Going through the Change

Meredith Cornett Jan 12, 2012 12 Comments

I’ve been having hot flashes. No, not that kind of hot flash. And if it were, I sure wouldn’t be writing about it here. I am talking about something more insidious: a societal hot flash.

Is anyone else losing patience with media references to “unseasonably warm” temperatures? This is a record-busting winter on all counts.

Case in point, Little Angie’s: “Opulent Ice House Coming Soon: December 9 Until Thaw!” High-end cocktails to be offered in a lounge made of ice blocks. But today I noticed the piled shards of melting ice scattered around the enclosure. They just couldn’t get the thing built.

For more ranting about the Duluth climate-change experience, including a couple of photos, please see my latest Nature of Modern Life blog post.

(And, yes, it would seem that the joke is on me. Winter is here today. Gone tomorrow? We’ll see.)

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12 Comments

consuelo

about 12 years ago

Actually, they built the ice house and it melted. Pretty disappointing... I thought that would be one of the benefits to winter coming, an opulent ice bar. Alas.

Why would we be losing patience with the references to the 'unseasonable warmness'? I've lost patience with the 'global warming blah blah Al Gore! lol!' idiots who come out of the woodwork anytime it snows in Pennsylvania in the winter. I notice that sort has been noticeably absent in this record bracingly warm winter, hmm?

Meredith Cornett

about 12 years ago

Oh, then that is even sadder! I wonder if anyone actually got to raise a glass in there.

Yes, the nay-sayers have been pretty quiet this winter. But "believers" have been a pretty quiet bunch, too. So I keep hearing weather reports, even on MPR where the commentator is willing to say it is warm, but not to go into any possible causes, or if they do it's about the Southern Oscillation or something, not climate change. Maybe they are worn out and worried about backlash, maybe they figure its obvious, or maybe it just doesn't matter why anymore - it's just plain warmer, there is less snow, and we have to learn to cope. Could be worse. We could be in Thailand.

consuelo

about 12 years ago

My friend in Australia says they're having a really mild, wet summer there due to the La Nina cycle.

DaVe

about 12 years ago

98% of climate scientists believe in human-caused climate change. However, the deniers have obviously mounted an enormous propaganda campaign, and succeeded in deluding a lot of people. Our little cold-snap changes nothing. People who talk about the "benefits" of a warmer planet remind me of someone who says "I have cancer, but I'm going to save money on haircuts!"

quirtep

about 12 years ago

I agree that it's sad that climate change seems to have dropped off the radar.  It's OBVIOUS that something is going on - what does it take?  Crazily unseasonal weather, hurricanes, tornadoes where tornadoes never occurred before, drought, strange patterns of precipitation all over the planet.  At some point, you have to look at a glass of spilled milk and say "that glass of milk spilled."  The alternative is to say that perhaps our understanding of spilled milk is not complete - are we missing something?  Was the glass of milk spilled by something or someone other than ourselves?  No!

Jadiaz

about 12 years ago

I believe in climate change, just not human-caused climate change. We know for a fact that mini ice ages have happened, as well as global warm-ups. We also have not been keeping track of weather for that long of a period of time. What evidence we do have of aforementioned events is from dating checking ice core samples, tree rings, etc. which only take us back so far. 

Can I agree that the earth is warming? Yes. Will I agree that mankind is the reason? No. In the late 1970s we were told to prepare for an ice age because all the data pointed to a massive cooling trend. We can't accurately predict nor understand weather on our fair planet as well as we'd like to believe. 

One thing we can all agree on is that this has been one weird winter thus far.

lojasmo

about 12 years ago

@Jadiaz: Anything involving Republicans and science ends badly. Anthropogenic climate change is fact, not theory.

Scientific American: "Three-Quarters of Climate Change Is Man-Made"

Jadiaz

about 12 years ago

@ Lojasmo:

There are plenty of Democrats who feel the same way I do. It would have been easy to post the link without going into politics. I expressed my opinion, which is based on all the research I've done on the subject from multiple sources that are apolitical and, yes, some that are political in nature.

lojasmo

about 12 years ago

@jadiaz: Your uncited Democrats are not an issue, because you failed to cite any. Anthropogenic climate change is settled science.

FranceneStarr

about 12 years ago

Now that it's cold, the lack of snow in my 'hood (Lakeside near the lake) is seriously making me depressed. Yes I can go to where snow is, but I love to see it where I am. I can't believe I am so depressed over lack of snow (and I am not a huge Beargrease fan)...Guess as I get older I realize the seasons I have left seem actually countable, compared to when I was young and life looked endless. So I appreciate each season's qualities more and more...why can't I appreciate this snow-free one more?

Jadiaz

about 12 years ago

What the hell Lojasmo? Seriously? I need to get a list of Democrats together for you? Ones with degrees in science? You called out Republicans, not specific ones mind you, so you fail to ignore the Democrats and independents who do not believe mankind is global warming's cause.

Meredith Cornett

about 12 years ago

So it goes with climate change. As the world warms and precipitation patterns become more erratic, the cause becomes less important. It's like a long-standing argument between friends: "YOU started it!" "No, YOU started it!" Whether or not humans created the problem is apparently still under debate (see above). But we can all agree that climate change *is* our problem. I'd like to hear more about how we're all going to adapt to the new normal.

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