So Why Is It So Cold, Wet, Drought-Ridden and Storm Damaged Out There

 Toxic Alaskan runoff as ice melts  

                                    Montana’s Glacier National Park

So Why Is It So Cold, Wet, Drought-Ridden and Storm Damaged Out There?

If Climate Change is About Global Warming, Please Explain

With so many conflicts around the world centered on access to oil and gas, including releasing Russian and Venezuelan reserves into an already glutted marketplace, why do so many believe that continuing to base major economies on fossil fuels is sustainable? Short-term visions and greedy nationalist denials of climate change produce an easy button from those countries where fossil reserves are massive and still define their economies. The United States has switched from embracing alternative energy to lying to return to an oil-based growth paradigm. The EPA seems to have become the Environmental Petroleum Accelerator. Even looking at changes in the real EPA’s website, you can watch as purposeful distortion has replaced scientific logic.

Writing for the December 11th FastCompany.com, Kristin Toussaint, gives us a reminder of how American denial works: “Human activity is driving climate change; that’s a fact that more than 99.9% of scientific papers agree on… But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly removed that information from a web page explaining climate change’s causes… It’s yet another move by the Trump administration that downplays climate science. Trump has previously called climate change a ‘hoax’ repealed numerous climate laws, and has bolstered the use of fossil fuels, the burning of which are the main cause of rising heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.

“An EPA page titled ‘Causes of Climate Change’ once began by directly noting that ‘since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which has changed the earth’s climate.’… Now, that page begins by stating, ‘Natural processes are always influencing the earth’s climate and can explain climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s.’…

“Daniel Swain, a climate and weather scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, noticed the change earlier this week [mid-December]. It began when a weather communications colleague reached out to him about the EPA’s ‘Indicators of Climate Change’ section being offline… That section wasn’t just one web page, but an entire subdomain that included data, maps, and detailed stories on certain climate change indicators like shrinking glaciers and rising sea levels. It was often used by experts, including Swain himself, to grab ready-made info graphics and other resources.” We’re making cars that still rely mostly on diesel or gasoline power, which is not helping Detroit. China, which accounts for almost three-quarters of alternative energy investment and manufacturing, also exports about a third of all vehicles internationally. And when the hard numbers surface, the resultant metrics suggest not only the big temperature vectors but a strong interplay among all of the changes producing dire results.

“The Arctic last season was the hottest it has been in the past 125 years. The extent of sea ice during its usual maximum in March was the lowest in 47 years of satellite recordkeeping. The North American tundra was more green with plant life than ever recorded… ‘The Arctic continues to warm faster than the global average with the 10 years that comprise the last decade marking the 10 warmest years on record,’ said Steve Thur, NOAA’s acting chief scientist and its assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research…

As a result of this warming, ‘melting permafrost is altering ecosystems, turning over 200 watersheds in Arctic Alaska orange as iron and other elements are released into its rivers,’ Thur said. Researchers have observed higher acidity and a greater concentration of toxic metals in these rusting streams. [See above photo of toxic runoff in Alaska.]” Not to mention that melting Tundra releases millennia of trapped methane (24 times heavier than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse eminent) into the atmosphere.

We have accelerated heat increases to the point that we lose about 4,000 glaciers a year, which impacts all aspects of climate change. Ice reflects heat and light; the darker ocean and land beneath absorb these when the ice melts. Increased Arctic temperatures expand, pushing colder air south (the Polar Vortex). But there are results where warmer temperatures and slower moving currents combine to create those atmospheric rivers, engorged on warmer water, creep slowly, dumping massive rainfall where it is not needed. The Pacific Northwest, particularly Washington State, has been repeatedly flooded, rivers rising, land saturated with more rain expected.

Summarizing results from weather blogger, Max Velocity, Ben Foster (December 16th) tells us that “heat builds further into the Pacific Northwest—at the same time rain and snow are falling – adding to the flood concerns because warmer air can boost snowmelt and increase runoff… He also said a warm pocket of air pushes into the Midwest and Ohio Valley, with some areas as much as 25 degrees above average, including Missouri. Max Velocity specifically warned that snow that fell in Illinois and Indiana would likely melt [quickly]. He noted the warm-up may only last about 36 hours, but even a short-lived thaw can be enough to create new problems – slushy roads, refreezing later, and added water feeding already swollen creeks.”

Looking at the mess of shifting temperatures and vacillating currents in mid-December, Max Velocity noted another shot of arctic air arrived, less intense as the recent blast, but still it brought colder air back into the upper Midwest and Great Lakes… That’s classic winter whiplash: melt, then refreeze, then blow snow around again. It’s not just annoying. It’s when people get caught off guard exacerbating the problem from ice today and tomorrow the wind. Unfortunately, these patterns are wreaking major and permanent changes such that our emergency systems, infrastructure basics and building construction simply are not prepared for such dynamic shifts.

I’m Peter Dekom, and Mother Nature, armed with the laws of physics, is not susceptible to the demands of ignorant leaders, greedy corporations and even the whims and wishes of everyone on Earth…