Saturday, April 14, 2018

The Gore Effect Hits Minnesota

I got excited when I heard that all across the country, activists would be “marching for science” today. Promoting, no doubt, information about X and Y chromosomes and the fact that–scientifically speaking–there are only two genders.

Just kidding. Actually, the March For Science “movement”–it gives off a strong odor of Astroturf–covers a broad range of left-wing talking points. But first among them is global warming. When the organizers of the Minnesota March For Science planned their event for April 14, featuring an alarmist weatherman as a speaker, they no doubt thought they were beyond the risk of the Al Gore Effect. They were wrong.

This could be the biggest April snowfall on record in the Twin Cities, and 2018 already ranks in the top 20 years for the latest date on which the temperature first reached 60 degrees. The record is held by 1874, when the thermometer didn’t hit 60 until April 29. I don’t think we will break that record, but 2018 will undoubtedly rank in the top 10 years for latest 60 degree date.

There is no reason even to try to avoid schadenfreude when the Al Gore Effect strikes. Mostly, it’s just fun, and the alarmists richly deserve it. But there is a serious point. Of course, individual weather events tell us nothing about global climate trends. But the alarmists try to connect every hot day and every violent storm to global warming, so turn about is fair play. More important, it was just a few years ago that the alarmists were telling us that before long, there would be no snow. Winter will be a thing of the past!

When that prediction turned out to be obviously false, the warmists changed their tune: now they tell us that global warming will produce more snow, and maybe colder temperatures, too. But of course they hedge their bets. Next time we have a winter with below-average snowfall, they will tell us (more plausibly) that global warming caused that, too.
I hope they arranged a "snow date."

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