by Climate Discussion Nexus
November 27, 2024
from ClimateDiscussionNexus Website








A storm is just a storm,

unless...

So there was some bad weather recently, which is normally treated as a terrifying and novel man-made-climate-change-driven affliction...

But not this time because in Britain,

"dozens of schools closed and road and train travel ground to a halt in many parts of the U.K. on Tuesday as a cold snap brought snow, ice and sleet across the country."

Not your grandfather's global heating, is it?

Though of course we're back to that "cold snap" business and the story didn't contain a single instance of the word "climate".

In New Delhi they had a worse problem:

"Authorities in India's capital shut schools, halted construction and banned non-essential trucks from entering the city on Monday after air pollution shot up to its worst level this season."

Anyone want to blame that one on climate? They didn't dare...

Then a "bomb cyclone" hit the west coast of North America, what used to be called a "winter storm" until those got dull, and, to its credit the Weather Network didn't blame climate despite in other ways getting fairly excited.

But let it get hot and...

The New York Times story also didn't mention 'climate'.

And if you're wondering why we're covering it anyway, the first reason is that,

if they had we'd have chastised them.

 

So when they don't live up to a negative stereotype it's only fair to credit them.

 

Even if it's at least partly because the long-awaited end of winter won't be coming this year.

But the second reason is that,

it was a winter storm and while there's something grudging to be said for dropping the cooling-proves-warming argument, it's still a problem that anything cold becomes just weather but anything hot is climate aaaaah... we're all going to die...!!!

Mind you, the CBC managed to squeeze climate change in, with the help of an alarmist mayor. You knew someone would, and they were a good candidate.

And Global News also recited that:

"Experts are warning that extreme weather events are likely to get more frequent as the climate continues to change and warm..."

The BBC also tried to take that line.

But let us move on to more constructive things...

Specifically, the second reason we mention it is that while alarmists insist that bad weather is a recent development caused by "humans", the truth is that,

weather has always been problematic, often ferocious.

Even today it creates all kinds of problems that are not caused by CO², natural or artificial...

And governments obsessed with the notion that plant food is poison are wasting a lot of time and money on an environmental non-problem while ignoring or even exacerbating real ones from the dangers of cold weather to those of pollution to those of habitat loss.

For instance the British storm was pretty serious:

"Britain's weather forecasters, the Met Office, issued snow and ice warnings and said an Arctic maritime air mass was spreading from the northern U.K. southwards.

 

Power cuts may occur and rural areas could be cut off due to the severe weather, it said.

 

Around 200 schools across the U.K. closed their gates, while thousands of commuters faced disruption to their journeys as dozens of train services were cancelled or delayed by snow on the tracks."

Especially with the Labour government cutting winter fuel subsidies to funnel cash into wind farms and solar panels that will exploit the UK's famously balmy weather...

Government climate obsessions are not harmless:

they waste resources and leave people exposed to misery and even death...

Indeed:

"The UK Health Security Agency issued its first cold weather health alert of the season, saying conditions could be dangerous for elderly and other vulnerable people."

And here we thought you said heat was the big threat...

Now arguably the Indian problem was,

(a) not weather

(b) definitely man-made...

It was certainly (c) bad.

But curiously (d) it had a cold angle too:

"In several areas of the city, pollution levels were more than 50 times higher than the World Health Organization's recommended safe limit.

 

Forecasts say the poor air quality will continue into the week.

 

Air pollution in northern India rises every year, particularly in winter, as farmers burn crop residue in agricultural areas. The burning coincides with colder temperatures, which trap the smoke in the air.

 

The smoke is then blown into cities, where auto emissions add to the pollution."

The main point here isn't the cold.

It's the poverty...!

This kind of smog is created by poor farmers doing things a poor government can't deal with effectively.

And another thing:

"Emissions from industries and the burning of coal to produce electricity are also linked to the pollution, which has been steadily ticking up in recent weeks."

It is odd that the Canadian government is so resistant to exporting Liquified Natural Gas that could help replace coal.

But it's also clear that the Indian government is so desperate to increase GDP, given the massive poverty that still persists there (though the proportion of households without electricity is now down under three percent), that they cannot afford to be fussy about how they generate power, just as really,

poor people cannot afford to be fussy about what they burn for fuel or to clear their fields.

And so all these fancy luxury-belief policies that would impair growth will in fact continue to make people sick and even kill them rather than leaving them better off...