Huzzah! Why yet after so long a time, do not fear, for life still beats in my breast. Before you, are two more juicy myths to devour. I was hoping to write a few articles on climate change and move on, but now I have been sucked into an extended escapade. What can I say? I only give you the best.
Myth #6: White Christmas
Snow, the epitome of winter, whose presence marks the death of nature before it shall be reborn like a phoenix in the spring. With snow comes igloos, sledding, and hot cocoa by the fire. Oh, what a beauty this frigid blanket can be.
In the year 2000, David Viner, a senior research scientist at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (Britain) predicted, “Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past” and “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.”
Another researcher, David Parker, of the UK’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, went as far as to predict that British children would only have a virtual experience of snow via films and the Internet.
Even the United Nation’s climate specialists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pitched in. While not as extreme of claims, we were to have much milder winters and less snowstorms due to global warming.
The Truth
What are we to make of this? To speak plainly these claims were not just off, but dead wrong. Let’s start with the United States. The decade of 2010 was the snowiest decade ever recorded for the East Coast. We saw major winter storms increase by more than 200%.
In 2014, the temperatures recorded had not been seen in decades. From Florida all the way to Maine, temperatures were 30-40°F below the normal. Even in the Midwest, temperatures ranged from -20°F to -30°F. Wind chills reached closer to -40°F to -50°F which can cause frostbite on exposed skin in just five minutes.
Let’s not forget our Golden State. In 2017, locations received over 800 inches, a record breaking snow that has not been seen since 1995. In June eight feet of snow still remained allowing for ski resorts like Mammoth Mountain to stay open for 270 days.
Blizzards across the whole US have had a nearly four-fold increase since the 1960s.
How can there be global warming when there is increasing snow! Did any of the scientists rescind their claims and admit error. Of course not. Don’t you know global warming is causing colder winters?
Different Story, Same Conclusion
When all the data proved the opposite, the claims quickly switched from less snow to more snow, allowing the conclusion of global warming to remain the same.
The most common argument stated this phenomenon was caused by a polar vortex, an extremely cold and dense whirlwind of air. This whirlwind can wobble “like a drunk man on his fourth martini” (their words not mine). The cold air sprang forth due to an atmospheric warming event.
However, the polar vortex has been around far before industrialization with no evidence that the jet stream which pulls this cold air has seen any significant change over the past 140 years. What is especially critical to notice is that the polar vortex was also used as an argument for global cooling.
Language Shift
I hope you are starting to see why knowing the history is so important. What we are being preached is not science, but unrelenting climate religion that cannot err. Starting in 2007, we saw a shift in language from global warming to the more modern word climate change (specifically fully man-made climate change).
Global warming means something falsifiable: the climate establishment may hide and manipulate the evidence, but if the warming pauses, or—worse—if temperatures actually drop, that messes up the global warming narrative. However, any and all weather can be attributed to climate change as it predicts any possible outcome. Whether our surroundings get hotter, colder, or stay the same it is all the cause of…drum roll please… climate change! Is the climate changing? Yes. Is man causing drastic, permanent harm through carbon emissions? No. Just take a look at these contradictory studies that all prove man-made climate change.
Some quick notes on the rest of the globe:
In 2015 Mexico was hit with the largest snowstorm in over a half-century.
In 2016 90% of China was engulfed with a 30-year low cold.
In 2022, Argentina was covered with a brutal freeze that had not been seen since 1976.
Myth #7 Chop Chop
You have probably heard about the poor Amazon rainforests being deforested, and if no action is taken, soon the entire jungle shall disappear. Is this statement as accurate as it claims?
In 2009, cries were heard that forest levels have reached the lowest since recording. Yet that same year, for every one acre felled, 50 acres of new forests grew on land that had previously been farmed, logged, or destroyed by natural disasters. Not only in the Amazon, but across the globe, people are abandoning their homes for cities in search of a better life. So much regrowth has occurred that there were far more trees in 2009 than 30 years before.
About 90% of the Amazon rainforest is still intact today. Only 12.5% of the rainforest has been deforested, and one-half of that is in the process of regeneration. This means almost 95% of the rainforest is left to nature. A far cry from collapse.
Drought & Death
We hear that the trees will die of drought due to rising levels of carbon dioxide. However, the Amazon in its extreme old age is having accelerated growth rates due to the key role of CO₂ in photosynthesis and respiration. Every decade, the tree trunks have grown 3.3% thicker. That evil pollutant is making the trees fat! 😡
The biomass has been steadily increasing since data collection in 1980. The only exception is a tiny downturn during the Amazonian drought of 2005, one of the most intense droughts of the past 100 years! Still think drought will kill the trees?
Since about 1980, large Amazon trees (4 in diameter or bigger) have added a lot of biomass over time, and researchers measured this increase repeatedly across many forest plots.
More on this supposed drought. In reality, we see no consistent trend in annual Amazon-wide rainfall over the 21st century. The scientists’ own models push for merely a tendency of a less dry rain season in the east while predicting more rain in the west during the wet season. The Amazon root systems allow for deep soil water to rise to surface soil through the process of hydraulic lift enabling the whole ecosystem to maintain high transpiration and photosynthesis rates during any time.
Lungs of the World
Something also has to be said about the Amazon fires and their supposed impact on the lungs of the world. Fires in the Amazon are a rare occurrence. Often the fires portrayed by the media are in the adjacent deforested land being set on fire by subsistence farmers for charcoal or to clear the territory for planting. The fires are farms, not forests.
The Amazon supposedly gives off 20% of the world’s oxygen. However once again, this number is one that has been pulled out of thin air. Trees can only exhale a comparable amount of oxygen as the carbon dioxide they take in. Considering CO₂ is 0.04% of the atmosphere and oxygen is 21%, how do they possibly produce that much? Also, through the process of cellular respiration, they take in oxygen to break down sugars into energy. In the end, this leads to a net zero oxygen effect on the world.
Plus, we are far from a war with the trees on this Earth. In the past three decades, 2.24 million square kilometers have been added to the world’s already existing tree-covered land. This is the size of Texas and Alaska combined
Much of this growth comes from the great, evil polluter: China. China’s forest coverage has increased from 8.6% in 1949 to 21% in 2017. This change comes down to China’s historic tree-planting program which shows no sign of stopping as they aim for 26% by 2035.
The Natives
The environmental impacts are not the only ones which should be considered. Let’s hear what the native residents of the Amazon think about the cameras shoved in their face, and their supposed evil behavior.
“We have no other alternative here of living, we have to live off the jungle. What are we going to do? Are we going to rob people or become thieves? We have no other alternative.”
“That is our only source where we can get something to make money with. If people stop us, we’ll, we’ll die eventually.”
After going through all these climate myths, you might start wondering why all of this is being promoted. Don’t worry, you’ll get answers soon enough.
Roll Them Up
This section is just a quick piece for the ladies. I was in a conversation a bit ago, and for some reason pajama bottoms came up, so I was compelled to write about it. Apparently, if the pajamas are too long, what the cool girls do is roll them up. This is at the waist of course and not at the ankles. Maybe this is common knowledge, and I’m just behind the times, but hey if you didn’t know before, you know now. See, what would you do without me ladies? 😘
Other Information
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but there is something certainly wrong with the pedestrian traffic lights in Bethlehem. I’m walking around, and half the time they are not even working, and the other half is like they are in slow motion.
Cited Sources
Morano, Marc. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change. Regnery Publishing, 2018.
