waltmoreno wrote:
Hey tbutkovich, You need to keep up with the left's continually evolving boogyman narrative. Global warming is no longer 'in' as the boogyman as it was during it's worldwide, affects everyone on planet earth, and no matter what the particular adverse weather condition is, anywhere on the planet, it can be blamed on climate change.
And unless you sign on to climate change, you're destroying the planet. Change all your lightbulbs from incandescent to LED, get rid of your outdated internal combustion engine car and replace it with an electric one. And dig deep and buy your share of carbon tax credits according to the size of your carbon footprint.
Hey tbutkovich, You need to keep up with the left'... (
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"Global Warming" is a misnomer that has been abandoned by everyone except, apparently, folks who continue to resist the idea that human beings have caused the current climatological castastrophe, which most everyone these days more accurately refers to as "climate change." The increasing frequency worldwide of extreme weather events, including massive winter storms and record low temperatures, is compelling evidence we have begun to experience the effects of climate change.
The science that explains the overall warming of the atmosphere--the "greenhouse effect" (for which the evidence now is overwhelming and incontrovertible)--is pretty easy to explain and to understand. The myriad effects the steady heating of the atmosphere have on climate and weather are more complicated, and have given rise to a lot of perplexity, even among people who are pretty smart. You're not the only one who's confused.
I, myself, have a limited grasp on the causes of the arctic spells we've had in recent winters, but I think I can explain in an oversimplified, but basically accurate, way what most meteorologists and climate scientists say is behind them.
Jet streams are narrow, meandering bands of very strong winds several miles above the Earth's surface that encircle both the Arctic and the Antarctic regions. When Americans talk about the Jet Stream, we generally mean the air currents that flow, mostly east-to-west, through the middle to northern latitudes.
The Jet Stream contains the cold air around the Arctic much like the shores of a lake contain lakewater. Unlike a lake shore, the currents of the JS don't stay in one place--but they flow continuously, without a break, all the way around the Earth. Cold, arctic air remains enclosed in the area north of the JS. When the JS moves south, cold air comes with it. In the US, that means air from Canada and northward. Fluctuations in the JS are normal, but the extreme fluctuations we've seen the past several years are unusual (or have been, up to now).
The faster the winds in the JS flow, the stronger the barrier they provide between the cold northern air and the warmer air to the south. In recent years, consistently warmer arctic temperatures have slowed down the JS, causing it to meander more, and sometimes to form loops that dip quite a lot farther south than we're used to. The cold air "lake," in other words, floods, and frigid air pours southward over its shores.
A rash of record-breakng cold temperatures then spreads all across the country. People convinced that Climate Change is a metorological myth perpetrated by godless, America-hating demoncrats* seize the moment as proof that "Global Warming" is a big, fat lie, and start laughing their butts off. While this lack of understanding on the part of entrenched unbelievers is understandable, I hope my explanation of how cold weather events are consistent with climate change might, for at least some of you, shift your perspective a little.
*As I've stated in this forum many times, I'm convinced the biggest threat to the our government and our way of life comes neither from extreme liberals or nor extreme conservatives. It comes from frightened, angry, unhappy people on both sides who vilify those who don't share their political beliefs and heap barbarous insults on them.
I have no objection to stong language. I use it a lot, when I don't think it will alienate/offend people I'm trying to communicate with. I have many objections to abusive language--or, more accurately, to the pain it causes and to the pain it shows in the heart of the people who use it. And while I understand that being careful of the words we use about those with whom we are at odds won't heal our underlying wounds, I know that speaking more gently to others helps prevent us from judging them too harshly and frees us to think more clearly and make wiser decisions.