Thursday, February 18, 2010

Yeah, Climate Change isn't a Weatherman's (woman's) Gambit!!!

As an educator, writer, and developer of active community dialogue and community development when it comes to sustainability, and as a radio show host and the co-coordinator of Earth Day 2010 for Spokane, I have to field plenty of retrograde thinking when it comes to snow in DC or rain in BC. Now snow at the Olympics? El Nino is the answer? Oh, so ocean temperatures that are increased because of an "El Nino event" can effect rain fall in Spokane and the lack of snow in BS and the flooding in Phoenix? Boy, we need some reality checks with our famous and infamous weather guys and gals. Read on below:

Weathermen not educated in climate change.

The right wing has been trumpeting the global warming denial of TV weatherman John Coleman, claiming that such a “high profile member of the weather reporting community” should be viewed as a legitimate skeptic of climate change. Climate Progress’s Joe Romm reports that meteorologists generally have thin knowledge of long-term climate patterns:

Meteorologists are not required to take a course in climate change, this is not part of the NOAA/NWS [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service] certification requirements, so university programs don’t require the course (even if they offer it). So we have been educating generations of meteorologists who know nothing at all about climate change.

Romm writes, “Asking a meteorologist to opine on the climate — or even the cause of recent extreme weather — is like asking your family doctor what the chances are for an avian flu pandemic in the next few years or asking a mid-West sheriff the prospects for nuclear terrorism.” Check out ThinkProgress’s response to right-wing distortions here.


Top UN climate official resigning

After watching governments fail to agree on new global warming deal for four years, de Boer announces resignation

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press

Top U.N. climate change official Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was resigning after nearly four years, a period when governments struggled without success to agree on a new global warming deal.

His departure takes effect July 1, five months before 193 nations are due to reconvene in Mexico for another attempt to reach a binding worldwide accord on controlling greenhouse gases. De Boer's resignation adds to the uncertainty that a full treaty can be finalized there.

De Boer is known to be deeply disappointed with the outcome of the last summit in Copenhagen, which drew 120 world leaders but failed to reach more than a vague promise by several countries to limit carbon emissions -- and even that deal fell short of consensus.

But he denied to the AP that his decision to quit was a result of frustration with Copenhagen.

"Copenhagen wasn't what I had hoped it would be," he acknowledged, but the summit nonetheless prompted governments to submit plans and targets for reigning in the emissions primarily blamed for global warming. "I think that's a pretty solid foundation for the global response that many are looking for," he said.



http://www.drroyspencer.com/2010/02/january-2010-uah-global-temperature-update-0-72-deg-c/

The global-average lower tropospheric temperature anomaly soared to +0.72 deg. C in January, 2010. This is the warmest January in the 32-year satellite-based data record

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