Earth Day Prep

With Earth Day coming up, will winter-like temperatures take some steam out of the recently invigorated climate alarmist train? That may be a fear among some doomsters, according to a news story linked from the Drudge Report today. The Ithaca Journal reports on the mood in the cold upstate New York town:

While snow piles up outside our windows, we may be hard-pressed to believe climate change is occurring, global temperatures are rising and the planet is on a crash course of serious change if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.

That message was delivered on Friday in Albany by Arthur DeGaetano, a Cornell University professor and the head of the Northeast Regional Climate Center.

Dr. DeGaetano is correct to note that weather events are not snapshots of climate trends — something that some vocal alarmists often ignore when trying to scare people silly over catastrophic events like hurricanes.

Worth a quick read are some of the reader comments for the Ithaca Journal story. Here’s a sample, from commenter pdmoore, responding to commenter mtellier:

 mtellier wrote: “I may be a simpleton, but if CO2 is causing the earth to warm shouldn’t this be easy to prove? Created a closed environment, similar to a biodome. Run temperature tests over course of a year. Dope the sealed environment with large quantities of CO2 and take the same measurements. If CO2 is the cause of global warming the temperature should rise if all other aspects remain constant. Solar heating/cooling, Precipitation.”

The problem with a biodome experiment, just like computer models, is that you cannot recreate all of the variables that affect our weather. You can put it in the sunshine, but then the sun has no impact at night; while in reality the sun is always shinning on some portion of the earth. A biodome also protects the atmosphere from solar winds; solar winds have a big impact on our weather. Then there are winds, clouds, el ninos, el ninias, ocean currents, water vapor (other than clouds), volcanoes, sand storms, fires, etc, etc, etc.

There’s more, ranging from the thoughtful to the hyperbolic — sometimes in the same post. (Note: This does is not an endorsement of all the comments on this board.)