"Famous Last Words"

Last week, we talked about the prediction, made by two climate scientists 15-years ago, that "snowfall is a thing of the past." Today, let's talk about a forecast made five years ago about global warming resuming. Below is a screen capture from the scientific journal Science.

click to enlarge

It says global warming "is likely to return with a vengeance within a few years." By any definition of "few," that deadline -- like so many other global warming deadlines and tipping points -- has passed.

The article goes on to say,

"Researchers … agree that no sort of natural variability can hold off greenhouse warming much longer.”

Wrong again.

I bring this up (with a big hat tip to Anthony Watts) because at this time last week we were hearing all kinds of nonsense about the polar vortex and global warming and how global warming was making last week's cold spell worse.

Let me be clear:  Is the earth's system warmer than 40 years ago? Yes. Has our weather/climate changed? Yes. We have longer growing seasons and it is warmer, especially at night.

But, not only is there no immediate crisis, others are coming around to the idea that -- for the foreseeable future -- global warming is a net plus or, at worst, neutral.

During the holidays, I did a posting about the immorality of pouring more than one hundred billion dollars into this speculative problem while more than a million each year could be easily and (relatively) inexpensively saved from death due to water-borne diseases. Because so many travel over the holidays, I suggest you read that posting if you missed it at the time.

I am going to try to write less about global warming in 2014 because the subject is just too depressing to this atmospheric scientist.