Global warming threatens winter…
Vancouver’s Winter Olympics are hamstrung by lack of snow.
Major events have been rescheduled because of warm weather. And massive amounts of snow have been imported to make up for the lack.
This one event, by itself, isn’t proof of global warming . But it is part of a larger pattern of warmer winters, retreating glaciers , and other evidence of a warming planet.
And that pattern is a serious concern for the Winter Olympics, as the head of the International Olympic Committee has acknowledged.
But it’s not just the Winter Olympics. All winter sports, and the multi-billion dollar global winter sports economy, is at stake.
So why is the east coast getting pounded with snow?
Weather and climate are not the same thing. Weather refers to immediate conditions, while climate refers to patterns over years. Scientists agree that while no single weather event is attributable to climate change, the climate is in fact changing.
In fact, the blizzards hitting the mid-Atlantic this year are likely caused by global warming:
“[And] while the frequency of storms in the middle latitudes has decreased as the climate has warmed, the intensity of those storms has increased. That’s in part because of global warming — hotter air can hold more moisture, so when a storm gathers it can unleash massive amounts of snow. “
– East Coast Blizzard Tied to Climate Change, Time Magazine
