My 2 cents about climate change

I agree and disagree with Scott’s rant about global climate change. The current weird weather is not a direct result of global warming. Instead it is most directly due to El Niño in the pacific and pressure changes over Iceland called the North Atlantic Oscillation. These two natural occurrences have combined to drive the jet stream a little further north for this time of year. This has allowed storms to come and sit over the southern part of the US, explaining all the crazy snow this winter in Colorado and what not. It has also resulted in a milder/warmer winter for the northeast US and northern Europe. However, where I disagree with Scott is that one should take into account the fact that all of this is layered on top of the increase in the average global temperature. (So far the trend is +0.2 degrees every decade) I think that is why people initially started calling it global warming. The average global temperature is increasing. I agree that certain parts of the world will see drastic changes in climate, not all of which will be tropical. However, it is the overall rise in global temperature that is melting glaciers, and threatening to screw with ocean currents leading to an ice age in Europe and all that. The thing that bothers me about the phrase global climate change is that it is used by the Bush administration as a spin tactic to down play the issue. I understand Scott’s logic about the phrase, I just don’t know if the rest of the population sees it that way as well.

My sources for the climate info:

Robert Henson, meteorologist and science writer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, author of "The Rough Guide to Weather"
Gavin Schmidt, climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies