The Nature of Things

Groundhog Day in our area dawned gray and cloudy. No groundhog saw his shadow here. I guess that means our "winter" is just about over. The winter that never was. In early February, our thermometers have yet to record any freezing temperatures. Some areas of the yard have experienced very light frost, but for the most part, my garden has been frost-free. This has led to a lot of confusion among my plants. For example, I have this old camellia named 'Mabel Bryan' that has lived in my yard for seven years. It has always bloomed in late March or early April, but for the last few weeks, I've been watching these fat buds grow. And this week, the buds opened up, assuming, I think, that it was several weeks later into the season than the calendar shows. It's always a treat to see these bright blooms, but it is a little unsettling to have them so early. Many other plants in the yard have fat buds already when they would normally still be dormant, and, of course, some ...

Some parts of the country continue to be hit by some pretty freaky cold winter weather. How can this be happening if global warming is for real and not a hoax as the right-wing deniers claim? Well, very easily actually. Here's a short film that was put together with input from several meteorologists that explains it all rather succinctly.

All across North America, the adjective that has most often been used to describe the winter we are currently experiencing is "mild." January and February which often bring the harshest winter weather with plenty of snow and ice and below-freezing temperatures have been unusually warm this year. Although there have been isolated snow storms and some periods of cold weather, they have been few and far between and of short duration. Scientists considering the implications of these weeks of relative warmth in what is usually the coldest part of winter speculate that when all the data is collected, this winter may be close to an all-time record breaker . While a mild winter in North America is still considered a rare event, it is likely that such winters will be much less rare in the future. And that has serious consequences for plants and animals whose lives are bound to the cycle of seasons. Plants are flowering earlier than ever and, while it is a boost to the spirits to see ...

As much of the country prepares for one of the worst winter storms in decades , one is led to wonder once again just what the heck is going on in the world of weather. For example, I read a story in The New York Times recently that stated that while parts of the southern United States have had record snowfalls and cold this winter, 2,000 miles to the north in northeastern Canada and Greenland, it has been freakishly warm, both this winter and last. Their temperatures in December ran as much as 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. This has had an economic impact because bays and lakes have been slow to freeze and so ice fishing, hunting and trade routes have been disrupted. What's going on here? Is this a result of global warming? Scientists warn that it is almost impossible to link a particular weather event to the larger issue of global warming, but it is very difficult for the layperson to believe that it is not somehow related. Theories about the effects of global war...

So now our elected representatives in Washington think that it might not be possible to pass a bill addressing global climate change and its adverse affects on the future of humankind (and, incidentally, the world) because it is SNOWING IN WASHINGTON??? They think it would be TOO HARD to convince people to vote for it because it is cold on the East Coast in February!!! AHHHRRRGGGH!!!!!!!!!!!! Are these people f... er...uh...you know, what Rahm said? Apparently they are. And that is being overly kind. Can they really be so uninformed that they do not understand that weather is not climate and that because it is cold in the northern hemisphere in winter does not mean that the earth is not heating up? Because it is, you know. The year 2009 was the second warmest year since records have been kept, beginning in the 1800s. It was the end of the warmest decade ever recorded. The hottest year on record also occurred in that decade - 2005. They could read all about this on the NASA website - if...