January 16, 201
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.’
F. scott fitzgerlad
We’ve heard a lot of talk lately from deniers that cold temperatures are proof that there is no such thing as global warming.
It looks like it will be annual event for me to remind people that winter still follows summer.
Summer 2011: – Cool summer (Chicago, NY, places like that, how can it be global warming?)
Look at the context:
– These blue dots below North America represent below average temperatures for the summer June, July, August (climatelogical summer)
– But look at the context they are lost in the sea of red dots across much of the rest of the globe. Those red dots represent above average temperatures this translates to ranking:
Globally – August: 2nd warmest on record; June – August: 3rd warmest on record
Ocean – August: warmest; June – August: warmest
Southern Hemisphere – August: warmest on record
(*on record: going back more than a century)
The warm summer was followed up by a very warm November globally, including abnormally warm temperatures in North America
Ironically unseasonal warmth set the stage for dramatic winter weather when temperatures did drop in December
An important circulation pattern, the Arctic oscillation, is in its negative phase. Normally in the positive phase, the Arctic produces strong waves around the arctic that keep cold air bottled up.
When the Arctic oscillation is a negative phase cold air spills out of the arctic and flows into North American and Eurasia paradoxically while temperate zones feel an artic chill the artic itself becomes warmer than usual.
UK Meteorological Office – “…Canada, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and south-west Asia have all seen temperatures above normal – in many places by more than 5 degrees Celsius, and in parts of northern Canada, by more than 10 degrees Celsius.
Most people think global warming as a process where the planets sets new warming records year after year.
In our technological scientific world our perception is largely expanded and we have a much larger view of the world in our place in it we need to understand the larger perspective about our changing climate as well. Sophisticated instruments and advanced science shows us details that our senses could never see, and recent satellite measurements show, that in fact, on January 13th, global temperatures were the warmest for a January day in the satellite record.
The science of global climate is vital for us to understand if we are to pass along to out children a planet that is liveable, diverse, and abundant. It’s the most important task this generation will undertake.
Work Cited
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDTUuckNHgc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLD8A96E8CD594ED9C
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_denial
http://junkscience.com/2012/02/19/global-warming-denier-poster/
