White House: U.S. is Cold Because Planet is Hot

[mystery-ak]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/09/White-House-U-S-Is-Cold-Because-Planet-Is-Hot

 by Wynton Hall 9 Jan 2014, 7:55 AM PDT

The White House released a video on Wednesday assuring Americans that the extreme cold freezing the nation does not disprove global warming, that the U.S. is extremely cold because the planet is increasingly hot.

"If you've been hearing that extreme cold spells, like the one that we're having in the United States now, disprove global warming, don't believe it," warned President Barack Obama's Science and Technology Advisor, Dr. John Holdren. "No single weather episode can either prove or disprove global climate change."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eDTzV6a9F4

"A growing body of evidence suggests that the kind of extreme cold being experienced by much of the United States as we speak is a pattern we can expect to see with increasing frequency as global warming continues," said Holdren. "I believe the odds are that we can expect, as a result of global warming, to see more of this pattern of extreme cold."

[mountaineer]

Cliff Mass Weather Blog

Does the Cold Wave Imply Anything About Global Warming? The Answer is Clearly No.

 The central and eastern U.S. is now in the midst of a major cold wave, with large regions dropping below zero F and wind chills reaching below -30F.    That is fact.   The problem is that the media, some non-governmental organizations, and plenty of individuals are making claims that this event has some kind of implication regarding anthropogenic global warming.

 On one hand, some global warming skeptics suggest that such cold is clear evidence that global warming is nonsense.

 On the other, global warming "advocates" explain the cold wave as another example of extreme weather forced by increased greenhouse gases.

The truth?  Both are wrong. This individual event says nothing about the impacts of global warming.

 Let me give you a sample of these unsupportable claims.

 This morning I was listening to the NPR Program "The TakeAway" on which  Gary Yohe, professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University, explicitly stated that the cold wave was the work of global warming. And Climate Central was pushing the same scary story.


 According to Time Magazine:

"Global warming is sometimes thought of more as “global weirding,” with all manner of complex disruptions occurring over time. This week’s events show that climate change is almost certainly screwing with weather patterns ways that go beyond mere increases in temperature—meaning that you’d be smart to hold onto those winter coats for a while longer."

 And then on the other side, FOX News suggested that the cold wave  indicated  global cooling. ... [snip]

... Let's examine the claims of both sides of this extreme argument.

 1.  Global warming causes more extreme weather and thus cold waves.

 At first glance, you would not give much credence to this suggestion. If temperatures were warming due to mankind's enhancement of greenhouse gases you would expect LESS cold waves.  But a few researchers came up with a hypothesis that as the poles warm the jet stream would weaken and that would result in more waviness of the jet stream.  However, recent work by Professor Elizabeth Barnes of Colorado State has shown that there were methodological deficiencies in the research suggesting increased jet undulations with global warming. And that there is no observational evidence of increased waviness.  Furthermore, there is little evidence that the jet approaching North America has weakened recently. 

 The IPCC, the global group of scientists that have come together to estimate the impacts of increased greenhouse gases, have been clear about their conclusions: "There is likely to be a decline in the frequency of cold air outbreaks (i.e., periods of extreme cold lasting from several days to over a week) in NH winter in most areas."

 The National Climatic Data Center has a page where you can plot the % of the country with a extreme low minimum temperatures (blue bars).  The percentages are declining, which does NOT suggest cold waves are getting more extensive.

 The bottom line:  the claims that greenhouse warming causes more cold waves like we have seen  this week really seems to be without any basis in observational evidence or in theory.  The media needs to stop pushing this unsupported argument.

2.  The current cold wave proves global warming is not occurring

 This claims is really without any basis.  Global warming will occur over the the coming century and only can be determined statistically since there is a lot of natural variability in the climate/weather system.   One event proves nothing.  Furthermore, the real warming is in the future.   As shown above, the undulations of the jet stream cause regional changes in temperature and thus there are both warm and cool areas.  So if you want to say that global warming is causing the cold and snow in the east, you would also have to say it is causing the warmth and poor-snow conditions in the West.  So by their logic, Californians would say "global warming" is real, while easterners would claim the opposite. Gets kind of silly.  ...

Read the entire article at Cliff Mass weather blog

[mountaineer]

If you're on Facebook and interested in the whole global warming issue, I recommend a group called "Global Warming??" for links to relevant stories.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2374404880/