Monday, December 7, 2009

First real snow & global warming

We've had a dusting a couple of times before, but nothing that lasted the day. Unseasonably warm fall this year. Incidentally, today was the first time that I've worn a jacket this fall. Just sweaters/hoodies until now. Reminded me of the year Doug and I wore shorts all winter. It was a big story down in the big city a week back about being the first recorded November without any snow at all. I'm undecided. Not that I haven't liked the warmer than normal weather, its certainly cheaper on furnace oil, but maybe I secretly kind of like snow. This time of year particularly, it does a lot to brighten up the short dull days. As an added bonus, snow tends to stay whiter here. Mars in enthralled. I asked him and he said he remembers snow but I'm never sure with those kind of questions (he'd say he remembered flying to the moon if I asked him in the right tone). Took forever today getting into the sitters because he had to stop and make hand prints all along the walkway.

Lack of snow also makes me think about the global warming thing. I don't believe in "global warming". Before you eco-freak on me, hear me out. Meteorologists/climatologists can't accurately predict what the weather will be three days from now. This summer, I pretty much started planning on it being exactly the opposite of Environment Canada's predictions. Because they were always wrong.

If it was Monday, and they said warm and sunny on Thursday, I'd plan for rain. The annoying thing was how they would keep revising their model until they got the 'prediction' right. On Tuesday, the Thursday prediction would have been changed to "A mix of sun and cloud". On Wednesday, the Thursday prediction would have been changed to "Cloudy with a 30% chance of rain showers". On Thursday, the prediction would be "WARNING: SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT". By then of course it isn't a prediction, since you're looking out the damn window.

So, if scientists can't accurately model weather 3 days from now, how can they accurately model weather 3 years from now? Simple answer: they can't. Model, revise, model, revise, model, fudge, model, what it comes down to is a big guess. Albeit educated. Will this coming Thursday be warmer than it is today? I don't know, and neither does Environment Canada. They guess, I pick the opposite, we're each correct 50% of the time.

Which brings me to my next beef. Global "warming". That was a mistake. You can't predict the weather, you know (or ought to know) that you can't predict the weather, and then you go and predict the weather will get warmer and expect people to believe you. Global "warming" is and absolute and thus is bad marketing. All it takes is one moronic talking head on FOX to say "Well I heard that up there in Fuktyuktuk the average temperature went down" and you have been proven wrong to the great unwashed masses. From the beginning, it should have been "Climate Change". Will the weather on Thursday be warmer than today? Maybe, maybe not - that's 50/50. Will the weather on Thursday be different than today? Yes - that's as close to 100% as weather prediction can get. You'll never hear "worldwide, weather and temperature was exactly the same as last year - Aha - Climate change is a lie!"

So, while I don't believe in global warming (I'm going to go opposite again and vote for an ice age), I do believe in climate change. I also believe climate change is affected by human beings. It would be naive to think otherwise. So please don't crucify me on a sustainably grown bamboo cross and pummel me with organic carrots.

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