While the normally snow-free Washington, DC area is suffering from crippling blizzards, Olympics planners in Vancouver are concerned about a snow drought:

On Tuesday, organizers gave the news media their first look at Cypress Mountain, the site of the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events, with hopes of allaying concerns about a lack of snow and unseasonably warm weather endangering the competitions. But officials kept the snowboarding halfpipe off limits, citing safety concerns. The mountain looked as if it were under military siege, not an Olympic site days from competition.

Of course by the “heads I win, tales you lose” accounting that prevails in the climate change debate, unseasonably snowy weather in the mid-Atlantic counts as evidence that we should allow uncontrolled pollution, whereas unseasonably warm and snow-free weather in British Columbia is just ignored. If you turn your moron filter off, though, you’ll see that unusual weather events all around the world are exactly what you would expect from systemic shifts in the global climate. This also illustrates the point that shifts, as such, can be harmful. Most human settlements are reasonably well-adapted to their existing climate. Farmers have suitable land and suitable crops for their local situation. Boston owns lots of snowplows and Atlanta doesn’t. The Winter Olympics are in Vancouver and not DC. Just swapping weather patterns around is incredibly destructive.

via yglesias.thinkprogress.org

In a Washington Post Op-Ed, Alan Leshner hammers the nonsense from Sarah Palin:

Don’t be fooled about climate science. In April, 1994 — long after scientists had clearly demonstrated the addictive quality and devastating health impacts of cigarette smoking — seven chief executives of major tobacco companies denied the evidence, swearing under oath that nicotine was not addictive.

Now, the American public is again being subjected to those kinds of
denials, this time about global climate change. While former Alaska
governor Sarah Palin wrote in her Dec. 9 op-ed
that she did not deny the “reality of some changes in climate,” she
distorted the clear scientific evidence that Earth’s climate is
changing, largely as a result of human behaviors. She also badly
confused the concepts of daily weather changes and long-term climate
trends when she wrote that “while we recognize the occurrence of these
natural, cyclical environmental trends, we can’t say with assurance
that man’s activities cause weather changes.” Her statement
inaccurately suggests that short-term weather fluctuations must be
consistent with long-term climate patterns. And it is the long-term
patterns that are a cause for concern.

Climate-change science is clear: The concentration of atmospheric
carbon dioxide — derived mostly from the human activities of
fossil-fuel burning and deforestation — stands at 389 parts per
million (ppm). We know from studying ancient Antarctic ice cores that
this concentration is higher than it has been for at least the past
650,000 years. Exhaustive measurements tell us that atmospheric carbon
dioxide is rising by 2 ppm every year and that the global temperature
has increased by about 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century.
Multiple lines of other evidence, including reliable thermometer
readings since the 1880s, reveal a clear warming trend. The broader
impacts of climate change range from rapidly melting glaciers and
rising sea levels to shifts in species ranges.

via www.washingtonpost.com

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from the folks who, among other things, hunt for oil.

The Geological Society of America (GSA) supports the scientific conclusions that Earth’s climate is changing; the climate changes are due in part to human activities; and the probable consequences of the climate changes will be significant and blind to geopolitical boundaries. Furthermore, the potential implications of global climate change and the time scale over which such changes will likely occur require active, effective, long-term planning. GSA also supports statements on the global climate change issue made by the joint national academies of science (June 2005), American Geophysical Union (December, 2003), and American Chemical Society (2004). GSA strongly encourages that the following efforts be undertaken internationally: (1) adequately research climate change at all time scales, (2) develop thoughtful, science-based policy appropriate for the multifaceted issues of global climate change, (3) organize global planning to recognize, prepare for, and adapt to the causes and consequences of global climate change, and (4) organize and develop comprehensive, long-term strategies for sustainable energy, particularly focused on minimizing impacts on global climate.

via www.geosociety.org

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