Pirate's Cove

I’ve been watching many of the webcams from the Buffalo and Watertown, NY areas (here, here, and here). Watertown just needs to forget the plows for the moment it’s come down so hard. The lake effect snow around Buffalo has been wandering northward since this morning, where they had expected some pretty good snow all day in the areas just to the south of Buffalo. Always interesting to see one cam show clear skies and just down the road is pounding down and the wind is howling.

Anyhow, it’s your fault

US in deep freeze while much of the world is extra toasty? Yet again, it’s climate change

Much of the United States is shivering through brutal cold as most of the rest of the world is feeling unusually warm weather. However strange it sounds, that contradiction fits snugly in explanations of what climate change is doing to Earth, scientists said.

In a map of global temperatures the last several days, big chunks of the world — the Arctic, Asia, parts of Africa, the Middle East and South America — show as dark red, signifying more than a dozen degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) warmer than the late 20th-century average. But the United States stands out like a cold thumb — a deep bluish-purple that is just as out of whack but on the frigid side.

Wind chills in parts of North Dakota reached minus 70 degrees (minus 56 degrees Celsius), while the heat index in Miami was more than 160 degrees warmer at 92 (33 degrees Celsius). The fourth-coldest NFL football game took place in Kansas City, while across the globe the thermometer hit a blistering 92 degrees, 12 degrees (6.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than average on Friday during tennis’ Australian Open in Melbourne. Warm temperature records fell overnight in Aruba, Curacao, parts of Argentina, Oman and Iran.

“When the Arctic is off-the-charts warm (like now), we’re more likely to see frigid cold invade places like Texas that are ill-equipped to deal with it,” said Jennifer Francis, a Woodwell Research Center climate scientist and a pioneer in the theory of Arctic Amplification, which links the cold outbreaks to climate change. “Rapid Arctic warming is one of the clearest symptoms of human-caused climate change, making winter extremes more likely even as the globe warms overall.”

Same old same old. Because you drove a fossil fueled vehicle this is on you. This comes from the same media which scaremongers over rain, big storms, heat, etc, in limited areas as Proof that anthropogenic global warming is doomy. But, then dismiss the opposite weather. Or simply blame it on “carbon pollution.” Because it’s a cult.

Final Reading: Vermont legislators pursue climate change ‘superfund’

…

“But let’s be clear,” [Sen. Anne Watson, D-Washington, Vermont] said. “Vulnerable Vermonters, mom and pop businesses, and small cities and towns are not the cause of this damage. That came from climate change.”

So, who should pay?

A slew of state lawmakers — 20 out of 30 senators and 87 out of 150 representatives — are invoking a precept from kindergarten: The person who made the mess should clean it up.

In this case, that’s the fossil fuel industry.

Those 100-plus lawmakers have sponsored two companion bills, H.809 in the House and S.259 in the Senate, that would establish a climate change “superfund.” At Tuesday’s press conference, some of them held signs that said “make big oil pay.” The issue is also a priority for environmental groups in the state, including Vermont Public Interest Group and Vermont Conservation Voters.

The idea here is to hit every company that produced fossil fuels in any form from 2000-2019 with fees, thinking that one of two things won’t happen: the company closes shop, putting Vermonters out of work, taking all the links to other businesses with them. Or, simply passing on the costs to the consumers. All while those 20 Senators and 87 reps continue to travel via fossil fuels.