Yes, it is indeed March, and the temperature outside is still dipping into the 30s. Does this simple fact and the U.S.’s abnormally cold winter indicate that global warming is a myth? Absolutely, positively and resoundingly, no – quite the opposite, in fact.
The latest Sports Illustrated magazine featured a small box on the bottom of a page titled “Sign of the Apocalypse.” The text inside the box read, “Dallas, a supposed warm-weather site for the NBA All-Star Game, was hit by a record 12 and a 1/2-inch snowfall; Vancouver, host city for the Olympic Winter Games, needed to make snow.”
What a shame that a well-reputed publication should further this false and misleading line of thinking, even with a satirical bend.
The unpredictability of the weather is concrete evidence that global warming is a very real issue.
Jonathan Rose, chairman of the board of trustees at the Garrison Institute, president of Jonathan Rose Companies and board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote for the New York Times supporting the viable idea of global warming and how we should react to the reality of it.
“Extreme storms, droughts, intense rains, unusual amounts of snow or lack of snow are all signs of global warming,” Rose wrote.
While many think that a foot of snow in Texas in February is indicative of the opposite of global warming, it actually points directly to its presence and progression.
Conservative self-promoting spokesman Rush Limbaugh has much to comment about what he terms the “global warming hoax.”
“Record snows and cold are being reported from all over the northern hemisphere this winter,” Limbaugh wrote on his Web site.
He continues, claiming that the “biased media” give more air time to certain issues and that certain search engines support this supposed bias.
“If you search Google News for articles in the last month containing the phrase ‘global warming,’ you get 29,000 hits. If you do the same for ‘global cooling,’ you’ll get 100 hits,” wrote the right-wing radio host.
Thank you, Limbaugh, for inadvertently providing evidence in direct support of your opposition. The hits a global warming search would produce are rather self-explanatory – maybe because its occurrence is an actuality?
The most depressing reality about global warming is the fact that so many still blatantly deny its existence. While such ignorance in itself deserves condemnation, those who continue to deny it as a pressing and ever-present issue do nothing to counteract or deal accordingly with its effects. While some continue to buy regular light bulbs, let the water run while brushing their teeth and not bother to recycle, the earth their children and grandchildren will inherit slowly degrades even more than it already has.
Andrea Bolt is a junior news-editorial journalism major from The Woodlands.