Flight Delays and Blizzards

Okay, I'm a bit of a hypocrite writing this tortuous blog when I am sitting in sunny and warm Los Angeles, where it reached up into the 70s today. In fact, the AC in the office building is getting on my nerves, but I thought it might be advisable to curry favor with all my frozen friends whose fur-lined boots and special winter tires are sliding around out there, to all those folks who've been recently stranded in airports, busses and even planes on a runway! I feel for all of you, and when you think you've got it bad, remember the unemployment and budget deficits that make California much tougher than it looks.

So much for global warming, huh? Kind of puts all those experts to shame, doesn't it? Not exactly. You see, it's about global warming and not the precise weather pattern you might be experiencing at the moment. NOAA tells us that globally, seven of the warmest years in recorded history have occurred since 2000. 2010 tied 2005 as the warmest year we know about. Arctic sea ice is at the third lowest recorded levels (behind 2007/8).

Up in Canada, eh, folks who have been braced for "Canadian ice" are complaining that it's just too damned warm up there to count as winter. And how about that New Year's outdoor ice hockey game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals that had to be pushed into the evening because it was raining in Pittsburgh?! The January 13^th Los Angeles Times provides more "horribles" directly linked to higher temperatures: "Raging floodwaters have swamped thousands of homes and businesses in Queensland [Australia], leaving at least 25 people dead and dozens more missing since late November. Rail lines and highways have been washed away in what is shaping up to become Australia's costliest natural disaster.

"The flooding follows a spate of severe natural disasters in the past year. While the most deadly was Haiti's earthquake, extreme weather also killed thousands of people across the globe, including a scorching heat wave that choked Russia in the summer and devastating floods that engulfed more than 60,000 square miles (150,000 square kilometers) in Pakistan." Brazil's recent mudslides have killed over 400. Typhoons and hurricanes have been and are expected to be more intense, and new droughts are occurring in parts of the world with flooding in others… shifting entire ecosystems to new regions of the earth. I've blogged about changing agricultural yields due to warming temperatures and the insects who are now moving to infest entirely new parts of the planet as their habitat changes. For those who wonder when… Try now.

Despite the record cold-spells in the US, we too have warmed up: "In the U.S., it was the 23rd warmest year on record and the 14th year in a row with an annual temperature above the long-term average, according to NOAA's preliminary analysis." LA Times. We see the obvious weather changes, but if the ocean currents alter because of these temperature shifts, we might see a substantially redefined planet long before mankind is remotely prepared for the consequences.

So when you go shopping for that hot new truck, superb sporty SUV or superfast – wow look at her go – car, please look at the mileage and whether or not there has been any serious attempt to add hybrid or other energy-efficient technology. If we demand more efficient vehicles, believe me, the car manufacturers will cater to that whim… and you might have noticed another reason to foster efficiency… gas prices are rising faster than global temperatures.

I'm Peter Dekom, and there are some really "cool" cars and trucks out there that don't gobble up that lovely petroleum distillate quite so fast.