As a snow storm beared down on the east coast on Thursday, CBS This Morning sought to lay blame on global warming, with the headline on screen fretting: "Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?" Co-host Charlie Rose turned New York City College physics professor Michio Kaku and wondered: "What's causing all this?" [View video after the jump]
Kaku proclaimed: "Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What we're seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming unstable. Instability of historic proportions. We think it's because of the gradual heating up of the North Pole. The North Pole is melting." Rose interjected: "Global warming."
Kaku continued: "That excess heat generated by all this warm water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air....So that's the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions."
Apparently there is a disagreement between the broadcast networks over global warming causing such winter storms. Back on the January 8 Today, NBC weatherman Al Roker got extremely defensive when critics claimed he and others were trying to link the polar vortex to climate change: "Some are saying that, A, we've created this phrase to hype it and to create hysteria and that we have made it a political issue by linking it to either climate change or global warming. I will give anybody who can prove that I have ever linked this with global warming or climate change, I will donate a thousand dollars to your charity. Alright?"
On CBS This Morning Thursday, co-host Gayle King theorized: "Does this explain why Niagra Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi? It's all connected to the same thing, correct?" Kaku replied: "It's connected. If you take a look at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right now, Latin America is warm, while California has a drought. We're talking about instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet stream."
King worried: "What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can actually do about it?" Kaku lamented: "Well, the bad news is that the north polar region continues to rise in temperature, it seems to be irreversible at a certain point, so we may have to get used to a new normal. That is, a north polar region that is melting, causing more instability in this bucket, causing more things to spill out, which means more extremes. Some winters could be very mild, other winters could be horrendous."
Co-host Norah O'Donnell teed up the professor to make another dire prediction: "And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?" Kaku declared: "It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest years on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade ever recorded in the history of science."
Here is a full transcript of the February 13 segment:
NORAH O'DONNELL: As another major storm system hits the south and the east, sub-zero temperatures still grip the Midwest. And western Oregon and Washington state were hit with unusual snow.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?]
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, and California just got about twenty inches of rain from a pineapple express, but that state is far from ending its drought emergency. CBS News contributor Michio Kaku is a physics professor at the City College of New York. Good morning.
MICHIO KAKU: Good morning.
ROSE: So what's causing all this?
KAKU: Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What we're seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming unstable. Instability of historic proportions. Now think of the polar vortex as a bucket, a swirling bucket of cold air. However, the walls are weakening. Cold air is spilling out, spilling out over the walls of the bucket. And the question is, why? Why is this polar vortex weakening? We think it's because of the gradual heating up of the North Pole. The North Pole is melting.
ROSE: Global warming.
KAKU: That excess heat -- that excess heat generated by all this warm water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air, weakening this low pressure region, causing cold air to spill out over the United States. So that's the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions.
GAYLE KING: Would you the the [inaudible] please.
[LAUGHTER]
KING: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Go ahead, Norah.
O'DONNELL: We get this spilling out of the bucket, right? So but we see this snow in the Midwest and the south, why then has California been the driest on record? I mean, look at the snow pack in the Sierra's. Any skier knows out there they have so little snow pack. Huge drought.
KAKU: Because a lot of the weather, the warm -- the moisture-laden air which should go to California is being diverted into Canada, where it freezes, and it falls on your backyard. So in some sense there's the link between what's happening in California as the jet stream diverts, diverts the moisture-laden air over Canada and then it snows on the United States.
KING: I'm trying to follow you. I'm really trying to follow you. But does this explain why Niagra Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi? It's all connected to the same thing, correct?
KAKU: It's connected. If you take a look at...
ROSE: Globally.
KING: Globally, yeah.
KAKU: ...at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right now, Latin America is warm, while California has a drought. We're talking about instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet stream-
KING: What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can actually do about it?
KAKU: Well, the bad news is that the north polar region continues to rise in temperature, it seems to be irreversible at a certain point, so we may have to get used to a new normal. That is, a north polar region that is melting, causing more instability in this bucket, causing more things to spill out, which means more extremes. Some winters could be very mild, other winters could be horrendous.
O'DONNELL: And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?
KAKU: It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest years on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade ever recorded in the history of science.
ROSE: Michio, you know if this physics thing doesn't work out, you can be a weather man.
[LAUGHTER]
O'DONNELL: You could try it.
KING: Professor, thank you very much. I think he's speechless.
- See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2014/02/13/cbs-blames-global-warming-harsh-winter-weather#sthash.ruxam0D8.dpuf
As a snow storm beared down on the east coast on Thursday, CBS This Morning sought to lay blame on global warming, with the headline on screen fretting: "Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?" Co-host Charlie Rose turned New York City College physics professor Michio Kaku and wondered: "What's causing all this?" [View video after the jump]
Kaku proclaimed: "Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What
we're seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming
unstable. Instability of historic proportions. We think it's
because of the gradual heating up of the North Pole. The North Pole is
melting." Rose interjected: "Global warming."
Kaku continued: "That excess heat generated by all this warm water is
destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air....So that's the irony,
that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions."
Apparently there is a disagreement between the broadcast networks over
global warming causing such winter storms. Back on the January 8 Today, NBC weatherman Al Roker got extremely defensive
when critics claimed he and others were trying to link the polar vortex
to climate change: "Some are saying that, A, we've created this phrase
to hype it and to create hysteria and that we have made it a political
issue by linking it to either climate change or global warming. I will
give anybody who can prove that I have ever linked this with global
warming or climate change, I will donate a thousand dollars to your
charity. Alright?"
On CBS This Morning
Thursday, co-host Gayle King theorized: "Does this explain why Niagra
Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi? It's all connected to the
same thing, correct?" Kaku replied: "It's connected. If you take a look
at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right now, Latin
America is warm, while California has a drought. We're talking about
instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet stream."
King worried: "What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can
actually do about it?" Kaku lamented: "Well, the bad news is that the
north polar region continues to rise in temperature, it seems to be
irreversible at a certain point, so we may have to get used to a new
normal. That is, a north polar region that is melting, causing more
instability in this bucket, causing more things to spill out, which
means more extremes. Some winters could be very mild, other winters
could be horrendous."
Co-host Norah O'Donnell teed up the professor to make another dire
prediction: "And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?" Kaku
declared: "It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest
years on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade
ever recorded in the history of science."
Here is a full transcript of the February 13 segment:
NORAH
O'DONNELL: As another major storm system hits the south and the east,
sub-zero temperatures still grip the Midwest. And western Oregon and
Washington state were hit with unusual snow.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?]
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, and California just got about twenty inches of
rain from a pineapple express, but that state is far from ending its
drought emergency. CBS News contributor Michio Kaku is a physics
professor at the City College of New York. Good morning.
MICHIO KAKU: Good morning.
ROSE: So what's causing all this?
KAKU: Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What we're
seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming
unstable. Instability of historic proportions. Now think of the polar
vortex as a bucket, a swirling bucket of cold air. However, the walls
are weakening. Cold air is spilling out, spilling out over the walls of
the bucket. And the question is, why? Why is this polar vortex
weakening? We think it's because of the gradual heating up of the North
Pole. The North Pole is melting.
ROSE: Global warming.
KAKU: That excess heat -- that excess heat generated by all this warm
water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air, weakening this
low pressure region, causing cold air to spill out over the United
States. So that's the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of
historic proportions.
GAYLE KING: Would you the the [inaudible] please.
[LAUGHTER]
KING: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Go ahead, Norah.
O'DONNELL: We get this spilling out of the bucket, right? So but we
see this snow in the Midwest and the south, why then has California been
the driest on record? I mean, look at the snow pack in the Sierra's.
Any skier knows out there they have so little snow pack. Huge drought.
KAKU: Because a lot of the weather, the warm -- the moisture-laden air
which should go to California is being diverted into Canada, where it
freezes, and it falls on your backyard. So in some sense there's the
link between what's happening in California as the jet stream diverts,
diverts the moisture-laden air over Canada and then it snows on the
United States.
KING: I'm trying to follow you. I'm really trying to follow you. But
does this explain why Niagra Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi?
It's all connected to the same thing, correct?
KAKU: It's connected. If you take a look at...
ROSE: Globally.
KING: Globally, yeah.
KAKU: ...at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right
now, Latin America is warm, while California has a drought. We're
talking about instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet
stream-
KING: What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can actually do about it?
KAKU: Well, the bad news is that the north polar region continues to
rise in temperature, it seems to be irreversible at a certain point, so
we may have to get used to a new normal. That is, a north polar region
that is melting, causing more instability in this bucket, causing more
things to spill out, which means more extremes. Some winters could be
very mild, other winters could be horrendous.
O'DONNELL: And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?
KAKU: It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest years
on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade ever
recorded in the history of science.
ROSE: Michio, you know if this physics thing doesn't work out, you can be a weather man.
[LAUGHTER]
O'DONNELL: You could try it.
KING: Professor, thank you very much. I think he's speechless.
- See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2014/02/13/cbs-blames-global-warming-harsh-winter-weather#sthash.ruxam0D8.dpuf
As a snow storm beared down on the east coast on Thursday, CBS This Morning sought to lay blame on global warming, with the headline on screen fretting: "Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?" Co-host Charlie Rose turned New York City College physics professor Michio Kaku and wondered: "What's causing all this?" [View video after the jump]
Kaku proclaimed: "Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What
we're seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming
unstable. Instability of historic proportions. We think it's
because of the gradual heating up of the North Pole. The North Pole is
melting." Rose interjected: "Global warming."
Kaku continued: "That excess heat generated by all this warm water is
destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air....So that's the irony,
that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions."
Apparently there is a disagreement between the broadcast networks over
global warming causing such winter storms. Back on the January 8 Today, NBC weatherman Al Roker got extremely defensive
when critics claimed he and others were trying to link the polar vortex
to climate change: "Some are saying that, A, we've created this phrase
to hype it and to create hysteria and that we have made it a political
issue by linking it to either climate change or global warming. I will
give anybody who can prove that I have ever linked this with global
warming or climate change, I will donate a thousand dollars to your
charity. Alright?"
On CBS This Morning
Thursday, co-host Gayle King theorized: "Does this explain why Niagra
Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi? It's all connected to the
same thing, correct?" Kaku replied: "It's connected. If you take a look
at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right now, Latin
America is warm, while California has a drought. We're talking about
instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet stream."
King worried: "What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can
actually do about it?" Kaku lamented: "Well, the bad news is that the
north polar region continues to rise in temperature, it seems to be
irreversible at a certain point, so we may have to get used to a new
normal. That is, a north polar region that is melting, causing more
instability in this bucket, causing more things to spill out, which
means more extremes. Some winters could be very mild, other winters
could be horrendous."
Co-host Norah O'Donnell teed up the professor to make another dire
prediction: "And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?" Kaku
declared: "It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest
years on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade
ever recorded in the history of science."
Here is a full transcript of the February 13 segment:
NORAH
O'DONNELL: As another major storm system hits the south and the east,
sub-zero temperatures still grip the Midwest. And western Oregon and
Washington state were hit with unusual snow.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?]
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, and California just got about twenty inches of
rain from a pineapple express, but that state is far from ending its
drought emergency. CBS News contributor Michio Kaku is a physics
professor at the City College of New York. Good morning.
MICHIO KAKU: Good morning.
ROSE: So what's causing all this?
KAKU: Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What we're
seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming
unstable. Instability of historic proportions. Now think of the polar
vortex as a bucket, a swirling bucket of cold air. However, the walls
are weakening. Cold air is spilling out, spilling out over the walls of
the bucket. And the question is, why? Why is this polar vortex
weakening? We think it's because of the gradual heating up of the North
Pole. The North Pole is melting.
ROSE: Global warming.
KAKU: That excess heat -- that excess heat generated by all this warm
water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air, weakening this
low pressure region, causing cold air to spill out over the United
States. So that's the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of
historic proportions.
GAYLE KING: Would you the the [inaudible] please.
[LAUGHTER]
KING: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Go ahead, Norah.
O'DONNELL: We get this spilling out of the bucket, right? So but we
see this snow in the Midwest and the south, why then has California been
the driest on record? I mean, look at the snow pack in the Sierra's.
Any skier knows out there they have so little snow pack. Huge drought.
KAKU: Because a lot of the weather, the warm -- the moisture-laden air
which should go to California is being diverted into Canada, where it
freezes, and it falls on your backyard. So in some sense there's the
link between what's happening in California as the jet stream diverts,
diverts the moisture-laden air over Canada and then it snows on the
United States.
KING: I'm trying to follow you. I'm really trying to follow you. But
does this explain why Niagra Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi?
It's all connected to the same thing, correct?
KAKU: It's connected. If you take a look at...
ROSE: Globally.
KING: Globally, yeah.
KAKU: ...at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right
now, Latin America is warm, while California has a drought. We're
talking about instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet
stream-
KING: What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can actually do about it?
KAKU: Well, the bad news is that the north polar region continues to
rise in temperature, it seems to be irreversible at a certain point, so
we may have to get used to a new normal. That is, a north polar region
that is melting, causing more instability in this bucket, causing more
things to spill out, which means more extremes. Some winters could be
very mild, other winters could be horrendous.
O'DONNELL: And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?
KAKU: It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest years
on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade ever
recorded in the history of science.
ROSE: Michio, you know if this physics thing doesn't work out, you can be a weather man.
[LAUGHTER]
O'DONNELL: You could try it.
KING: Professor, thank you very much. I think he's speechless.
- See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2014/02/13/cbs-blames-global-warming-harsh-winter-weather#sthash.ruxam0D8.dpuf
Kaku continued: "That excess heat generated by all this warm water is
destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air....So that's the irony,
that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions."
Apparently there is a disagreement between the broadcast networks over
global warming causing such winter storms. Back on the January 8 Today, NBC weatherman Al Roker got extremely defensive
when critics claimed he and others were trying to link the polar vortex
to climate change: "Some are saying that, A, we've created this phrase
to hype it and to create hysteria and that we have made it a political
issue by linking it to either climate change or global warming. I will
give anybody who can prove that I have ever linked this with global
warming or climate change, I will donate a thousand dollars to your
charity. Alright?"
On CBS This Morning
Thursday, co-host Gayle King theorized: "Does this explain why Niagra
Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi? It's all connected to the
same thing, correct?" Kaku replied: "It's connected. If you take a look
at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right now, Latin
America is warm, while California has a drought. We're talking about
instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet stream."
King worried: "What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can
actually do about it?" Kaku lamented: "Well, the bad news is that the
north polar region continues to rise in temperature, it seems to be
irreversible at a certain point, so we may have to get used to a new
normal. That is, a north polar region that is melting, causing more
instability in this bucket, causing more things to spill out, which
means more extremes. Some winters could be very mild, other winters
could be horrendous."
Co-host Norah O'Donnell teed up the professor to make another dire
prediction: "And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?" Kaku
declared: "It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest
years on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade
ever recorded in the history of science."
Here is a full transcript of the February 13 segment:
NORAH
O'DONNELL: As another major storm system hits the south and the east,
sub-zero temperatures still grip the Midwest. And western Oregon and
Washington state were hit with unusual snow.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?]
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, and California just got about twenty inches of
rain from a pineapple express, but that state is far from ending its
drought emergency. CBS News contributor Michio Kaku is a physics
professor at the City College of New York. Good morning.
MICHIO KAKU: Good morning.
ROSE: So what's causing all this?
KAKU: Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What we're
seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming
unstable. Instability of historic proportions. Now think of the polar
vortex as a bucket, a swirling bucket of cold air. However, the walls
are weakening. Cold air is spilling out, spilling out over the walls of
the bucket. And the question is, why? Why is this polar vortex
weakening? We think it's because of the gradual heating up of the North
Pole. The North Pole is melting.
ROSE: Global warming.
KAKU: That excess heat -- that excess heat generated by all this warm
water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air, weakening this
low pressure region, causing cold air to spill out over the United
States. So that's the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of
historic proportions.
GAYLE KING: Would you the the [inaudible] please.
[LAUGHTER]
KING: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Go ahead, Norah.
O'DONNELL: We get this spilling out of the bucket, right? So but we
see this snow in the Midwest and the south, why then has California been
the driest on record? I mean, look at the snow pack in the Sierra's.
Any skier knows out there they have so little snow pack. Huge drought.
KAKU: Because a lot of the weather, the warm -- the moisture-laden air
which should go to California is being diverted into Canada, where it
freezes, and it falls on your backyard. So in some sense there's the
link between what's happening in California as the jet stream diverts,
diverts the moisture-laden air over Canada and then it snows on the
United States.
KING: I'm trying to follow you. I'm really trying to follow you. But
does this explain why Niagra Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi?
It's all connected to the same thing, correct?
KAKU: It's connected. If you take a look at...
ROSE: Globally.
KING: Globally, yeah.
KAKU: ...at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right
now, Latin America is warm, while California has a drought. We're
talking about instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet
stream-
KING: What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can actually do about it?
KAKU: Well, the bad news is that the north polar region continues to
rise in temperature, it seems to be irreversible at a certain point, so
we may have to get used to a new normal. That is, a north polar region
that is melting, causing more instability in this bucket, causing more
things to spill out, which means more extremes. Some winters could be
very mild, other winters could be horrendous.
O'DONNELL: And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?
KAKU: It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest years
on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade ever
recorded in the history of science.
ROSE: Michio, you know if this physics thing doesn't work out, you can be a weather man.
[LAUGHTER]
O'DONNELL: You could try it.
KING: Professor, thank you very much. I think he's speechless.
- See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2014/02/13/cbs-blames-global-warming-harsh-winter-weather#sthash.ruxam0D8.dpuf
As a snow storm beared down on the east coast on Thursday, CBS This Morning sought to lay blame on global warming, with the headline on screen fretting: "Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?" Co-host Charlie Rose turned New York City College physics professor Michio Kaku and wondered: "What's causing all this?" [View video after the jump]
Kaku proclaimed: "Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What
we're seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming
unstable. Instability of historic proportions. We think it's
because of the gradual heating up of the North Pole. The North Pole is
melting." Rose interjected: "Global warming."
Kaku continued: "That excess heat generated by all this warm water is
destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air....So that's the irony,
that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions."
Apparently there is a disagreement between the broadcast networks over
global warming causing such winter storms. Back on the January 8 Today, NBC weatherman Al Roker got extremely defensive
when critics claimed he and others were trying to link the polar vortex
to climate change: "Some are saying that, A, we've created this phrase
to hype it and to create hysteria and that we have made it a political
issue by linking it to either climate change or global warming. I will
give anybody who can prove that I have ever linked this with global
warming or climate change, I will donate a thousand dollars to your
charity. Alright?"
On CBS This Morning
Thursday, co-host Gayle King theorized: "Does this explain why Niagra
Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi? It's all connected to the
same thing, correct?" Kaku replied: "It's connected. If you take a look
at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right now, Latin
America is warm, while California has a drought. We're talking about
instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet stream."
King worried: "What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can
actually do about it?" Kaku lamented: "Well, the bad news is that the
north polar region continues to rise in temperature, it seems to be
irreversible at a certain point, so we may have to get used to a new
normal. That is, a north polar region that is melting, causing more
instability in this bucket, causing more things to spill out, which
means more extremes. Some winters could be very mild, other winters
could be horrendous."
Co-host Norah O'Donnell teed up the professor to make another dire
prediction: "And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?" Kaku
declared: "It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest
years on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade
ever recorded in the history of science."
Here is a full transcript of the February 13 segment:
NORAH
O'DONNELL: As another major storm system hits the south and the east,
sub-zero temperatures still grip the Midwest. And western Oregon and
Washington state were hit with unusual snow.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Extreme Weather; Are These Kinds of Storms, Droughts Unprecedented?]
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, and California just got about twenty inches of
rain from a pineapple express, but that state is far from ending its
drought emergency. CBS News contributor Michio Kaku is a physics
professor at the City College of New York. Good morning.
MICHIO KAKU: Good morning.
ROSE: So what's causing all this?
KAKU: Well, the wacky weather could get even wackier. What we're
seeing is that the jet stream and the polar vortex are becoming
unstable. Instability of historic proportions. Now think of the polar
vortex as a bucket, a swirling bucket of cold air. However, the walls
are weakening. Cold air is spilling out, spilling out over the walls of
the bucket. And the question is, why? Why is this polar vortex
weakening? We think it's because of the gradual heating up of the North
Pole. The North Pole is melting.
ROSE: Global warming.
KAKU: That excess heat -- that excess heat generated by all this warm
water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air, weakening this
low pressure region, causing cold air to spill out over the United
States. So that's the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of
historic proportions.
GAYLE KING: Would you the the [inaudible] please.
[LAUGHTER]
KING: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Go ahead, Norah.
O'DONNELL: We get this spilling out of the bucket, right? So but we
see this snow in the Midwest and the south, why then has California been
the driest on record? I mean, look at the snow pack in the Sierra's.
Any skier knows out there they have so little snow pack. Huge drought.
KAKU: Because a lot of the weather, the warm -- the moisture-laden air
which should go to California is being diverted into Canada, where it
freezes, and it falls on your backyard. So in some sense there's the
link between what's happening in California as the jet stream diverts,
diverts the moisture-laden air over Canada and then it snows on the
United States.
KING: I'm trying to follow you. I'm really trying to follow you. But
does this explain why Niagra Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi?
It's all connected to the same thing, correct?
KAKU: It's connected. If you take a look at...
ROSE: Globally.
KING: Globally, yeah.
KAKU: ...at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right
now, Latin America is warm, while California has a drought. We're
talking about instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet
stream-
KING: What can be done about it, Professor? Anything we can actually do about it?
KAKU: Well, the bad news is that the north polar region continues to
rise in temperature, it seems to be irreversible at a certain point, so
we may have to get used to a new normal. That is, a north polar region
that is melting, causing more instability in this bucket, causing more
things to spill out, which means more extremes. Some winters could be
very mild, other winters could be horrendous.
O'DONNELL: And you said 2014 is gonna be the hottest on record?
KAKU: It's shaping up that this year could be one of the hottest years
on record. The decade that just passed, it was the hottest decade ever
recorded in the history of science.
ROSE: Michio, you know if this physics thing doesn't work out, you can be a weather man.
[LAUGHTER]
O'DONNELL: You could try it.
KING: Professor, thank you very much. I think he's speechless.
- See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2014/02/13/cbs-blames-global-warming-harsh-winter-weather#sthash.ruxam0D8.dpuf
Now here’s a new twist coming out
of the Smirksalot Whine House. I was a bit amazed when I read this
little twist of yet to be released data. All this talk about Global
Warming and out comes the most amazing excuse there will be, “IF” the
upcoming unemployment data doesn’t spin in the Oblabber direction.
They’re going to blame it on the weather? It’s all gonna be Global
Warming's fault once again? Damn if you can’t kill two birds with one
stone with that charge.
Now
I know that Smirky has surrounded himself with the best minds in this
country, at least to hear him tell it. Maybe Larry Summers, the Whine
House economic advisor, should seek employment as a weatherman. He
proposes a “do over” of data before the data is ever released. He’s
already contending that any posted decline in employment figures will be
laid to blame at the feet of winter weather. Let me see here. Isn’t
winter an annual event? What are these knot heads advising the POTUS
going to cook up next, other than the books.
So
he jumps on CNBC to give an interview and tells us all not to make any
judgments about where the economy is going based upon yet to be released
statistics. This brings up and interesting question. If they go the
other way, should we also discard that same data based up Larry’s
rationale, or lack of it? I took logic in college and when I plug in the
rules, they don‘t work with what he is proposing. So then he tells us
this:
"Who knows what the next number is going to be. The
blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are
likely to distort the statistics, and in past blizzards those statistics
have been distorted by 100,000 to 200,000 jobs, so it's going to be
very important ... to look past whatever the next figures are to gauge
the underlying trends," he said.
One
thing should be apparent to even the casual nut job reading this post.
Larry has seen the numbers that will be released at the end of this week
and is trying to brace the American public for more bad news. Here’s
what I think he should have told us:
“Look, President Smirksalot
told you that his focus was going to be jobs in his SOTUA and several
times afterward. Y’all should know better than to believe anything he
says. His priority is trying to make history by passing a health care
bill so you know I’m shilling here for the guy. You know smoke and
mirrors when you see it, but I was told to give it my best college try.
IT’S THE WEATHER NOW STUPID AMERICAN PUBLIC!”
I’m
starting to “HOPE” that the Gang Who Can’t Shoot Straight even remotely
gets a grip on reality and stops being bubble boys and girls. Try to at
least get the story straight. First the Smirky crowd tried to raise
expectations based upon the one year anniversary of the Stimupork Bill.
Now they want to lower the bar based upon the annual winter weather? Any
port in a storm I reckon. I’m getting used to the double talk and
continual stream of lies myself. They do seem to think the American
public are a pack of dunderheads. Spin it one way then spin it the
other, just spin is that what we’re seeing Larry?
So,
according to Larry, based upon these yet to be released employment
statistics, we should all continue to “hope” that the situation
“changes” while Smirky continues to fiddle over health care that the
majority has torpedoed while the JOBS, JOBS, JOBS should be the
priority. They just don’t get it. It must be special to live in a bubble
where you don’t listen to the people. A rude awakening will occur
shortly.
My
spin? The news we’re about to hear about employment is NOT going to
please the public after watching this side bar nonsense we’ve seen in DC
with photo op summits and more yadda, yadda, yadda about a stinkin
health care bill about taking over 1/6th of the nation's economy. That
Gang up there can't hit the easy targets.
Singer and left-wing activist Charlotte Church sparked ridicule after blaming the Syrian civil war – on climate change.
The millionaire former child prodigy, appearing on the BBC's Question Time last night, said global warming was 'a big factor' in the brutal conflict between rebel groups, ISIS and Bashar Assad.
Ms
Church, who has become a high-profile campaigner against the
Government's austerity programme, later took to Twitter to complain
about the programme's audience after they responded to her complaint
about climate change with silence.
Last night's
Question Time was filmed in Ms Church's home town on Cardiff and
featured Labour's new MP Stephen Kinnock, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne
Wood, Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb and Margaret Thatcher's biographer
Charles Moore.
The panel was asked if British airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria should be ruled out.
Ms Church said we should ask the Syrian people who their real enemy is.
But
she then added: 'Another interesting thing with Syria actually, lots of
people don't seem to know about it, is there is evidence to suggest
that climate change was a big factor in how the Syrian conflict came
about.'
She said between 2006 and 2011 the country experienced one of the worst droughts in its history.
Ms
Church added: 'This of course meant that there were water shortages and
crops weren't growing so there was a mass migration from rural areas of
Syria in the urban centres which put more strain and resources were
scarce et cetera.'
She said this 'did contribute to the conflict there today'.
The
singer added: 'No issue is an island, so I also think we need to look
at what we're doing to the planet and how that might actually cause more
conflict in the world.'
Her comments were met with complete silence from the audience.
After the show Ms Church admitted her appearance on the long-running programme had been tough.
She said the hostile crowd did not feel like any Welsh crowd she would recognise.
Ms Church attacked those on Twitter who had ridiculed her climate change observation.
She said they should 'go do some research - come back to me and we'll have a conversation about 'the real world''.
Ms
Church also shared a message on Twitter that read: 'That [BBC Question
Time] audience was not representative of the Wales I know and live in.
Mostly ill informed. Mainly right wing.'
During last night's episode Ms Church also praised Jeremy Corbyn's vow never to use nuclear weapons.
The Labour
leader has faced mounting criticism from within the Labour party over
his admission that he would never authorise a military strike as Prime
Minister.
But
Ms Church said: 'I think that it's commendable. I think that if nuclear
warfare occurs then you know, you've got the start of World War Three,
so I actually think it's a really commendable place to come from to say
'no I would not be prepared to destroy hundreds of thousands of people'.
Yeah I think it's a commendable place to come from.'
With each passing year, human-caused global warming bullies
California for more water. Each year, the heat squeezes more moisture
from soils and ecosystems.
This is because, as the atmosphere warms, its demand for moisture
rises. Just as a puddle evaporates more quickly on a warm day, soils dry
out more quickly during warmer years, which are becoming increasingly
frequent in most locations globally.
Currently, California is in the grips of a severe drought, which motivated my colleagues and me to conduct a study
to determine how much of this drought can be blamed on natural climate
variability. And how much can be blamed on the global warming shakedown?
Our answer is 8%-27%.
This finding, done using a model built on historical data, sheds
light on California’s future and the effect higher temperatures have on
the natural forces that drive California’s droughts.
California of buckets
Global warming is an emerging background effect on the year-to-year
variations in drought caused by natural climate variations, such as El
Niño and La Niña. This is especially true in California, where
year-to-year precipitation varies wildly.
During most years, when natural climate variations cause wet or
near-average conditions, the demands of the increasingly greedy
atmosphere are still met with relative ease. During the last few years,
however, natural climate variations have caused precipitation totals to
be low and temperatures to be high. Human-caused warming, meanwhile,
demands additional atmospheric moisture, at a time when water resources
for natural and human systems are already in short supply. These maps rank the three-year drought severity during 2012-2014 compared to all other consecutive three-year periods since 1901. The map on the left is calculated from the observed climate records. The map on the right is calculated after removing the global warming trend from the temperature records.Park Williams, Author provided
Unlike natural climate variation, which only sometimes produces extreme conditions, the amount of additional moisture demanded by the atmosphere due to global warming increases each year as the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide rises ever higher. The squeeze that global warming is putting on California’s water balance is therefore becoming increasingly detectable.
My colleagues and I quantified the effect of global warming on the recent California drought using a computational soil-moisture accounting approach. In this approach, we treat California as if it is a grid of 24,000 buckets laid side by side, each about seven square miles in area, and we simulate monthly changes in the amount of water held in each bucket from 1901 through 2014.
Precipitation causes the buckets to fill up and potentially overflow, and evaporation causes the buckets to empty out. We calculated the evaporation from monthly records of temperature, humidity, wind speed and net radiation. Annual changes in the water content of the buckets during the summer months indicate annual changes in California water balance and can therefore be evaluated to determine the severity of the current California drought.
Dry weather versus higher temps
Because these drought calculations are all done mathematically using historical climate data, we can repeat our calculations over and over again while holding certain variables constant. This method allows us to isolate the relative contributions of specific climate processes, such as a lack of precipitation or the occurrence of extreme heat to the current California drought.
Performing these calculations, we find that about 70% of the California drought severity during 2012-2014 was attributable to a lack of precipitation, and the other 30% is attributable to increased atmospheric evaporative demand, which was mainly driven by very warm temperatures. Change in California’s annual temperature and atmospheric evaporative demand during 1896-2014. The grey lines are the observed annual records and the smooth dark red lines are the trends caused by global warming (averaged across the various global warming trends we considered). Values in these graphs indicate departures from the 1931-1990 mean conditions.Park Williams, Author provided
We next calculated how much of this temperature effect on drought was due to human-caused global warming and how much was due to natural temperature variability. We determined this by repeating our calculations using temperature records that exclude year-to-year temperature variations and only contain the long-term warming trend.
We found that one-half to two-thirds of the temperature influence on drought conditions during 2012-2014 can be blamed on the warming trend, depending on the climate datasets considered. In other words, in the absence of global warming, the recent drought would have been approximately 15%-20% less severe.
Running the numbers
It is important to acknowledge that we cannot be positive what portion of the long-term warming trend in California is related to human-caused global warming versus natural climate variability, so there is a fairly wide range of uncertainty surrounding the 15%-20% estimate.
Higher temperatures are contributing to an active forest fire season in the West.Mike McMillan - USFS, CC BY-NC
For example, has the effect of global warming on the California drought been steadily rising each year? Or has the effect increased in recent decades due to accelerating greenhouse gas concentrations? Or did regulations to remove air pollutants in the latter half of the 20th century affect the warming rate due to increasing greenhouse gases?
To address this uncertainty, we considered four alternate long-term warming trends, derived from actual temperature measurements and from temperature records simulated by climate models. Collectively, these warming scenarios are very likely to encompass the full range of possibilities. Considering the range of warming trends and all combinations of climate data sets used in this study, we concluded that global warming contributed between 8% and 27% to the severity of 2012-2014 California drought.
Natural variability still dominant
This result means that global warming is already having an important impact on California drought, but also that natural climate variability is still dominant.
During 2012-2014, naturally low precipitation totals and high temperatures were mainly caused by a persistent high pressure system off the US West Coast that blocked storms from making landfall in California. Combined with the increased evaporative demand due to global warming, this naturally occurring drought event produced record, or near record, drought throughout much of California.
While there have been other three-year periods in the past when statewide drought severity has been similar to that observed in 2012-2014, drought conditions during 2012-2014 have received much more attention than previous droughts partly because of where the most intense conditions were focused. Record-breaking drought conditions occurred in California’s Central Valley, which is important for agriculture, the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, which is important for human water resources, and the southern and central coastal areas, which is where a large proportion of the population resides.
Given that natural climate variability still dictates when the dry and wet periods occur in California, it is highly likely that wet conditions will return to the state in the next few years.
Also because of natural climate variability, drought conditions are sure to return again and again, and each time the atmospheric bully and its high temperatures will demand an extra moisture payment, increasingly enhancing the likelihood of severe droughts with increasing duration. If California finds itself struggling with this drought, serious planning needs to take place in order to be resilient to a future where it’s increasingly likely that the current drought will look like child’s play.
Zambian President Edgar Lungu
said global warming was partly to blame for the "unprecedented" power
crisis robbing the economy of jobs and restraining productivity.
The
energy shortages in the southern African nation are linked to
unpredictable rainfall patterns caused by climate change, Lungu told the
United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. Hydro-electric
generation, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the country’s
energy mix, has been curbed because of a drought, putting pressure on
the key mining industry to reduce its power usage.
"The challenges
are numerous, including energy shortages and the effects of climate
change. The two are inextricably inseparable on the development agenda
for countries like Zambia that rely heavily on hydro-power generation,"
Lungu said. "This year, Zambia is experiencing an unprecedented energy
crisis that has already cost the nation dearly in terms of productivity,
jobs and revenue."
The
government is seeking to minimize job losses after miners announced
plans to cut costs. Glencore Plc may lay off as many as 3,800 workers as
it suspends operations at its copper mine for 18 months in Zambia,
Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.
Even still, the
government is sticking to its goal to create half a million new jobs
over the next five years, Lungu said on Tuesday.
Zambian President Edgar Lungu has blamed global warming for his country’s worsening economic problems.
According to Bloomberg;
Zambian President Edgar Lungu said global warming was
partly to blame for the “unprecedented” power crisis robbing the economy
of jobs and restraining productivity.
The energy shortages in the southern African nation are linked to
unpredictable rainfall patterns caused by climate change, Lungu told the
United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. Hydro-electric
generation, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the country’s
energy mix, has been curbed because of a drought, putting pressure on
the key mining industry to reduce its power usage.
…
On CBS This Morning
Thursday, co-host Gayle King theorized: "Does this explain why Niagra
Falls is frozen and why it's warm in Sochi? It's all connected to the
same thing, correct?" Kaku replied: "It's connected. If you take a look
at the jet stream, you see that England is flooding right now, Latin
America is warm, while California has a drought. We're talking about
instabilities caused by the eratic nature of the jet stream."NORAH O'DONNELL: As another major storm system hits the south and the east, sub-zero temperatures still grip the Midwest. And western Oregon and Washington state were hit with unusual snow.
