Just a quick reminder of what they said about cold winters . . .

Hi everyone,

Been so busy recently I’ve had no chance to be blogging, but in light of the recent propaganda blitz claiming that cold, snowy winters are all part of global warming, i had to take a few minutes to round up some quotes from the archives. Just to remind us all of what they were saying only a few years ago. As RealScience and others have quoted a few gems (“Snow is now a thing of the past”) I’ll confine myself to a few I haven’t seen widely reported.

First off, let’s refresh our memory on what Uber-Greenie Mark Lynas told us in 2004:

. . . snow has become so rare that when it does fall – often just for a few hours – everything grinds to a halt. In early 2003 a ‘mighty’ five-centimetre snowfall in southeast England caused such severe traffic jams that many motorists had to stay in their cars overnight. Today’s kids are missing out . . .

Many of these changes are already underway, but have been accelerating over the last two decades. Termites have already moved into southern England. Garden centres are beginning to stock exotic sub-tropical species, which only a few years ago would have been killed off by winter.

Mark Lynas, High Tide: The Truth About Our Climate Crisis

Then let us remind ourselves of what George Monbiot had to say about winters and climate change back in 2005:

Winter is no longer the great grey longing of my childhood. The freezes this country suffered in 1982 and 1963 are – unless the Gulf Stream stops – unlikely to recur. Our summers will be long and warm. Across most of the upper northern hemisphere, climate change, so far, has been kind to us.

Monbiot.com Mocking Our Dreams.

Mocking your dreams, George? No, no. Just your ridiculous habit of claiming something as settled scientific fact one year and then completely recanting a few years later when his soothsaying falls flat (remember the end of meat in 2012?).

And of course, there’s The Independent‘s fatuous warning over lack of snow in winter and what it portends. NO! Not that one, I’ve already said I would omit repeating that here. I’m referring their “leading article” from December 2006. This somber editorial admonished us that the lack of snow was evidence of a “dangerous seasonal disorder” –

The countryside is looking rather peculiar this winter. It seems we have a number of unexpected guests for Christmas. Dragonflies, bumblebees and red admiral butterflies, which would normally be killed off by the frost, can still be seen in some parts of the country . . .

Some might be tempted to welcome this late blossoming of the natural world as a delightful diversion from the bleakness of this time of year. But these fluctuations should be cause for concern because it is overwhelmingly likely that they are a consequence of global warming

. . . all this is also evidence that global warming is occurring at a faster rate than many imagined. And it will not only be the natural world adversely effected by climate change.

The Independent Leading Article: A Dangerous Seasonal Disorder.

Finally, courtesy of the awesome long memory and extensive archive of blogger Alexjc38, we have the strictly impartial and scientific BBC and their “One Planet” program from early 2007. In a “One Planet Special” entitled with ominous finality “It Seems the Winters of Our Youth are Unlikely to Return” presenter Richard Hollingham thinks backs to the snowy winters of his youth and asks whether the run of mild winters was caused by global warming. He also speaks to climate scientists to get their views. Their conclusion? In the words of the BBC, they all give “predictions of warmer winters, for UK & [the] Northern Hemisphere”.

He speaks to people in Russia, China, and the UK who all reminisce about snowy winters in their youth and wring their hands over the present snow-less and mild winters (do you think they’re still doing that?). Finally, he turns to Brenda Ekwurzel who introduces herself as “the climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists”. Wow. “The” Climate Scientist, huh? Okay, so Hollingham puts the question to her:

Richard Hollingham: Now those of us who grew up with very cold winters, who tell our children that winter’s not what it used to be, we’re right, aren’t we?

Brenda Ekwurzel: Yes, absolutely. It has changed.

BBC One Planet Special. Radio Eco-Shock, Warmer Winters – Predictions of Warmer Winters for UK and Northern Hemisphere.

Summing up, Hollingham reviews the evidence of the people he’s interviewed, and the testimony of the climate scientists he spoke to and gives his opinion as presenter of the BBC’s One Planet on the outlook for winter under global warming:

Sitting here at the BBC, leafing through my old photos, I can’t help feeling nostalgic for proper winters. This year we had just one day of snow in southern Britain. Mind you, it still brought the roads, railways and airports to a standstill, and shut the schools. But as most people in London, Moscow, Washington, Beijing or Oslo will testify, a cold, crisp winter’s day with snow on the ground is infinitely preferable to the mild, damp miserable winters many of us are having to get used to. And it seems the winters of our youth are unlikely to return.

So, I look forward to the BBC doing a follow-up One Planet special to find out why the “predictions of warmer winters” turned out to be completely and utterly wrong.

Because we’ve all forgotten what they said only a few years ago, right?

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UPDATE:

Thanks to commentator, Slimething, on the Realscience blog for pointing out this article from the Western Mail (Wales Online) from 2007.

The article, entititled “Snowless Winters Forecast for Wales as World Warms Up” quotes one of the global warming movement’s key figures, Sir John Houghton, former head of the IPCC and former head of the UK Met Office:

Former head of the Met Office Sir John Houghton, who is one of the UK’s leading authorities on climate change, said all the indicators suggest snowy winters will become increasingly rare

He said, “Snowlines are going up in altitude all over the world. The idea that we will get less snow is absolutely in line with what we expect from global warming.”

Wales Online: Snowless Winters Forecast for Wales as World Warms Up

The post ended with the obligatory token comment from the sceptic side, just to show some gesture towards balance in journalism. Well known sceptic meteorologist, Piers Corbyn, director of London-based forecasters WeatherAction, was quoted as saying that the idea that snowfall would drop in Wales by 80% was “complete nonsense”.

Deniers, huh?