Check out this map put out by the National Climatic Data Center. The eastern three-fourths of the contiguous United States appear much colder than normal over the last year. Had the last twelve months produced a map with inverse results--hotter than normal temperatures--the congregants of the Church of Global Warming would no doubt divine it as confirmation of their religion's prophecy. Absent the politicized debate over climate change, an unusually cold year in and of itself just means an unusually cold year. But according to Al Gore and other high priests of global warming, the earth is supposedly heating up. If you buy into this idea that the perimeters of "normal" temperatures have shifted, then an unusually cold year by traditional standards is no longer considered an outlier but an impossibility. Put another way, the inconvenient thermometer is far more inconvenient for global-warming zealots than it is for global-warming agnostics. An unusually hot year would not convert an agnostic to the Church of Global Warming because under normal conditions there are unusually hot and cold years. An unusually cold year, on the other hand, should prove devastating to the Church of Global Warming because such an event invalidates the idea that man's behavior has singularly boosted the average temperature. If you believed in global warming, then an unusually cold year under the new normal would be what would have been considered an average year under the old normal. If man made it hotter than usual, explain why it's suddenly colder than normal? Might the culprit be more or less the same in both instances? The fiery ball around which we revolve effects the weather more than styrofoam cups or SUVs.

Clearly, Dan, you are discounting the fact that our recycling efforts, hybrids, and the slowing economy have taken effect.

You know someone is going to say it soon.

Dan, why do you even try to reason with these warming clowns? they sit around thinking,and need something to cling to so they can feel important and have meaning to their little worthless lives.

Dan, global warming is a global phenomena. Local weather patterns don't disprove anything. I also don't understand how your claim is said to disprove man-made global warming when it is clear you are attempting to knock down the idea of global warming in total.

From Scientific American's 60-Second Science Blog:

The planet's average temperature was 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit (14.4 degrees Celsius) last year, making it the eighth warmest year on record since 1880, according to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). But your goose bumps weren’t deceiving you: 2008 was also the coldest year since the beginning of the decade, according to data from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. (Hat tip to Ars Technica for alerting us to this info in their ana lysis of climate trends yesterday.)

Global warming is responsible for the overall upward temperature trend, and any snow outside our window shouldn’t convince us that Earth has stopped heating up, says Richard Heim, an NCDC meteorologist. "Most of the top 10 warmest years have happened in the last decade and a half," Heim tells ScientificAmerican.com. "Global warming does not mean every year will be warmer than the previous year. Global warming means there's an increasing frequency of warmer temperatures and a decreasing frequency of cooler temperatures, and that’s definitely what we're seeing."

What caused the last ice age?

Exactamundo. The Sun. But, there's a business in convincing rubes that it's them and their nasty old SUVs and wasteful ways that are the problem. I mean, how are you going to scam the Sun?

You guys found the silver bullet! Climatologists have simply never taken into account the sun! Do you really believe that?

The Planet has been in existence for around 4 billion years. Humans have been on the Planet in one form or another for 7 million years. Industrialized society has existed for, give or take, 150 years with automobiles dominating in the later part of the 20th century.

The ego and/or stupidity it takes for humans to believe that they are causing problems with the environment, which has never been scientifically proven and the it is 'we' that are destroying the Planet, is just amazing.

Ice Ages, pollution, cataclysmic events, all happened many times over the history of the Planet before humans were ever in the mix.

Is the planet warming or not?

"You guys found the silver bullet! Climatologists have simply never taken into account the sun! Do you really believe that?"

Obi, are these the same Climatologists that told us that the Earth was cooling some 30 years ago and that we would be soon looking at another ice age? And that the solution was to get more CO2 into the atmosphere? I think it was.

False.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/11/23/18534/222

Really?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html

Maybe you get your science from Time magazine, scientists do not.

Here's some scientists talking about global warming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=G-1B0rO6ciU

Why should I put more stock in the Grist Mill than any other sources? Would you dispute that the Time piece was not based on what scientists at the time were saying?

There has been absolutely no reasonable consensus among those involved in the science of climate change that there is such a thing as global warming.

In fact, Al Gore's source at NASA was making numbers up to bend his research to meet a particular standard.

In many cases, it's opinion and not science. And there will always be people out there who believe that humans are the problem for everything that has happened, is happening and will happen. And those who will attempt to profit from it.

Obi Juan,

The fact is, yes, the world has warmed overall over the past several decades.

The facts also are: the science is far from conclusive and scientists are very far from unanimous as to the causes(s); the climate models have failed to predict what has happened, grossly overestimating-warming over the past decade, and proving to not work looking retroactively, either; the Earth has seen many periods in its history much, much warmer than now, way before any industrial revolution, cars, or great masses of flatulent cows; Carbon Dioxide represents a tiny fraction of all greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the vast majority (and we are talking like 98%) are completely natural, such as water vapor; even the human component of CO2 production is a very small fraction; "change" is the normal in nature; fear-mongering media-types and politicians have consistently dismissed possible (and likely much more powerful) natural causes of recent changes; and man is very capable of adapting to changes, if his means of doing so (freedom of opportunity, property rights, etc) are not denied him by the State.

Good point EFL,

I'd like to see what the 1998 models of 2008 or 2009 looked like.

Since they are using models to warn us of "what is going to happen", it's only as valuable as its accuracy. A big enough difference is a good indicator that they don't know what is going on. Back-filling like "...of course there will be some fluctuation..." -- was there fluctuation in the models or were years more uniformly hotter?

You guys....you guys...tsk..tsk....you obviously aren't up on the latest. It's not called global warming anymore, it's called "global climate change".
Pretty nifty name change, now they blame any and all bad weather on "global climate change".

That's a good point Opus. Especially as when the climate nuts are trying to convince people of "Global Warming" when our winters are colder and more brutal and they can't quite make it fly, they turn and try to convince anybody who will listen that those colder and more brutal winters are also a result of man made Global Warming/Cooling/Change??!!

Anything to push their religion and to keep the rubes feeling guilty enough to fork over the dough.

Wow. Shocking, Dan, really. LOL.

On January 29th, as we were huddled around the kerosene heater, listing to the local news on the battery powered radio, we hoped to hear news about when electricity might be restored to ourselves and the other 600,000 Kentuckians affected by the 3 inch ICE storm which devastated our area. We opened our vienna sausages and bottled water hoping to hear that our power would be restored soon. Sadly we were disappointed to hear that the transmission lines from the TVA were toppled by the ICE storm. The local weather caster said this was the worst ICE storm in recorded KY history, over 2,000 electric poles simply snapped under all of the ICE. As I poured some water into the toilet so that it would flush and heated some water on the LP gas stove to shave with, I listened intently to 87.7 on the radio dial, listening to broadcasts from our local station.

They temporarily cut to the Today show for some national news.

Our road was blocked by some dozen trees which fell due to all of the ICE, we were trapped until the National Guard (God Bless them) used chainsaws and heavy trucks to clear the road.

Just then some environmentalist on the Today show talked about how the earth was getting hotter and we would all die from the heat.

If I could have left my home that day, I would be in trouble for wringing the neck of said environmentalist.

Tell the family of the 74 year old man in Murray, KY who FROZE TO DEATH with no power, no heat, and no way to get out of his home because of the ICE storm about global warming. Tell it to the 10,000 in Western KY who are STILL without power 23 days after the ICE storm.

Global warming my a$$.

I invite all of you global warming nutjobs to take a tour of our area and visit the families of the 55 who died from the ICE storm. Tell those families how the earth is getting hotter. I freaking dare you.

Be well,

Sponge

I feel for you folks Sponge. But it's apparent that our government, under new management, could give a fat rat's a$$.

Not even a flyover by Mr. Hope and Change as he was too busy self-aggrandizing and pontificating about the doom that would befall us if ACORN didn't get their $4 billion cut of the Democratic Payback and Socialization package.

But, help those po' folks in KY.? Fagedaboudit!

Now if you guys had been in New Orleans......maybe something.

To be honest, ASDF, I was pleased with the bit of help we did get.

No local stations had power, so the closest place to get Kerosene was at Martin, TN. FEMA and the Guard handed out FREE kerosene, bottled water, and MREs at the local airport.

Some complained that they wanted more, but for our family, it was well appreciated.

Funny thing is one of the rigs they were handing food out of said "Katrina relief." Leftovers?

Now, some have said that Katrina was because Bush was racist. Some here imply that the new black President doesn't like us white folks in the red(neck) state.

I jokingly said that I couldn't wait for a $2,000 debit card so I could go to a ca$ino and massage parlor.

Initially they told us our power would be out until March. But over 700 crews from other states have been working non-stop and they are nearly done restoring electricity.

For the most part, we helped each other. Those of us with heaters opened our homes when we could. Neighbors used their chainsaws to open the driveways for each other.

While some will complain that FEMA did too little, I am eternally grateful to FEMA and especially the National Guard for what they did.

This disaster went the way it should...the local authorities ran things, helped by the state which was helped by FEMA. Rather than sit back and wait for help, we did as much as we could for each other.

I saw the very best in humanity here, but also saw the worst as people were fighting over food, gasoline, and even washing machines at the laundromat.

Many complain that we did not get the help that New Orleans did. I will NOT. I am keeping one of the MREs as a reminder of how the Guard and FEMA gave us just enough to survive. The biggest thing they gave us was the most important....HOPE.

It will take me a year to replenish all that we lost in the way of food, etc. (Disability sucks). But I survived, and that my friends, is more than enough.

God Bless all taxpayers....your money funneled through to keep us going. Thank you all.

Be well,

Sponge

The big differences I see with how these two natural disasters have been handled seem to be in the demographics.

One group (Katrina victims) whined and complained and had their hands out (and still do) looking for money. The other group (you folks) are self sufficient non-complainers, motivated to survive on your own and not necessarily looking for some nice to have Fed help.

This comes out in spades in your writing.

"God Bless all taxpayers"?

No, God Bless you.

On a side note, during the worse times in the aftermath of Katrina, our nasty cold hearted Republican Governor here in the Republic of Massachusetts invited some of the victims to come up here for relief. They did and were flown up at our expense and put up in hotels on the Cape. Your previous comment about the government provided 'debit cards' hit home as all they did was hang around the liquor stores and hit the local strip club.

Although, I might have done the same. ;-)~

I hate to cut and paste, but since we discussed Katrina, her goes, from yahoo news.

"WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Friday that Gulf Coast residents still struggling to rebuild three years after Hurricane Katrina "have not always received the support they deserve" from Washington.

He announced he was extending the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, a position created by former President George W. Bush that was set to expire at the end of this month. Obama extended it through the rest of the current fiscal year, which goes to the end of September. Acting coordinator Paul Conway, a holdover from the Bush administration, will remain in the position until Obama chooses a replacement to head the office.

The president also is dispatching two Cabinet secretaries to visit New Orleans and other storm-ravaged parts of the Gulf Coast. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan will tour the region March 5-6.

Obama promised a stepped-up and sustained commitment to the region.

"The residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast who are helping rebuild are heroes who believe in their communities and they are succeeding despite the fact that they have not always received the support they deserve from the federal government," he said in a statement. "We must ensure that the failures of the past are never repeated."

Obama's words amounted to sharp though indirect criticism of Bush's oversight of the Katrina recovery. Bush was widely panned for his immediate response to the massive August 2005 storm that ripped through New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But Bush also has been the subject of intense criticism, though less high-profile, from those who said he never committed enough money or effort to rebuilding, and eventually appeared to lose interest in it altogether.

Katrina was blamed for more than 1,600 deaths and $41 billion in property damage.

The federal government has devoted more than $175 billion to the region since Katrina. It's unclear how much more money will be needed to fix the leftover damage. But nearly everyone agrees the federal government should continue investing heavily to significantly strengthen the region's levees and make other flood control improvements to prevent a repeat of Katrina's devastation.

Bush argued that additional reconstruction money wasn't necessary, because billions of those federal dollars remain unspent — bogged down in bureaucracy or tied up in long-range planning.

The same reasons were given for not including Katrina money in the recent economic stimulus package."

----------------------------------------
Right now thousands of Kentuckians are saying, "WHAT???!!!????"

Be well,

Sponge

As I said Sponge, you are unfortunately not a member of the right demographic and have not acted enough the victims!

I mean, how much more of our money does the government need to dump into the New Orleans project after over three years before anybody expects that the people who reside there get it together and take some responsibility for themselves?

This is another absurdity from Obama and his troops of ever-needy citizens. And, of course, another swipe at that mean old nasty uncaring evil Bush. Apparently, he will continue to be an ongoing excuse for any supposed injustice going forward.

I can't help but think that if Obama had been in office during Katrina and you had a full court press of incompetent Democrats running the show, that not only would Nagan have fudged it at the local level and Blanco fudged it at the State level but Obama would have royally fudged it at the Federal level.

The difference is that nobody would have blamed "The One" for that. Apparently, nobody is paying attention to his complete lack of interest in you folks.