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Record Cold And Snow Destroy Global Warming Claims

This article is more than 9 years old.

Yet another bitterly cold, snowy winter is destroying alarmist global warming claims, proving once again that over-the-top global warming predictions are proving no more scientifically credible than snake oil.

This morning, stunning photos show New England lobster boats frozen in port, looking like they are stranded deep within the Arctic Circle. The boats have been frozen in place for weeks, which would be remarkable enough if this were the middle of January. However, the calendar is about to turn to March.

Connecticut is experiencing its coldest February in recorded history. So is Michigan. So is Toronto. Cleveland and Chicago are experiencing their second coldest February in recorded history. Frigid and record cold temperatures are being set from Key West to International Falls. At the same time, blizzard after blizzard is burying much of the nation with record winter snow totals, with winter snowfall records beings set from Boston to Denver.

Global warming activists are in full-throttle damage control, desperately claiming global warming causes record snow and cold.

The Center for American Progress claimed, "climate change may have affected the [Boston] snowstorm — may have made it more likely, may have made it worse than it would have been without so much greenhouse gas in the atmosphere."

National Geographic published an article titled, "Blizzard of Nor'easters No Surprise, Thanks to Climate Change."

"How global warming can worsen snowfalls," read a Boston Globe headline.

Global warming alarmists' own prior global warming claims, however, indict their current claims.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated very clearly, “Milder winter temperatures will decrease heavy snowstorms.” Well, winters are clearly not becoming milder or bereft of heavy snowstorms.

Many global warming activists are still attempting to defend the discredited IPCC prediction, claiming a single winter does not invalidate a long-term trend. As the Union of Concerned Scientists claimed, "Winters have generally been warming faster than other seasons in the United States and recent research indicates that climate change" is causing it. The problem with such an assertion is that last winter was exceptionally cold and snowy, too. And winters nationwide have been getting colder for the past 20 years. Objective scientific data show winters have been getting colder and colder throughout the United States for the past two decades. When global warming alarmists claim winters will become warmer and free of snow, yet their predictions are proven false for 20 years in a row, at some point logical people come to realize that global warming alarmists are selling snake oil.

It is not just the winter, either. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data show the United States has been cooling for the past decade. Nor is it just the United States defying alarmist predictions. Global temperature data show no global warming since the late 1990s and very little global warming for the past 45 years.

Another global warming activist tactic is to argue that global warming actually causes more snow. Of course, this is exactly the opposite of what they used to claim, as shown in the IPCC prediction. Moreover, real-world scientific data prove their new claims false. Global warming activists argue that warmer air can hold more moisture, so winter snow storms that used to bring 12 inches of snow now bring 14 inches of snow. The problem with this new assertion is – as documented above – winter temperatures are substantially colder now than they used to be. Global warming activists cannot claim recent record snowfalls are caused by warmer winters when winters are in fact much colder than they used to be.

The most meaningful lesson from the unusually cold and snowy recent winters is that global warming is so minor as to be barely noticeable. When temperatures rise merely a fraction of one degree, the polar ice caps won’t melt, the oceanic conveyor belt will not shut down, alligators will not take up residence in Montana, cats will not start living with dogs, and winters will not suddenly disappear. We will still have very cold and snowy winters. We will still have hot summers. Your grandfather will still claim that to make it to school each day he walked barefoot through the snow, uphill each way.

Global warming alarmists will still try to sell their snake oil, hoping you will forget that tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, floods, snow, and heat waves all really did occur prior to 1988. Most of these events actually occurred more frequently in decades past. And global warming activists will try to induce you to forget their prior snake-oil predictions, like the warm and snow-free predictions issued by the IPCC. They claim every weather and climate event – whether warmth or cold, rain or shine – is caused by global warming. Global warming is the new snake oil that soulless hucksters on the Western frontier claimed applied to every malady a person could experience.

In the classic movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, a carpet-bagging snake oil salesman claimed his product cures cramps, wounds, hangovers, and “just about everything.” Clint Eastwood, playing Josey Wales, then spit a mouthful of dark brown tobacco juice on the snake oil salesman’s bright white jacket and asked, “How is it with stains?”

This makes one think of failed and all-encompassing global warming predictions. Heck, it makes one think of the entire alarmist global warming movement – how is it with stains?

[Note: This article has been updated, adding more specific examples of global warming spin-control.]