Consider if you will a January 2008 cover story by E magazine which predicted the end of winter as we know it.
Given the often record cold that has gripped the nation the last four weeks, "Losing Winter: As Climate Change Takes Hold, Our Coldest Season is the First Casualty" seems the perfect example of how dangerous -- and potentially costly -- the media's climate alarmism is:
Since 1970, average winter temperatures in New England have increased 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit. In the U.S., 2006 was the warmest year on record, and 1998 is number two. The last eight five-year periods were the warmest since we began taking national records 112 years ago. During the past 25 to 30 years, says the National Climatic Data Center, the warming trend has accelerated, from just over a tenth of one degree Fahrenheit per decade to almost a third of a degree.
What? The warmest years on record in the U.S. are 2006 and 1998? I guess this author missed corrections that were made by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in August 2007 -- with assistance from Steve McIntyre, of course! -- which now show the warmest year in American history to have been 1934, and that 2006 has been knocked down to fourth.
Alas, facts are unimportant to these folks:
By the end of the century, temperatures in the Northeastern states are likely to rise by eight to 12 degrees Fahrenheit (at which time snow-covered days will have been reduced to half of what we traditionally experience). A 2007 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists on the Northeast predicted that, under some higher-emission scenarios, “Only western Maine is projected to retain a reliable ski season by the end of the century, and only northern New Hampshire would support a snowmobiling season longer than two months.” Warmer weather and changing precipitation will result in a fundamental change to winter recreation and what the report called “the winter landscape.”
How would some of you like to see your temperatures eight to twelve degrees warmer than they are at this minute?
Those in need of a chuckle should read the entire piece...if you can stand it.
