I have been criticizing some of the strategies and excesses of climate science. Now, I want to focus my criticism on those non-scientists who are certain that climate change is a hoax.
One of the most obvious signs of conservative disdain shows up every time it snows; the blogosphere, Fox News, and talk radio just explode. Surely, the existence of snowfall proves that the earth is not warming, they insist. What could be more obvious?
Well, three things. First (and I’ll try to say this without being condescending), snow does not indicate coldness in the air. Snow is simply precipitation when the air temperature is 32 degree or less. So, let’s say that it snowed when it was 30 degree on February 1, 2011, but didn’t snow when it was 29 degrees on February 1, 2010. That means that it was warmer on that day in 2011 than 2010, even though it snowed in 2011 and not 2010. Got it?
Second, the worst fears of climate scientists are that the global temperature will rise 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century. What does this mean? Certainly it means that you can’t go outside and predict whether the planet is warming based on how the temperature feels to you. This is change we’re not going to feel.
Finally, and most importantly, the theory is called global warming and not local warming. That is to say, no scientist is predicting how the temperature will change in your little city or neighborhood or area of the country. Rather, they are talking about global temperature rise. So, for you climate deniers, you can’t say, ‘Oh, look, it’s colder this January than last January in my state. Therefore the world is getting colder, not warmer. On the contrary, since we are talking about global warming, you must factor in the warming temperature of say, the Arctic, before drawing any conclusions about temperature change.
My point is this: no rational person should make judgments about climate change if those judgments are based primarily on their personal observations of local temperatures. And for the love, snowfall doesn’t tell us anything.
