Santorum again called Global Warming a Hoax, but it is almost Feb and Kansas has been really warm

[demtenjeep]

most of our Jan days were 45-60 degree range

Very unusual for Kansas


NOT that I am complaining, I hate snow and cold, but really it has been unusually warm.

[shraby]

1. He should visit the Lake Michigan lakeshore in Wisconsin. Virtually no snow to speak of.

Maybe 2 inches on the ground here, and the temps around 35.

[MadHound]

2. You may not be complaining now,

But wait until the winter wheat crop drops through the floor, and apple, pear and other fruit trees fail to produce this year.

Despite our aversion to snow and cold, it play a huge role in agriculture, and plant growth in general. Not to mention that a warm winter will cost a lot of farmers a lot of money.

[tridim]

3. This is the warmest KS winter I've ever witnessed.

It has felt like fall all winter. I can tell the wildlife is kind of freaked out.

It's going to be in the upper 60's tomorrow.

[demtenjeep]

5. I know it is bad for farming

but I like the warmer weather

[JI7]

4. southern california also

[HopeHoops]

6. Same here in s. central PA. We've had one 3" snowfall and hardly any for five years.

If it is cold, we get freezing rain, but not snow. There's hardly been any frost on the cars!!! That's convenient, but not typical.

[pintobean]

10. How were the last 2 winters there?

[demtenjeep]

13. last year we had 13 inches of snow by this time

I have heard we may have 3 inches so far before Christmas.

[Chipper Chat]

8. Green shoots are coming up on teh west side of my office building.

They may be lillies or hostas - they are 3" tall. Never saw that before in January (northern Indiana)

[Raine]

9. Time will show who is promoting a "hoax"

I would be thrilled if he was right but how anyone feels or what they believe is irrelevant. What ever happens, happens. The deniers damn well better pray they're the ones who are right.

[cbrer]

11. Time that we hope we have

Most scientists are in agreement that global climate change is occuring. They don't have conclusive evidence that human activity is the cause. But industrial contamination is rising on an exponential curve that hasn't occured in history, as far as they're able to determine. We don't know what the long term effects will be. Most likely that some locations will benefit, others will suffer. Whether that means that evaporation will accelerate, and more clouds will shroud the surface, or that surplus heat will mean more desert area created, we don't know. We don't know what the effects will be. We don't have a timetable. We can't pinpoint a cause.

Not that this means that it's not a good idea to clean up our environment, and develop/implement better, more sustainable lifestyles.

But to not do so as an economic decision, and consequences be damned, is the typical short sighted, profit driven policy we've had from DC up to this point.

[Saving Hawaii]

12. Really?

They don't have conclusive evidence but it's not exactly difficult to make the case that human activity definitely is the cause. Like most highly complex systems, it's not particularly easy to isolate cause and effect. That doesn't mean it isn't there. There's still a tedious link between cigarette smoking and cancer that can't be called conclusive but I think most of us are right enough in the head to recognize that smoking cigarettes is pretty terrible for your health. Oddly enough, some of the most prominent climate septics were also deeply involved in the 'smoking doesn't cause cancer' campaign pushed by the tobacco companies a couple decades ago.

"We don't know what the long term effects will be". We don't conclusively know, you're right. But we've got a pretty good idea of what happens with warmer oceanic temperatures and what else. We get regular opportunities to observe the results of those conditions today and we get a lot of information to speculate with. Some regions will probably turn to desert. Others may actually get more rainfall than they currently do, but in many cases it will come in downpours rather than trickles and cause flooding and lacking water supplies during the dry months. That's not really disputed. Furthermore, it's not really the type of change that matters in a lot of cases; it's the rate. Our infrastructure (physical and human) is designed for conditions at present. If the climate changes gradually it's not a terribly huge issue to adjust, but if we get rapid changes we're going to be hard pressed to address them. Doesn't matter the direction. Rapid changes = bad news.

"We can't pinpoint a cause." We can't pinpoint a cause for a lot of things. We don't know why lithium is so effective in treating bipolar disorder. We don't know if lidocaine is at all effective in treating cardiac arrest. We don't know a lot of things. But that doesn't mean we don't have a good idea.

[JDPriestly]

17. The evidence about the connection between smoking and certain

diseases is pretty conclusive.

Correlation does not always mean causation. But when the correlation is very high and the effect cannot be explained by any other cause, then that the correlation does reflect causation can be reasonably assumed. This is especially true when other potential causes are absent.

Scientists have eliminated causes for our current warming other than humans and fossil fuels.

History will condemn those who refuse to acknowledge that humans' use of fossil fuels is to be blamed for climate change.

Even if it cannot be proved that fossil fuels cause climate change, why risk the disaster that will happen if they do?

Those who advocate continuing the status quo with regard to fossil fuels are like those who drive on mountain roads at night with their headlights off. There is a very high chance that they will miss an important curve, but of course it is not certain. So why not do it? After all, there can be other causes for accidents on mountain roads at night.

Most sensible people however, would prefer having their headlights on when driving on mountain roads after dark. Most of us prefer driving with at least one hand on the steering wheel most of the time. But, driving with only one hand may or may not be the cause of an accident. Who knows?

And so it is with climate change and fossil fuels.

[XemaSab]

14. It's going to be 72 here on Thursday

The average max is 58, and the record is 74. We're still getting cool temperatures at night, in part because there's no moisture to hold it in.

It was really nice out today. I've been getting a lot of yard work done this winter. Usually it's a disaster area by this time because it's so rainy. We're at half of the expected rainfall.

Local weather is almost meaningless, though. In the E/E forum, there's a thread pinned to the top with all kinds of climate data.

Here's my favorite graph:



Note well that the data points are a bit off, so that what looks like 2015 is really 2014, and so forth.

[customerserviceguy]

15. We've had one snow this winter

Came on a Saturday, and was pretty much gone (except for where they piled it up) a few days later. Of course, that is not including the Halloween weekend snow, but that was a genuine freak occurance.

[NotThisTime]

16. We have yet to see a snow storm in Burlington Vermont that dropped more than an inch at any given

time... warm? yes, we are damn warm...

[JDPriestly]

18. In Southern California, we always have a few days, maybe even a couple

of short-sleeve weeks in January. But this year, all of January was pretty warm.

Highs forecast for the next few days are 69, 68, 74, 80.

[Patrick_Bateman]

20. Global Climate Change

is the term that should have been used all along.

Mr. Santorum,

Your Presidential bid is a hoax sir!