Cold Weather and Global Warming

By Ron Beasley

This week my sister flew into Houston and spent two and a half hours sitting on the runway because it was snowing.  There was snow in the Big Easy and much of the south.  Here in the normally mild Pacific Northwest we are about to have to coldest weather in many years.

 

This has given the anti global warming wingnuts new ammunition.  But of course this  just shows us that the wingnuts understand little including the dynamics of climatology.  Global warming will not make it warmer everywhere.  I covered it over at Middle Earth Journal four years ago.

Researchers have found the first real evidence that eight thousand years ago the earth warmed up and much of the Northern Hemisphere got really cold really fast. The idea of rapid climate change is not new. The Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment has issued a report on the geo-political dangers of rapid climate change and The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has a good explanation of the mechanism responsible for Abrupt Climate Change

The equatorial sun warms the ocean surface and enhances evaporation in the tropics. This leaves the tropical ocean saltier. The Gulf Stream, a limb of the Ocean Conveyor, carries an enormous volume of heat-laden, salty water up the East Coast of the United States, and then northeast toward Europe.

This oceanic heat pump is an important mechanism for reducing equator-to-pole temperature differences. It moderates Earth's climate, particularly in the North Atlantic region. Conveyor circulation increases the northward transport of warmer waters in the Gulf Stream by about 50 percent. At colder northern latitudes, the ocean releases this heat to the atmosphere-especially in winter when the atmosphere is colder than the ocean and ocean-atmosphere temperature gradients increase. The Conveyor warms North Atlantic regions by as much as 5° Celsius and significantly tempers average winter temperatures.

But records of past climates' from a variety of sources such as deep-sea sediments and ice-sheet cores' show that the Conveyor has slowed and shut down several times in the past. This shutdown curtailed heat delivery to the North Atlantic and caused substantial cooling throughout the region.

The diminishing or shut down of this global heat pump happens rapidly and although it's effects can be seen in just a few years they can last over a century.

The most important thing about climate change is it make things different and our civilization is built on the way things are - different is rarely better. 

Comments

[Earl]

I've been trying to tell people this for a while...

Still cold, though.

[Fraud Guy]

An interesting treatment of this is in Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy:

Forty Days of Rain

Fifty Degrees Below

Sixty Days and Counting

You don't build empathy for some of the main characters, but, like the better sci-fi writers, he takes the premise and rolls out how scientific and technological issues can impact the society around them.

[Libby]

The wingnuts never could tell the difference between climate and weather.

[rick g]

Your story really proves the difficulty of promoting phony ideas and trying to connect them to science. We are now living with the reality that the earth has been cooling for about 10 years.

This ridiculous theory supported only by computer models and statements like "The most important thing about climate change is it make things different" will hopefully die on the vine before the cure creates the unnecessary hardships we are told are necessary.

[Miles]

Would you also care to explain that the recovery of the arctic ice to normal levels is just another part of global warming, also ?

[BJ Bjornson]

before the cure creates the unnecessary hardships we are told are necessary

Yes, the sheer horror of having to waste less, use energy more efficiently, and stop dumping toxins into the atmosphere that we all breathe and acquire health problems from. I mean, I can't imagine what terrible consequences low energy bills and fresh air would result in! It boggles the mind!

No, wait. What boggles the mind is people fighting against measures that would make sense even if Climate Change was a big hoax.

Would you also care to explain that the recovery of the arctic ice to normal levels is just another part of global warming, also ?

First, would you like to provide some evidence that arctic ice has returned to normal levels, because the melt last summer was the second lowest in recorded history, and we're a long way from where it would approach its maximum extent this winter, let alone determining whether said extent is close to normal. Added to that, even if this winter proves very cold, (and being that I live in the Arctic, I can tell you its definitely colder than the last couple, locally at least), coverage is only part of the equation, as the thickness and volume is also important, and continuing to decline year-over-year. And the biggest concern is the thick, hard multi-year ice that has been disappearing, since unlike the ice that freezes over a single winter, such ice tends to last much longer and is far harder to get rid of. The freeze of a single year hardly makes a difference.

[DON]

? WINGNUTS
I FIND IT FUNNY HOW THE LEFT WING HAS USED COLORFULL DISCRIPTIONS TO DEGRADE ANYONE WHO QUESTIONS THEIR AGENDA! THEY ALSO LIKE TO CLAIM THAT THEY ARE SO CORRECT THE THERE IS NO MORE DISCUSION NEEDED, IT HAS ALL READY BEEN DETERMEND AND BY 99% OF ALL SCIENTIST!
HAS THE GLOBAL WARMING (WHOOPS NOW GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSE IT IS NOT GETTING WARMER GLOBALY)EVER PUT THEIR "SCIENCE" TO PEER REVIEW TO SEE IF IT STANDS UP TO THEIR PEERS SCRUTINY. WHY WERE THERE NO REFERENCES ABOUT THIS "COOLING" THAT WE ARE GOING THROUGH NOW NOT MENTIONED BEFORE THIS COLDER CLIMATED ARRIVED. DO ANY OF THEIR COMPUTER MODELS ON GREENHOUSE GAS (CO2) FIT ANY OF THIS COOLING? WHEN CAP AND TRADE IS INSTALLED WHO PAYS THE BILL? (CORPORATIONS AND UTILITYS PASS ON TO THEIR CUSTOMERS ANY ADITIONAL COSTS) WILL THE POLTITIONS AND RICH CHANGE THEIR LIFE STYLES OR JUST BUY CARBON CREDITS TO MAKE THEMSELVES FEEL GOOD? HOW MUCH WILL HOME ENERGY COSTS GO UP? (I HAVE HEARED 45% TO 65%) IF THIS GLOBAL WARMING CAUSED COLD SPELL CONTINUES FOR SOME TIME HOW MUCH MORE ENERGY WILL BE USED TO HEAT HOMES 5, 10, 15, 20% ?
IF I TOOK 20% MORE AND COST WENT UP 65%, THATS A LOT OF MONEY OUT OF A FAMILY'S POCKET? I GUESS WITH ALL THESE GREEN JOBS IT IS GOING TO CREATE THAT'S A GOOD THING BECAUSE ALOT OF THESE PEOPLE WILL NEED TO GET A 2ND JOB JUST TO PAY THEIR HEATING BILL! LASTLY TELL HOW MUCH THE TEMPATURE WILL COOL WHEN WE DO THIS IF YOUR SCIENCE IS SO CORRECT YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO HAVE THAT FIGURE?
FROM A MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY MAN WHO IS NOT CONVINCED THAT ROBBING ME AND MY FAMILY WILL BENIFIT THE CLIMATE ONLY THE RICH AND POWERFULL
THANKS

[Craig]

OK, let me just get this straight. If the earth were to experience warmer temperatures, that is proof of global warming. However, if the earth experiences colder temperatures, that is also proof of global warming. Talking about having your cake and eating it too. Come on, while your approach might support your argument it stands in the face of simple common sense.

[Freddy]

Wow!
Here's whole bunch of world renowned "Wingnuts" gathering to debunk the Gorbull Warming theory.

http://www.heartland.org/events/NewYork09/newyork09.html

Let's keep the planet clean....and let's keep Science free of junk while were at it.

Freddy

[Chris]

Part of the waht global warming encompasses are the volatile nature of hotter hot and colder colds - this
is record in history, and if flobal warming does not reverse - (as it CANNOT - according to all the so called experts) - than we are almost certainly headed into another ice age - in a few thousand years, I believe -

[JOhn Smith]

"globalclimatechange" has become so boring due to Al Gore's hypocrisy (how many watt does he burn at his house per month and offsets with carbon credits?) that it is hard to know what the truth is. I'm sure all of it is going to result in MORE TAXES for me and MORE JOBS for academics and other parasites.

[Marsha]

Back in 2005 when Katrina and Ivan hit,we had a very active hurricane season. Why? Global warming! then they predicted active season for 2006. It was a bust. Why? No explanation. 2007 was predicted to be active. It also was a bust.

The global warming fanatics trot it out whenever it suits them, but keep ignoring facts that don't fit their theories.

The science is NOT settled, folks!!!

[rick g]

"Yes, the sheer horror of having to waste less, use energy more efficiently, and stop dumping toxins into the atmosphere that we all breathe and acquire health problems from."

CO2 is a toxin?

[Horizon]

Okay listen. You guys are wasting your time fighting over whether or not global warming exists or is a giant hoax. Instead you should be thinking realistically and looking at the facts. The fact that we have had ice ages and drastic climate changes in the past proves that the earth goes through natural drastic global climate changes. In essence, that means we are all eventually fucked unless we find a way to get off this rock. The fact that we maybe add 1-2% of pollutant to the atmosphere shouldn't really be the big picture here. People aren't going to start changing there ways unless facing the need to change. Basic concepts of evolution. People as a whole aren't going to stop doing what they're doing no matter what kind of facts or bullshit you throw at them so quit trying to convince the world and instead just get out and make a difference with your own two hands. Shit doesn't get done unless you do it yourself.