Only warm temperature records are notable

[GJM]

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weath...e-2002/1467396

The coldest air on Earth plunged into Siberia this week, dropping temperatures to as low as 80 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. An expansion of that cold is expected across eastern Asia into early next week and eventually North America, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

The bitter cold not only allowed temperature benchmarks that have not been hit in decades in some parts of Russia, but the extreme weather also created an icy spectacle as firefighters battled a fire in subzero temperatures on Jan. 8 in Ufa, Russia. Massive icicles clung to the home amid the anomalous cold.

[JAD]

It kind of reminds me of isolationist movements in the ‘40s. There were some reasonable arguments for staying out of a war, particularly a removed war. But if you let enough of the isolationists talk, pretty soon you wind up with Lindbergh.

There is lots of credible science to support the idea that CO2 emissions have the potential to anthropomorphically affect the entire. But if you let the folks who are most excited enough talk long enough about it, they go from Paul Erlich to Margaret Sanger pretty quick.

[WDR]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weath...rnias-drought/

Atmospheric rivers won’t end California’s drought



Classic WaPo headline. Rather than saying that atmospheric rivers are helping with CA's drought, but how much it yet to be determined depending upon precipitation in coming months, they say the atmospheric temperature rivers won't end the drought.

I won't go so far as to say our drought is over, but nearly the whole state here is at/over ~200% snowpack. It's still early enough in the season that things could turn around and dry out before runoff, but we have been in a wet cycle/pattern for about a month now, and that seems to be continuing.

Humans may be effecting the climate, but I would hazard a guess that factors outside our control have a far greater impact. ~40 years ago, when things had been unusually cold and wet for a while, the cries were that we would be in another ice age by now...

Mother Earth is a fickle old lady... she'll shrug us off one day. And the world will keep turning without us.

[feudist]

A big problem about addressing the debate is that at each end it has become a religious issue. The "Humans are destroying Mother Earth" extremists at one end that are comfortable with wrecking Western Civilization(hmmm, where did they come from? on the left and the "Only God can destroy the Earth as foretold in prophecy" on the right.
Inboard from each of those are the panickers who believe we only have 5 years to live every 5 years (L-Climate catastrophe/White Supremacy/Racism, R-currency/grid/civilizational collapse.) and then there are the Conspiracy theorists who blame it on the Evil Capitalist racists exploiting the poor or the Evil crony Capitalist commie quislings exploiting the middle class.

I am agnostic about whether anthropomorphic climate change is correct, and also agnostic about whether we could stop it(natural or anthro)even if we could unite and respond in a best case-which is simply impossible now. And certainly not by destroying the US economy but giving China asshoe and the "developing world" a license to Ill.
I am completely certain that many on the Left views it as a means of gaining control in politics because it does harness the religious zeal that the environmentalists have been building for years and a media controlled secular religion is what they need to replace Unions and lockstep monoblocs of voters that they've been bleeding.

The momentum is certainly favoring the implementation of radical governmental policies worldwide that are so pie-in-the-sky about green energy that the result is likely to be shattered economies and horrific famines that defy the term Biblical.
Whether that is simple stupidity, blind greed or a dire plot to return to feudalism remains to be seen. My suspicion is a particularly noxious mix of all 3.

[GJM]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weath...s-noaa-missed/

However, after a series of intense moisture-laden storms known as atmospheric rivers, most of California has seen rainfall totals 200 to 600 percent above normal over the past month, with 24 trillion gallons of water having fallen in the state since late December.
Floods, landslides, sinkholes: See the devastation of heavy rain in California
The stark contrast between the staggering amount of precipitation in recent weeks and the CPC’s seasonal precipitation outlook issued before the winter, which leaned toward below-normal precipitation for at least half of California, has water managers lamenting the unreliability of seasonal forecasts.

[GJM]

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/0...ought-00077743

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After the driest three years in the state’s modern history, California suddenly has a different problem on its hands: too much water.

An ongoing series of storms drenching the state has forced officials to take measures unfathomable just a month ago, like releasing excess water from reservoirs and pumping surging river flows into storage.

[Kanye Wyoming]

Finally, someone explaining it in a way that anyone can understand.

https://twitter.com/@twitter/status/1616604156596293635?s=61&t=Aj_7qLasUESzIrpaiXL2yA

[Wonder9]

Human arrogance is the leading cause of people believing they can "fix" the Earth with money and laws.

[Tensaw]

Human arrogance is the leading cause of people believing they can "fix" the Earth with money and laws.

I think that is a half a click off. I think there are two groups of people involved in this. The small group who seek to enrich themselves (money) and gain power over others (laws) - (and inflict suffering on those they dislike as an added side benefit). And then there is the fairly large group of useful idiots. IMHO.

[Caballoflaco]

Human arrogance is the leading cause of people believing they can "fix" the Earth with money and laws.

So America was better off in the 1970’s when rivers were catching on fire and burning due to pollution? Would America be better off now if the the air quality in major cities was a bad as it is in China? Or maybe you think the US would be a better place if we had allowed people to kill off all the large game in America a couple of generations ago.

Like most things there’s a balance, and a lot of environmental laws have made America a better rather than worse place to live in my estimation.