There’s no chaos like snow chaos: Busting the myth that snow disproves climate change

During the recent cold snap climate sceptics seized on the cold weather as “proof” that climate change is a “myth”.

Express-snow-lies The Daily Express published headlines like:

“Snow Chaos: And they still claim it’s global warming”

Adding:

“As one of the worst winters in 100 years grips the country, climate experts are still trying to claim the world is growing warmer.”

The Daily Mail said global warming had “paused”, and poked fun at Ed Miliband, writing:

“Last week, as Britain froze, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband maintained in a parliamentary answer that the science of global warming was ‘settled’.”

The scientist the Mail claimed to base that story on later claimed the paper had completely distorted what he said.

Needless to say, these papers haven’t reported that this winter was actually the warmest winter globally in satellite records, or that January 2010 globally was in fact the warmest January on record.

It seems that once again, the sceptics have confused ‘weather’ with ‘climate’ and then failed to correct themselves.

Recent studies show how record high temperatures are far outpacing record low temperatures across the US, only underlining once again how the recent cold weather in Britain does nothing to disprove the theory of climate change.

Our US sister site, Think Progress, reports how snow is having to be airlifted in to Vancouver for the winter Olympics due to the unusually warm winter there.

http://twitter.com/elrikmerlin/status/9146007197 Elrik Merlin

RT @leftfootfwd: There’s no chaos like snow chaos: Busting the myth that snow disproves climate change: http://is.gd/8r6PA
http://twitter.com/politic_animal/status/9146008356 Political Animal

RT @leftfootfwd: There’s no chaos like snow chaos: Busting the myth that snow disproves climate change: http://is.gd/8r6PA
http://twitter.com/jwdd27/status/9146323139 Joel Davies

RT @leftfootfwd: There’s no chaos like snow chaos: Busting the myth that snow disproves climate change: http://is.gd/8r6PA
http://twitter.com/jwdd27/status/9146394706 Joel Davies

Jan '10 = warmest ever ->RT @leftfootfwd No chaos like snow chaos: Busting the myth that snow disproves climate change: http://is.gd/8r6PA
http://twitter.com/earthadapt/status/9146943735 EarthAdapt

#ClimateChange : There’s no chaos like snow chaos: Busting sceptics’ myths that… http://bit.ly/9uhNSw ; ) EarthAdapt.com
http://twitter.com/alexecorally/status/9147166449 Alex Hartley-Revolve

RT @leftfootfwd: There’s no chaos like snow chaos: Busting the myth that snow disproves climate change: http://is.gd/8r6PA
Alex Hartley

RT @leftfootfwd: There’s no chaos like snow chaos: Busting the myth that snow disproves climate change: http://is.gd/8r6PA
http://oxfordkevin.carbonclimate.org Oxford Kevin

Not much point in airlifting snow when the rain is going to wash it away.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/olympics/rain-soaks-cypress-could-derail-heils-bid-for-first-canadian-gold-84308042.html
http://vancouver2010.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/inside-the-rings-drama-and-delay-in-alpine-skiing/
http://greenopolis.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/snowmageddon/ ‘Snowmageddon’ « greenopolis

[...] to Rod Liddle questioning the validity of climate change on the back of the recent cold snap, Left Foot Forward offers a sober riposte. [...]
http://www.MarkWarner2008.com Don McAlpine

Well, I can’t really say that I totally agree with this. Maybe US and some other areas are experiencing one of the worst winter in 100 years but some areas in the world are also experiencing the warmest climate as well.
http://www.tdsays.blogspot.com Tyler

If you’re going to talk about Vancouver having a warm winter and low snow, it might be worth noting that Whistler/Blackcomb (2 hours up the road) has had one of its coldest years ever along with one of its heaviest snow years on record. That is mirrored across most US and European ski resorts – they are having a cold year with plenty of snow. I’m sure that Cypress mountain being at very low altitude, and sitting just above a major industrial area has *nothing* to do with it being a little warmer down there.

That all said, is it indeed a wonder that a hard-left, nay, fanatical climate change believer/activist such as Joss Garman writes this kind of article? It’s propaganda, nothing more, and the right to reply is simply not there. Young Joss is a greenpeace activist and was also involved in the plane stupid campaign, and doesn’t have any scientific background (unless you count his politics degree). Is there not a small chance that he has an agenda?

Personally, I find it incredibly distasteful that people like Joss have no interest other than to stifle debate. The science is not settled, and it is clear that significant errors have been made by the AGW camp. Those should be looked at. I also find it distasteful that huge amounts of money are being spent on AGW which is squeezing out spending on other environmetal projects as well as social projects, yet the real winners in the carbon business are governments, heavy industry and financial service industries.
http://oxfordkevin.carbonclimate.org Oxford Kevin

Tyler, if you had read my second link you would have seen that it was raining in Whistler as well.

Not that this matters much as one seasons weather, doesn’t a climate make.