Sunday, December 28, 2008

nearly 70 degrees at year's end
(with mini-rant)

While half the country has received a more-than-ample snow dump, northern Virginia remains untouched by the whiteness. It's 68 degrees right now (20 Celsius, for you more metrically-minded folks), which is nuts for December 28. Somewhere out there, a champion of man-made global warming is ignoring the freeze in half the country to crow about how climate change has heated my hometown up well above what is normal for this time of year.

That's too bad: I think what's beginning to emerge from the climate discussion (to the extent that there is a discussion) is that there are no clear, easy answers. It's as simplistic to assume that humanity is the sole cause of any warming trend as it is to claim that humanity has nothing to do with any changes. It's also simplistic to assume that a warming trend in some areas means a warming trend in all areas, a point made by scientist demigod Freeman Dyson (thanks, Malcolm). Given our inability to predict weather even beyond a 36-hour forecast, it seems rather hubristic to think we already know everything we need to know about what causes lead to what long-term effects in specific weather and general climate.


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2 comments:

ClearlyEnlight, said...

Hey Kevin your funny, "more metric minded" the whole world uses the metric system except for America. Even Canada use Celsius.

Kevin Kim said...

Indeed, it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.


Kevin