What global warming & Groundhog Day sciences mean for winter
February 3, 2010 by Tom GuayPosted in: Special Report, Wind Power, solar power
What happens when you mix myth and the empirical observations of Groundhog Day and global warming?
Say goodbye to hopes of an early springtime. It’s time to invest in fossil fuels.
Mixing the two sciences leads to a surprising conclusion: Wind and solar power have a limited future in a warmer world.
So it might be prudent to invest in coal and petroleum for those who have to survive winter weather, which will routinely last six weeks past Feb. 2. The winter of 2010 will be extended because the great prognosticator of winter, Punxsutawney Phil, indeed saw his shadow yesterday as he was carried outside his hut in Pennsylvania.
The tradition of relying on a groundhog to predict the weather evolved from the Dark Ages in Europe when sunny skies on Candlemas Day (Feb. 2 under the old style calendars) meant an extended winter. The Germans added the hedgehog to the prediction technique. This idea emerged in America in 1887 with the twist that a sunny sky meant Punxsutawney Phil could see his shadow, therefore winter would last longer.
Why is this good for coal and fossil-fuel suppliers?
For a couple of reasons, Phil will be increasingly predicting longer winters.
The thinking: As global warming increases in intensity, a warmer Earth will decrease wind activity, which cools land and sea. Warmer seas would bring on more cloud cover, which would hang around for longer periods, so there would also be less sunlight to power up your cell phone.
Conclusion, at least from blogger Hank Green: Global warming will make it hard to generate green power from solar and wind technologies.
One plus from all the extra cloud cover: Fewer visible full moons, so fewer appearances of the Wolfman and other creatures born of the full strength of moonlight.
(Note: Not to rain on groundhog scientist too much, but officially, the Spring Equinox is March 20, so technically, Phil’s always wrong about a late spring arrival. Phil’s prediction of six more weeks of winter brings us to March 16. That means spring always comes early — by four days — according to Phil’s predictions about winter.)
GreenandMore.com
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February 4th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Sounds like a mixing of two myths.
February 4th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Amen, Geoff. Amen.
All roads lead to Global Warming. Maybe Hank would be interested in my Reindeer Power IPO…………
February 4th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
I believe that most of our more famous prognosticator’s of global warming are looking for good lawyers right about now. I know there are a few of them that are so invested in their global warming predictions that it is tough to let go of, but there are articles published almost daily from promenant scientific societies and scientist’s that are calling for these global warming prognosticator’s heads due to their faulty research. The most recent fraud discovered was the UN IPCC panel member that stated the Hymalaya’s glaciers are melting. Upon investigation, the prediction was based on anedotal evidence presented by a hiker publishing an article in a hikers magazine and college kids thesis paper. When asked about the sources for this prediction, the UN IPCC panel member stated that he can’t be held accountable for his research. I assume he also must mean he shouldn’t be held accountable for the intended consequences that followed when he publised that report. This is just one of many examples coming out daily on global warming.
February 5th, 2010 at 8:48 am
I guess we need to restate global warming.
Global warming is a historical FACT. We have ice ages and warmer periods, also FACT (read your history/science books if you don’t believe).
What we spend our money on is trying to prove man’s impact on global warming. If we spent the same amount of money on cleaning up our environment rather on whether or not global warming is real, we’d have a much cleaner and healthier environment. 100 years ago you could safely take a drink from most streams and be fine, I’d challange anyone to that in the lower 48 today.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not a far left environmentalist, but I do see the need to clean up our act when it comes to the environment we live in and are stewards of.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Pollution is a problem about which we can do something. Global warming is a hoax by those who stand to gain monetarily from governments and individuals too stupid to question the faulty science behind the hoax. Luckily, the bright honest scientists have prevailed and we can only hope the global warming leaders go to jail.