Sunday, February 7, 2010

Snowpocalypse vs. Warmageddon.

Americans always have a thing for hyperbolic expressions. "Snowmageddon" or "Snowpocalypse" might have been Hollywood blockbusters but they are the actual blizzards hitting the U.S. Capital and the mid-Atlantic states this week-end, at least as dubbed by the media.
Of course, it is quite a blizzard indeed - more than two feet of heavy snow, knocked-out power lines, toppled trees and deserted streets.... but probably not as unique as some people would have you believed. In any case, it has already sent some people into a state of panic, when others are literally freaking out in a more theatrical fashion.



Meanwhile, yet others use the weather to promote their anti-global warming political agenda.Clearly, it is much harder to "feel" the reality of global warming when you're snowed in, and the Virginia Republican Party knows it.

They bet on people confusing 'weather' and 'climate' - which may actually work, if we are to believed this British article. Who cares if despite the cold in North America and Western Europe, January 2010 is the warmest on record. Of course, global warming is slow, unimpressive and hard to see from our local perspective, and it may be more insidious but it is also the real long term threat.
Are people really that stupid.....?





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