Thom Hartmann talks with Gretchen Bleiler, 2 time Olympian / Silver medalist / 5 time X Games medalist (4 Gold) / Spokesperson for Protect Our Winters (POW)
Climate scientists are not the only ones who are observing the impacts of global change. In addition to our elite athletes, farmers, hunters and fishermen know what is happening. In my own case, growing up outside on the waters of the Great Lakes, and on the slopes and trails every winter, the changes became very obvious to me even before James Hansen’s famous wake up call in 1988.
Thursday was another warm, sunny day in Sochi, Russia, home of this year’s Winter Olympics. The temperature rose to 62°–an unseasonably warm day for February. The unusual warmth caused numerous problems for skiers and snowboarders, and we can expect continued issues with excessive warmth as high temperatures rise into the low 60s again on Friday and Saturday. Beginning on Sunday, temperatures will cool down to more seasonable levels, with highs in the low 50s. Temperatures in the mountains above Sochi are typically 10 – 20 degrees colder than what are observed in the city. The New York Times has an interesting editorial, The End of Snow?, describing how a warming climate will make it increasingly difficult to hold Winter Olympics games.
Worthwhile discussion here on NPR’s Diane Rheam show with, among others, Gavin Schmidt of NASA GISS.
Anyone who’s spent a lot of time in the mountains sees the change. It’s really obvious most years (this year being an exception at least in the US). Huge thanks to Gretchen Bleiler and the other Olympic athletes who are part of this organization. These folks are up close and personal with the changes taking place. And might I add, I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching you do those tricks.
I hope many more athletes sign onto this movement.
Latest video from Channel 4 – on UK conditions: –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a23LsrV2r8w
WUWT showed a (wikipedia) map from 878AD – showing the Somerset levels as swamplands, to explain the latest climate anomalies (notice that denial likes to print to ancient parchments and the like as proof), I would like to show them a map of Britain sometime in the Pliocene (when CO2 was above 400 ppm sometime around 3-5 million years ago), unfortunately I can’t find one as good old NASA and NOAA weren’t around then, I’m sure there must be a decent palaeoclimatology reconstruction of it around somewhere. WUWT did not explain about the other areas of Britain under flood (in pre Thames barrier times – but I’m sure they can find something to blame it on of course non AGW related).
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/danelaw_map.jpg
Excerpts from a powerful letter to the New York Times, “It’s written by five leading climate scientists, all of whom have long been reliable guides to a complicated and consequential body of science — John M. Wallace at the University of Washington, Isaac M. Held at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, David W. J. Thompson at Colorado State University, Kevin E. Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and John E. Walsh at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.” New York Times
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/global-warming-winter-weather-and-the-olympics-five-leading-climate-scientists-weigh-in/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&emc=edit_tnt_20140214&tntemail0=y&_r=1&
Sorry It’s a letter to Journal Science (behind a subscription wall), extracts in the N.Y.Times opinion
Living in Switzerland, I’ve of course observed the fact that skiing seasons up in the mountains have been getting worse and worse for lack of snow since 1980.
This is scary and ironically the place where South West’s sea rise is monitored:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26200497
UK Update:
The relentless pounding (and Pound Sterling evaporation) continues:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26200497
What’s the Tories’ best defense? Sand. Really. We even have the royals out sandbagging the country. Unbelievable how the Conservatives have no plan, no idea and no clue. But they’ve got sand mines and PR people populating the ponds.
That’s what comes of a life as idle dreamers dreaming of sand castles and seafoam froth….