Snow in Baghdad!
Incredibly, the new year already brought one surprise for Baghdad - snow! From CNN:
"I asked my mother, who is 80, whether she'd ever seen snow in Iraq before, and her answer was no," said Fawzi Karim
Out of my more than two years in Baghdad, I never saw any snow, although I always thought it should be possible. The winter months also happen to be the rainy season, and at night, the temperature does periodically dip low enough to freeze. But it just doesn't happen for some reason. I once asked an older Iraqi if he had ever seen snow and he said once in a great while they will see a little frost on the ground, and that's about it.
From the CNN blogs:
Some of our local staff thinks some snow may have fallen in 1969 but some reports are saying that it’s been closer to one hundred years since the city has seen its last snowfall.Here's what makes it even weirder: we haven't even seen any snow at all in Wiesbaden, Germany this year. None. I had some ice on my car windshield a couple times, but that's about it.
And how does this jibe with recent alarming reports of ice melting at the North Pole? Or record highs of ice at the South Pole?
To me, it's looking less and less like strict global warming is going on, and rather more like weather disruption. Weather in the world is really, really crazy right now.
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2 comments:
It seems as though global warming has been blamed for just about every conceivable blip in our weather patterns. Every tornado, hurricane, forest fire and earthquake seems to have been converted into advertisements for global warming enthusiasts who want to make sure you feel guilty for using that 2nd square of toilet paper.
Environmentalists often push the issue hardest during the summer months, hoping to press their case when it's hot outside - so their message is more likely to stick (pun intended). Winter has usually been a nice reprieve from the war drums of impending doom, as the message looses steam (pun intended again) when folks are chiseling ice off of their windshields.
Would environmentalists be brash enough - or desperate enough - to suggest that freezing temperatures and snowfall at one of the hottest places on earth is proof of global warming? Well they are now.
Now you can truly take comfort in knowing that every weather pattern or instance of nature (including freezing temperatures) is now considered iron clad proof that our world is about to explode into a fireball.
I'm of the opinion that caring for our environment is a responsibility that everyone can share a part in. But taking the issue to such an extreme level that even a historic snowfall in the desert can no longer be enjoyed, will only hurt the effort.
Blustering hysteria every time anything happens (even a snowfall) will do nothing for the cause but wear people out on the issue and diminish it's credibility to folks who might otherwise be receptive to the message.
I've stated before and continues to suggest that politicising global warming has bled the goodwill out of the effort and replaced it with political rancor. In times like these, it would be nice if the talking heads could put a sock in it and let the rest of us just enjoy the miracle of snow in the desert. It may be another 100 years before global warming allows us to enjoy it again.
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
http://weeklyvice.blogspot.com
I'm not entirely convinced on global warming one way or the other. I don't see it as a big hoax but the problem is the biggest evidence comes from the arctic only, where the ice is at the lowest point in a great many years.
But much of the world, including the south pole, is just the opposite situation. So, instead of "global" warming, I'm open to the idea that carbon dioxide could be causing regional warming instead, or that the changes resulting are more complicated than people originally thought.
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