but global warming is still one of the most important issues of our day. In 50 years, in 100 years, people and their politicians will point to this decade and speak not of health care, economic crashes, wars in the Middle East. They will speak of the start of global warming, and what we did - or what we should have done - about it while we had the chance.
Still, this terrible winter upon the North American continent, where I live, has raised the hope and given talking points to global warming deniers. It's not only the winter weather in New England that I'm tired of, but the deniers' memes: 'Al Gore, where are you now? and 'Don't tell me about global warming, I've got snow to shovel!' and 'Go ask anyone who lives in Maryland about global warming!'
I just want to scream.
Without trying to sound condescending, I try to explain: There is a difference between CLIMATE and WEATHER. The recent weather disasters and catastrophes are weather phenomena. Weather is the state of the atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness according to Merriam Webster. Climate is the average course or condition of the weather at a place usually over a period of years as exhibited by temperature, wind velocity, and precipitation.
In other words, 'weather' is a snapshot of conditions, 'climate' is course of weather over a period of years. Many years, in fact. Over the course of the last 30 years, for example, the average global temperature has risen about 0.2 degrees C per decade, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That amounts to a temperature rise of about 1 degree F over those 30 years.
The deal is this: A temperature rise of 1 degree F enables the atmosphere to absorb tons and tons and tons of water vapor more than what was possible at a temperature 1 degree cooler. And water vapor drives weather. It's the engine, the absorber and spender of energy. With more water vapor, more weather episodes will occur and these will also be more intense. We will see more extreme conditions.
On the North American Continent during winter, weather tends to be cold and snowy. This winter, the cold and snowiness has been extreme. With record snowfalls recorded already, more snow is falling, more snow is on the way. Today's storm is the 6th or 7th major storm of the winter season. I can't speak for Europe, Asia, South America, or other areas of the globe since I don't live there and don't keep my eye on weather reports, but I do hear of weather related disasters, and they tend to be seasonal. Floodings, icepacks breaking off the North Polar icecap and Antarctica, numerous tornadoes, hurricanes. It seems to me that Katrina was a very intense storm, even for a hurricane.
These intense and extreme storms therefore bolster the theory of global warming rather than negate it, and THAT makes me especially tired of the "Where's Al Gore now?" memes.