Pirate's Cove

Over at CNN, Michio Kaku, that guy you see on so many shows on The History Channel about physics and space (awesome stuff), gives the “globull warming causes monster snowstorms” a shot

The weather seems to be going berserk, with more snow dumped on our beleaguered Northeastern cities in a month than in a year, paralyzing business and our lives. Records are being broken even as we speak.

Common sense says that it’s the freezing cold that is behind the freaky weather. But physics says otherwise.

Basically, snowstorms in this region arise from the collision of cold Arctic air from Canada moving south and bumping up against warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, causing water vapor to condense and freeze and then form snowstorms, which travel up the Northeast corridor.

Exactly. And, it requires moisture in the air. But, um, hey, what about all the snow during the cold periods, such as, I don’t know, glaciation periods? Obviously, there must be moisture in the air to cause snow, right? RIGHT? But, here we go

There is no single smoking gun that can point us to the origin of these monster snowstorms. But we can focus our attention on two likely culprits. The first is pure chance. There are many random fluctuations in the weather due to many diverse factors (for example, last year’s weather was affected by El Niño).

But the second is global warming. This also seems to violate common sense, but realize that global warming can heat the oceans and generate more moisture, which in turn can drive larger storms. Last year was, in fact, tied with 2005 as the hottest year recorded since 1880, when precise measurements began.

Sigh. You’d think someone with the pedigree of Kaku would be able to move past alarmist talking points and look at the real data, alas, no. Perhaps he can tell us what causes snow during glaciation periods…..no? He doesn’t?

He then goes on to soft-pedal the discussion, and even mentions that there is disagreement about the causes, but, that global warming has/is happening. I’ve written many times that it has/is happening, yet, it is primarily driven by nature, as it always has been.

And as the Earth continues to heat, it means that there will be more moisture in the air to possibly drive more monster storms and hurricanes, simultaneously with droughts and hot spells. So we might expect more unusual, bizarre weather patterns in the future.

And unless something is done about it, get used to it.

And what have you changed in your life to mitigate your carbon footprint, Dr. Kaku?