Yet again, the media has blown a chance to provide thorough reporting on climate change’s link to the unusually extreme weather that marked 2006.
A USA Today article opens:
This year of weather extremes, from incessant rain in the Northwest to chronic drought in the heartland and wildfires in the West, could go down as the second-warmest on record when it ends this weekend.
The article closes with a quote from Richard Heim of the National Climatic Data Center:
This El Ni±o we’ve got going right now is one of the weirdest ones that I’ve seen. We should not be having the weather we’re having.
Reading this after a recap of the nation’s record-breaking weather, you may expect to hit a “Continue” or “Page 2″ button, but that’s it. The article ends and is stripped of any larger explanation of why the weather is so radically different.
The article is another missed opportunity. The remarkable instances of extreme weather are an open invitation to explain how climate change creates the conditions for such patterns.
As we enter 2007, the media should stop neglecting the signs of climate change and start informing the public more completely and consistently.
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So where is your scientific proof that warm temperatures this year will be due to global warming and not due to a strong El Nino? I think I trust the opinions of professional meteorologists far more than some blog writer.
I think the author’s point is that the strong El Niño is due to Global Warming. I don’t know who the author of this particular post is, but the editor of the blog apparently has a Ph.D. in Physics from M.I.T. I’m pretty sure that means he’s not just “some blog writer.”
Doesn’t take a PHD in physics to understand: a warming climate overall will make warm weather phenomenon that already exists stronger. Geez some people have thick skulls!
So then, where is the scientific proof that this year’s strong El Nino is due to global warming? I have yet to hear a meteorologist claim that, so I’d be interested in your source.
And by the way, I have a Ph.D. in physics too.
That is NOT what he wrote. Carl, if you keep ignoring what people wrote, we will start ignoring you. The record-breaking January heat wavewe have been experiencing in the East is most likely due to a combination of El Niño and global warming. Also, there have been numerous scientific papers suggesting that global warming makes El Niño’s more likely. Try googling the two phrases and applying your physics knowledge to the scientific papers that show up.