The weatherchick on the local news perkily announced that "It hasn't been this cold since last February!"
Let's unpack that: It's winter! It's cold! It's so cold that it hasn't been this cold since last winter! It's way colder than it was in spring, summer, or fall!
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
So...She going into politics?
ReplyDeleteRooney
Rooney beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteIt's that Global Warming thinggy.
ReplyDeleteStarting around late October, we can count on weather weenies here in OK to make semi-breathless reports of 'Heavy snow in the Colorado Rockies!' or 'Montana' or wherever.
ReplyDeleteLike it's unusual to have snow in high mountain in October.
And a chill, hard wind blowing near DC...
ReplyDeleteThey're on tv getting all worked up about the weather because it's safer for them.
ReplyDeleteIf they were actually out in weather, any weather, they might have a life experience and learn from it.
And that's a baaaaaaaaaaaaad thing don't you know...
BGM
Waiting for the days are shorter and the nights are longer. Man made global warming must be in play.
ReplyDeleteGerry
In Florida, every time the wind picked up TV news directors would send the brain-dead blow-dries out to stand outdoors and breathlessly report on the hurricane/tropical storm/thunderstorm. It was doomed when they gave the smiling weather-guessers expensive sets and radar.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst things that happened to TV in general and what people think is TV "news" was the invention of the handicam and the satellite truck. "News" is way too cheap to produce and way too lucrative in ad revenue for it to be worth anything at all.
Yes, Gerry, it amuses me how EVERY weather event is a product of anthropogenic climate change.
ReplyDeleteEven the kooks that see Jesus or Mary in toast and Cheetos® aren't as blindly faithful.
The sad part is that "THIS IS NEWS!" to many of her audience. If it isn't something they saw today on TMZ or the View, heard about at Starbucks, or were texted by their buddies, it does not exist. Last month? Last Year? What they remember is "That Bitch Amanda" was hitting on Brandon, their fave on the X-factor or survivor was eliminated, and that they learned so much about climate change one day from that cute guy at the gymn. He was so HAWT and sooo smart. They are oblivious to anything happening outside their own sheltered life, including the actual weather.
ReplyDeleteThis is clear proof of Global Warming.
ReplyDeleteThe local TV stations depend on the weather forecaster to draw in the viewers. Here's an interesting article on the subject: http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/04/21/how-valid-are-tv-weather-forecasts/
ReplyDeleteNote that they admit that style and presentation is more important than accuracy. Also, check out the article's observations on predictions of precipitation: the forecasters would be more accurate if they simply always predicted NO rainfall.
Is it obvious, or oblivious???
ReplyDeleteThe climate *IS* changing.
ReplyDeleteThe issues are:
1: did we cause it?
2: Can we fix/stop/slow it?
I think the answers are somewhat mixed. The answer to 1 will always, always be YES. The climate is always changing, and has been. Human existence on this rock, and human history on this rock is a fraction of geologic time.
Number 2 is a little more sketchy. There have been spikes of gas in the atmosphere and temperature changes. I won't claim that those are all human. I won't claim our accuracy is stellar. But we can actually judge average temps from fossils now. Damn, science.
The question is if we caused it. I think, looking at numbers from several sources, that we had some part, but not all. I don't think it's possible to stop it. Maybe, if we went back to hunter/gatherer times. Certainly not while retaining our dominance,
Nor do I think it will kill us. We will adapt. Even fast geologic time is slow compared to the average human and wildlife lifespan.
Dismiss the panic. Don't dismiss the theory.
Another of my pet "Make up your damn mind!": on the one hand we're accidentally causing horrors galore and have to stop messing up the weather,
ReplyDeletefollowed by
"We have to do something to modify the weather!"
? The people who're scared to death that we don't know what we're doing are suddenly so trusting that they think we can modify the climate with no possible downside?
My fave: a few years ago, the perpetually-perky-yet-concerned were all wrapped up about snow in Buffalo. In November.
ReplyDeleteThe mayor, IIRC, looked at them like they had lobsters crawling out of their ears.