of time.
And when I say the global temp record isn't worth much -- let me give you an example. Prior to 1950 there were about 50 weather stations in all of Africa -- most along the coast. They've now increased to around 700 -- still primarily around the coast and urban areas -- and there is no common method used by all stations for recording data. Stations are in disrepair in many areas and the conditions around the stations have changed. Ditto S. America, much of Asia, Russia -- most of the world's land mass. So if there is some melt of glaciers fine -- but I'm loathe to link glacier melt (when the weather is virtually below freezing at all times in Greenland where the glaciers are) to global warming (which is minimal if at all) particularly when the temp data is deficient and certainly not to anything man has done.
We need to bring back those two characters from Frostbite Falls, Minn. It seems they always saved the day in spite of missing the point!
3
Trump's full quote: "In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!"
Meanwhile, work continues apace to build or bolster sea walls at Mar-a-Lago, and Trump International Golf Links, County Clare, Ireland. As for Mar-a-Lago, I'd welcome an update as to whether these improvements will be billed to American taxpayers.
55
This likely IS global warming / global climate change, something which the victims should not continue to hope for. As the globe warms, the distribution of large scale motions of the atmosphere and oceans change. This, in turn, changes local climates. The likely but uncertain cause of this cold snap is a change in high-level circulation in the atmosphere caused by the overly warm Pacific ocean has brought air from further north (hence colder) than usual to the eastern US.
7
"While scientists routinely find themselves explaining that day-to-day weather patterns are not the same as long-term climate trends, they also widely agree that human-caused climate change is exacerbating extreme weather."
I.e. on the one hand the climate change - that was caused by humans - is not at fault for this cold, but on the other hand that climate change is at fault for this cold. Hmm.
6
Climate scientists have warned that alaong with aggregate global warming, there will more extreme events in both directions. Here it is.
Not new! I remember a sub-zero New Year's Eve in Indianoplace, Indiana, when we had ice form on the INSIDE of our windows. Ah, yes, Indiana. Mike Pence country.
12
Indiannoplace? Is that where the Baltimore Colts are currently located?
Well at least the NFL returned the Rams to LA.
Yep!
“In the East, it will be the dumbest Presidential New Year’s Eve on record,” wrote the child President. “Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming.”
"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
- Isaac Asimov
"I'm With Stupid" is no way to run a nation.
253
Too true. Now we have to dig out of it promulgated and nurtured from 2009 to 2017.
"Whataboutism" is alive and well in Pinole.
5
Or to place that last line on one’s front shirt! But having previously noticed the essentially mean spirited assortment of Birthday Cards which have been appearing these last fifteen years or so, America’s rush to the gutter continues.
I don’t get it, and never will!!!
2
Weather and climate are different, and I'm glad that scientists keep repeating that mantra. However, using climate change as an excuse for everything that happens weather-wise strains credulity. This time of year, air currents come down from the North Pole from time to time; it's happened before, it will happen again. These extreme temperatures and heavy snow are routine in Siberia--is it so difficult to comprehend that sometimes it spills over to the other side of the globe? On the other hand, the embarrassing tweets of nonsense from the White House are best ignored. I am appalled by the stupidity of people who thought that voting for that guy was a good idea.
119
The feeling of guilt is practically becoming unbearable for me here in LA where it was 81 yesterday. I’m sorry.
9
Hey, no guilt...So Cal just experienced the worst wildfire in US history. Nor Cal pretty devastated too.
5
Don't worry, payback is coming soon -- the drought will cost way more than any one week cold weather event. Warm weather is nice while it's happening, but the real story is the lack of rain during what should be the wettest time of year for CA.
12
And as an added bonus you have all of those wild fires to keep you warm.
7
I'm surprised that the far left Times readers haven't put the blame on the President yet. Also, his refusing to join the Paris agreement. Weather is not something we will tame, it's something to live with and adjust to, only the hubris of liberals think we can bend the heavens to the will of man. Must be the same people who started the war on poverty, the war is over and poverty won.
9
Wait. What?
7
Ah yes, another ignorant response....global warming is caused by people and can be fixed by people. So "living with and adjusting to" is simply petulant foolishness.
16
LOL! Thanks for that, you really cracked me up! I know I shouldn't laugh at such cruelty, but I thought I was watching the three stooges for a minute there.
2
I have a feeling Trump didn't check the weather in Southern California today before he tweeted-- 80 degrees here.
9
Trump's ignorance about global warming aside, note that his tweet, as usual, is self-congratulatory and without a hint of concern for those who might be freezing to death.
240
Wish the Sierra Nevada could get some of that snow...
15
Now imagine how the citizens in Puerto Rico feel.
52
Warm.
5
Space heaters, blankets hung in doorways, huddling together; this is how many of the United States poor live every winter. Yes, it is a war zone. Yes it is exhausting.
4
Desperate and forgotten
4
45 gives yet another example of not knowing what he is talking about. What were his voters thinking oh, wait....
59
Trump somehow thinks that tweeting, what is at best a lame joke, about global warming will change the facts and endear him as the sassy right wing love able tough guy that solves every problem instantly with the simplist of answers.
This is mansplaining at its worst. Compared with drunk uncle at the end of the bar, once you distill the attitude to reality, this is simply a leader that refuses to lead and shows nothing but contempt for reality and throws smokescreen answers for lack of ability. In other words, this is Trump fudging through school and scraping by over and over. These tweets are simply lies to keep him from doing any actual work and striving for merit rather than sliding by.
56
Have we ever had a president more malicious than Trump? It's like the Penguin is in charge. Instead of expressing some empathy he cracks a joke at the misery of the little people.
196
I always thought Dick Cheney was the WH embodiment of the Penguin.
He even sneered the same.
20
More like if the Penguin and the Joker had a baby…
Who remained a baby.
It's OK.
Only one more year of his nonsense.
On Nov 3, we vote and flip the House and Senate effectively handcuffing coo coo.
Least popular president of all time.
8
It just occurred to me (maybe because I’ve been binge watching it lately) that Trump can also be compared to Maj. Frank Burns of MASH. Like Burns, his sense of humor is too often ill-timed, off-putting, and inappropriate, yet he thinks he is the epitome of wit and hilarity and that he’s just one of the guys — when in fact he comes off as a collosal boor (and, at times, bore).
None of Trump’s tweets ever expresses any kind of care or concern about anything other than himself; if they do, they’re no more than afterthoughts. Classic narcissist.
This cold snap is no joke.
2
I'm writing about yet another ignorant remark by our ignorant president re: the extreme cold in the country. It's climate change sir, not global warming alone. Individual relatively local occurrences are part of the normal weather patterns pushed into extremes of hot AND cold by climate change. You cannot build a wall against the operations of the earth's climate.
66
I think it's called winter.....
11
Yes, a more *severe* winter...as predicted by climate change models.
1
"President Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to mention the chill — and take a shot at climate science."
Trust some jerk to take the time to throw a potshot at climate change just because it's cold out.
Our weather has always been at the mercy of El Nino, Arctic blasts, and other naturally occurring phenomena, but the earth has been getting steadily warmer, the seas are getting warmer, and rising, and our different types of weather have been getting more extreme. We've always had wildfires, but not so many; we've always had hurricanes, but not so many or so destructive.
We've had floods, but we've never had so many streets named Front Street and Shore Road under water so regularly. Ask the town of St. Marys, Georgia, about their waterfront street.
Over my more than sixty years of living, I've seen flowering trees begin to bloom ever earlier every year, and increasingly warmer autumns every autumn.
Mr. Trump has always been a man whose main pleasure in life has rested in defrauding his contractors and workers, in not paying his bills or repaying his loans, and in saying "Nyaa nyaa nyaa" to all and sundry. God, we're in trouble.
125
Vote 2018 and beyond.
5
Dear Pennyslvania,
Please send your snowmelt. Our fires aren't out yet, and we have unseasonable warmth and little precipitation!
Sincerely,
California
57
When water climbs to $55 a barrel I predict a slight chance of bipartisan support.
2
Ever been in a conversation with someone completely uninformed about climate change? They make stupid remarks that reveal just how little they know, reveal a complete lack of intellectual curiosity?
Someone that looks at a regional snapshot of extreme weather and ridicules global warming?
But when the President of the United States tweets remarks like he did, his ignorance is embarrassing both to himself and the country.
170
Was there a scientific fact in there somewhere? It is insufficient to substitute calling someone ignorant; one must back one's assertions with data and provenance.
2
Are you seeking the facts of the impact of climate change on the planet? They are easily found, I highly recommend that you start reading and inform yourself.
The spirit of my comment is that Trump embarrassing himself by a tweet that reveals he is uninformed and intellectually lazy. But most of his base is as well and I assume this is why he tweets ignorant remarks, his base enjoys wallowing in ignorance.
4
whenever cold weather strikes, there's always some idiot who debunks climate change.
50
Snowballs and all.
4
Even in an article on the challenges of this cold weather, I am reminded we have a President who uses the weather as an opportunity to deny climate change. It seems we can not escape his ignorance and immaturity.
284
Exactly. Obama would have expressed care for people, instructing them to get to shelters.
Humans could learn a lot from Sandhill cranes: fly south in the winter, fly north in the summer and sing all the way.
2
Yeah but you live in Atlantis, where climate change flooding the place a long, long time ago.
4
The president's smarmy tweet reveals his ignorance of the difference between climate and weather. Data "trends" escape him; he can only comprehend data "points". Notwithstanding the current extremely cold weather in the east, 2017 has been another record hot year, with stronger, wetter storms, drier droughts, bigger wild fires and everything else climate scientists predicted. A dignified president might have tweeted concern about the homeless or elderly during this cold snap, but ours instead chooses to use the moment to cynically suggest he knows better than 20,000 experts who all agree on the facts about global warming.
80
Skiing is over. All of the ski resorts will close. I read this will have already happened.
2
Well, this report brings me back memories of my days in Siberia.
The temperatures routinely plunged below 25 plus.
And we would have snow till mid May.
Luckily, while working, we had the so called PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) - basically unbelievable number of layers.
The only part of my body exposed was tip of my nose.
But it sure was cold - especially when heat inside did not work.
3
A little Penguin asked its Mom, "Mom, am I adopted?" The mother said that was silly and told the little penguin to go back outside and play with the others.
A little later the penguin went up to its dad and said, "Dad am I adopted?"
The father said, "No you are not. And why would you ask a question like that?"
The little penguin looked up and said "Cold".
2
Extreme weather changes are a result of human "intervention". We've had major swings in temperature from one day to the next in the past few years which are completely out of the norm. Climate change is real and scary, despite what trump tweets. Why am I not surprised that he insists on tweeting about things that he knows nothing about?
26
Perhaps the concept that global warming causes more extreme weather, both hot AND cold, is too challenging for Mr. Trump to grasp.
60
I thought the PR change from "global warming" to "climate change" was instituted to appease those who think the world couldn't be getting warmer if it's snowing outside their own private Idaho (it's a song title; no offense intended to the good people of Idaho). It seems that didn't work; I guess for our president, we'll have to change it to "flooded golf course" for it to make sense to him.
33
Or how about Mar-a-Lago under water since it sits on the southern Florida coastline? What's it gonna do to Trump's property value? Oh, wait, that's what he understands: the value of his own money. Trump's jewel will eventually succumb to sea-level rise because it's build at sea-level. This is already happening in Miami Beach. Wake up, people! Global warming is real.
4
Didn't "the good people of Idaho" vote for Trump?
1
Would someone please explain to Mr Trump that one of the characteristics of Climate Change is extremes in weather patterns? Perhaps he hasn’t noticed or maybe he’s in denial.
32
You can't explain anything to Trump as he already knows everything.
6