“The recent large amounts of snowfall have caused some people to be confused, or perhaps just skeptical, of global warming. Take U.S. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina for instance. He wrote on his Twitter page that it’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries ‘uncle.”
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The recent large amounts of snowfall have caused some people to be confused, or perhaps just skeptical, of global warming.

Take U.S. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina for instance. He wrote on his Twitter page that it’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries ‘uncle.’

This comment points to a general trend of the recent weather being used to disprove global warming research. If it snows this much, it is thought, surely global warming isn’t anything to be worried about.

But that’s not necessarily the case. Christopher Joyce, a writer for NPR, published a story recently detailing the work of several scientists who believe that global warming could actually be behind the large amounts of snowfall in places like the nation’s capital.

Warming oceans near the coast, they say, mean more water vapor in the air. This water vapor comes down later as snow, and sometimes a lot of it. This year, we’re also dealing with El Niño, which can throw the weather for a loop-literally. Winter storms are more likely to come across the country on the same path, relentlessly burying the same towns in snow every week.

That’s just what well-respected climate scientists say, though. We can just brush their work aside, as Senator DeMint has apparently done, and wait for the global warming nuts to cry uncle.

In reality, the strange weather should actually cause us some concern. Not because lots of snow in unusual cities proves or disproves global warming, but because the weather lately is weird. And that’s why Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times, suggests referring to climate change as global weirding and not global warming.

As he points out, weirding is what actually happens as global temperatures rise. The weather gets weird, and we begin to see things like massive amounts of snowfall in D.C., rain at the winter Olympics in Canada and a 13-year drought in Australia.

At the end of his article, Joyce explains that climate scientists say they cannot prove any single weather event is due to global climate change. So the heat wave in Canada and the pounding winter storms in the nation’s capital can’t prove whether or not global warming is happening.

But taking these events as a whole, in a global context, and using Friedman’s concept of global weirding does give us some insight. There’s definitely something going on, and we should pay more attention to the way humans have contributed to climate change and work to lessen that impact in the future.

And, as he also points out, even if global warming doesn’t do as much damage as feared, renewable energy is going to be the next global industry.

With the world population growing at an ever-increasing rate, demand for renewable energy is going to rise with it.

China is acting on this future demand and the United States is falling behind, still addicted to oil. So, as a country, we have an economic, if not an environmental, interest in pursuing renewable energy.

Try telling that to DeMint. He’s apparently more interested in childish games of uncle. However, it’s likely that if you mention corporate profit and expansion, he and other conservatives will be quick to support renewable energy pursuits.

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