While standing in line at a coffee house in Brooklyn last week I heard someone say, "We always say, 'Wait 'til Mother's Day' to make sure it won't freeze."
My thought was to say, "But that was before global warming--now the spring has moved up about 10 days." But then I thought I would see a familiar look of skepticism, a weary--"Oh, no, not more of that global warming crap" kind of expression that I've seen on other faces when this topic comes up. Since all the media from the New York Times to Fox News are unwilling to say or are outright denying that extreme weather events are symptoms of global warming, why should people think otherwise? So, of course, I didn't say anything.
And after all, there are still cold days, even with global warming. I checked and found that so far this year in the U.S. there have been 3,222 record cold days at the 180,000 or so weather stations across the country. However, there have been 6,699 record high temperatures. And the month of April--remember, the one with all the tornadoes--had 2,728 record highs compared to only 675 record lows.
So, while there is a chance of very cold weather somewhere after Mother's Day, there's a much greater chance of very warm weather. Welcome to a new planet (and Happy Mother's Day)!
PS--the Republican answer to all this is to cut funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; all this pesky data keeps showing that the climate is changing, and if people pay attention that would be bad for the oil business.
PPS--the data can be found at the National Climatic Data Center
My thought was to say, "But that was before global warming--now the spring has moved up about 10 days." But then I thought I would see a familiar look of skepticism, a weary--"Oh, no, not more of that global warming crap" kind of expression that I've seen on other faces when this topic comes up. Since all the media from the New York Times to Fox News are unwilling to say or are outright denying that extreme weather events are symptoms of global warming, why should people think otherwise? So, of course, I didn't say anything.
And after all, there are still cold days, even with global warming. I checked and found that so far this year in the U.S. there have been 3,222 record cold days at the 180,000 or so weather stations across the country. However, there have been 6,699 record high temperatures. And the month of April--remember, the one with all the tornadoes--had 2,728 record highs compared to only 675 record lows.
So, while there is a chance of very cold weather somewhere after Mother's Day, there's a much greater chance of very warm weather. Welcome to a new planet (and Happy Mother's Day)!
PS--the Republican answer to all this is to cut funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; all this pesky data keeps showing that the climate is changing, and if people pay attention that would be bad for the oil business.
PPS--the data can be found at the National Climatic Data Center
No comments:
Post a Comment