After gloating taunts earlier in the month from Republican senators and cable-news anchors in light of February’s record amounts of snowfall, Al Gore responded this weekend in a New York Times op-ed.
Gore writes that while he of course “wishes … the climate crisis were an illusion,” the “danger we are courting has not been changed.” And he posits that the excessive snow this winter is actually just another sign of climate change:
“The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as fodder for ridicule by those who argue that global warming is a myth, yet scientists have long pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere — thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions, including the Northeastern United States,” he wrote. “Just as it’s important not to miss the forest for the trees, neither should we miss the climate for the snowstorm.”
Also helping Gore’s case: Even though it seems like we’ve been enduring some inhumane tundra conditions this winter, it was (frighteningly!) the second hottest January globally in the past 130 years.
We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change [NYT]
Don’t believe white lies, says Al Gore, record-breaking snow is due to global warming [NYDN]
