Take Back The Weather?

On Monday April 23rd the Detroit News carried an article titled "Warning Signs" in which a mom claims she got tired of having to explain to her 4yr old why there was no snow on which to go sledding. So the mom put up 5 giant billboards around Detroit with the picture of a child and the words "If not for you, then for them. Take back the weather."

So, we controlled the weather once and now we don't so that's why we have to take it back. Of course! In response to someone who told her that he was just as happy it's warmer in the winter these days she replied according to the article: "And I said, 'Well that might be fine now, but what about in summer when it's 140 degrees?"'

According to this USA Today article the highest temperature ever recorded on the planet was 136 deg. F. in El Azizia, Lybia, a desert, and this lady thinks it's going to be 140 deg. F. in Michigan! Obviously she hasn't looked up any facts or studied any climate history. The article continues:

All of the "Take Back the Weather" billboards showcase little kids (one is Lily), generally looking aggrieved that there's no snow. One shows two disconsolate children standing with a sled on brown grass.

Another features the line, "Snow was never meant to be just in storybooks."

Meant? By whom?

"My position is neither Democratic nor Republican," she says. "But when we were growing up, my sister remembers jumping off the roof into snow drifts.

"And now," she adds, "you can't even have a snowball fight here."

So the earth's climate when her sister was growing up is the climate the earth is supposed to have permanently?

Oh well, I give her credit for doing this on her own dime instead of the taxpayer's.

For the record, Detroit had a slight snowfall the first week of Nov 06 and no more until the last week of Jan 07, but then we got dumped on in Feb with about a foot of snow in my Detroit suburb. So you could still go sledding and have some snowball fights, I would have told my 4yr old that we were just having a mild winter and might have a few more but eventually the snow will come back.

How do I know this? Well, according to paleoclimatology, we are in a glacial epoch. Glacial epochs are heavily weighted in favor of glaciations which means lots of snow and ice over the northern hemisphere. The fact that we are in an inter-glacial period where the earth warms and life flourishes is a good thing to be welcomed, not prevented.