Firestorms and Deep Freeze: Climate Change May Bring Both

[depakid]

Global warming deniers keep pointing to snowstorms as proof that climatologists are wrong. But both extreme heat and cold are on tap.

Last week, the heaviest snowfall since the '90s blanketed the U.K., disrupting bus, rail and air transportation and costing areas like London a cool billion in lost revenue.

Meanwhile, in Australia, a punishing, record drought was worsened by the nation's worst heat wave and worst wildfires, wherein over 400 conflagrations killed over 200 people (and counting), torched a thousand homes and renewed calls for a country with its environmental head up its ass to finally launch its still-hibernating national warning system.

Those who would argue that these are isolated events do so at their own peril. The more time passes, the more both examples of extreme weather resemble two sides of the same fearsome coin known as catastrophic climate change.

And depending on how the science plays out, it could get much worse indeed, and fast.

Deniers of catastrophic climate change have been clinging to extreme rainstorms and snowstorms, such as those recently witnessed in the U.K. or American East Coast, like life rafts off the Titanic.

They still argue that such record-breaking deep freezes disprove global warming. But they're desperately seeking semantics, while the rest of the world is waking up to reality. Which is this: Catastrophic climate change will feature as much ice as fire. It probably already has.

"Scientifically, it would not be correct to make the statement that the current weather in Australia, the U.K. and U.S. are examples of climate change," explains Jian Liu, chief of the Division of Environment Policy Implementation's climate change adaptation unit at the United Nations Environmental Program. "Rather, these are extreme climate events; whereas climate change is something that can only be observed by looking at the average conditions over long periods of time. But while the general average trend is one of a warming climate, this does not mean that extreme cold events or snowstorms will not take place.

"In fact, as you rightly point out, climate change may even contribute to an increasing intensity of snowstorms, as moisture levels in the atmosphere rise."

More: http://www.alternet.org/environment/126910/firestorms_and_deep_freeze%3A_climate_change_may_bring_both/

[msongs]

1. britain had a much more severe winter in the early 60's - nt

[DCKit]

3. It's the absence of regular, predictable weather.

When I was a kid (60's-70's) growing up in PA, we could count on having snow on the ground pretty much from Thanksgiving through the first half of March. Now? Not so much - actually, never. It's a total crap-shoot. It's freaky weather all year long and severe storms are a regular occurrence - freezing rain in the winter and hail in the summer instead of snow and rain.

Here in DC, I saw a tornado form directly overhead last summer. Thankfully, it came down half a block farther on and only tore the tops off three mature trees. Hail (large hail) is now common and I've never heard so many reports of large ice-storms as I have this past few years.

If you haven't got it where you live, be thankful. But you're living in a bubble of some kind.

[Bigmack]

2. More firestorms and deep freezes

are TOTALLY consistent with everything I've been reading for YEARS on this business of global climate change. Frightening business.....that politicians and the Great Unwashed ignore at all of our perils. Ms Bigmack