Goodbye Snow

[GreekChick]

I am deeply concerned:

A few years ago, I used to be able to walk outside around this time of year, all wrapped up in my fuzzy scarf, my mittens, and my coat, and still feel like I wasn't warm enough. Now, I could pretty much walk outside wearing only a jacket, and feel like I am dying of heat. I live in Montreal, Canada, a pretty Nordic country if you ask me....however, looking outside this morning was quite depressing: I feel like it is summertime, minus the tree leaves.
This is getting ridiculous. Around the end of November, we used to get blizzards, mountains of snow. You couldnt walk outside without getting a frost bite. Now, 4 DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS, I feel like it's going to start feeling like Miami, IN CANADA. I can't imagine what is happening in the US, in England, in Russia, etc. Now you might say "Oh well it's a good thing, we don't want blizzards, or cold, or snow, we want to be able to drive without traffic in the morning, etc."
NO, I am sorry, that's not how it goes.

Can't anyone see what we are doing to the earth? Global warming has gotten so bad, we won't even be getting any snow for the holidays!What do you have to say about that? Canada has signed Kyoto, but now our own prime minister is doubting it. As for the United-States...I don't care if it's to keep the economy strong that the president is letting factories and such release hazardous material into the air, 24/7, OUR EARTH IS DYING! Doesn't anyone care if 10 years from now, our children won't even know what snow looks like, what snow feels like, WHAT SNOW IS? And it's not even during the winter, it's all year round! Summer is so humid now, the rains and the hurricanes are multiplying, the sun is getting stonger, etc. Oh and let's not forget how people in Europe died a few years ago from the unbearable heat (France being one good example)


WE NEED TO WAKE UP!
I want blizzards, I want snow, I want to be able to drink a hot cup of choco next to my fireplace, while watching the beautiful, sparkly snow falling slowly, covering everything. I don't want to feel like I am sweating the minute I put on my fuzzy slippers. I want to feel the Christmas spirit this year, feel like everything is perfect.

Well, now in order to do that, we need snow. I am not afraid to say that we really do NEED IT! The lack of it is a true representation of how we are destroying mother nature with our indifference. And that's what we really are doing, destroying. Can't you see the proof?

 

[Beauty Mark]

My opinion has always been if people don't want snow, move to warmer weather. There are plenty of lovely warmer weathered places. It disgusts me when people are elated that we had 60 degree weather in Nov

The high temperatures have been disturbing me, too. I remember having to wear a coat over my Halloween costume and bundling up. Never before have I been able to walk around in Nov without a coat. Dec. 1st, in the Northeastern part of the Us, I could walk around easily without a coat and not be cold! That's crazy.

It's not so much that we need the snow or that I want snow or people should know what snow is; I'm worried how we're destroying the environment, because the earth (and we) might not be around in a decade for us to be sad about not having snow anymore. Killing off plants, sources of oxygen, etc.

 

[Hawkeye]

I really do admire your passion for wanting the earth to be cleaner and realizing that the man is destroying many of the earth's gifts to us such as food, water etc. And I support that because we agree that we need to take better care of our planet. We are essentially killing our grandchildren to feed our children.

However, Being the spawn of satan I am-I just do not believe it is global warming due to man. Yes, I do believe that man has contributed in the poisioning of our water, the death of the land etc. But I do not and cannot believe in global warming being caused by man.

Global warming goes in cycles. Only 30 years ago (in the 70's) people were telling us that we were all going into the next ice age and anyone who thought other wise was a nut. Now, it's been reversed. I think Global warming happens every few decades and then it goes down to where the temperature decreases etc.

Also we have to concern ourselves with these things:
The sun is hotter. Not just to us and our feeling of temperature but the sun has actually become hotter. The sun is going through a lengthy period of increased activity that causes more heat to radiate through space. A hotter sun would lead to a hotter earth.

Also the polar ice caps are melting. That's fine-but why are the polar ice caps melting on mars as well?

The polar ice caps in antartica-the heart of it-is actually getting thicker.

Scientific data has clearly shown that there are cycles - warming cycles, cooling cycles etc.

The planet's temperature has only increased by one degree in the past 100 years.

Some people may also consider the sudden emergance of hurricains and that is an effect of global warming. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration runs the Weather Channels and also charts and observes changes in the earths environments. There is also the National Hurricain Center.

Chris Landsea is the science and operations officer at the NHC. He says that the Atlantic Basin, where hurricanes are born, is experiencing a natural 25 to 40 year cycle in hurricane intensity. Landsea says that there has "been no change in the number and intensity of Category 4 or 5 hurricanes around the world in the last 15 years."

As for the Kyoto Treaty- everyone seems mad that the current administration refuses to sign it-but nobody seems to remember that during the Clinton administration the congressional vote was 99-0. 99 Senators AGAINST the Kyoto Treaty!

also note that neither India nor China nor Austrailia has signed it either! And we should also remember the Kyoto treaty was based on such flawed science that no rational conclusion can be drawn

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37612

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21847

[URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtmlxml=/connected/2004/07/19/ecnsun18.xml"]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtmlxml=/connected/2004/07/19/ecnsun18.xml[/URL]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060524-global-warming.html

http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA235.html

http://www.nationalcenter.org/Kyoto.html


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...0/134405.shtml

 

[lemurian]

Thanks so much for saving me the effort of posting a response, youbeabitch

Agreed.

Edited to say: While I disagree about Global Warming, I do sympathize with the original post -- I miss Winter, too. It's my favorite season, and it hasn't come to Iowa for years

 

[giz2000]

Speaking as someone who hasn't seen snow in many, many years (I was born in NY and remember having white christmases!), and sitting here in Miami, t-minus 4 days and counting until Christmas, AND it's 80 degrees...I have to agree about missing the cold weather....that's why we want to move to Colorado...soon!

 

[prinzessin784]

Everything youbeabitch said

 

[redambition]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbeabitch As for the Kyoto Treaty- everyone seems mad that the current administration refuses to sign it-but nobody seems to remember that during the Clinton administration the congressional vote was 99-0. 99 Senators AGAINST the Kyoto Treaty! also note that neither India nor China nor Austrailia has signed it either! And we should also remember the Kyoto treaty was based on such flawed science that no rational conclusion can be drawn

as an australian, i know a lot of people who are very upset that our government refuses to sign the kyoto treaty. even if man is not the cause of global warming, we still aren't doing the earth any favours, and reducing greenhouse emissions is a good start to making a change.

the weather here is crazy as well. winter was warmer than usual. spring was cold. what we've had of summer here in sydney has mostly been cool - cold weather. it rains a lot in the coastal suburbs, but not an hour away in the more inland suburbs. no rain at all in the catchment area or any of the drought affected areas. crops, sheep and cattle are dying because there's no rain. several cities around australia are running out of drinking water supplies... dam levels are so low it's not funny.

whatever is happening, be it caused by man or be it just a natural cycle of the earth, is strange and confronting. the world and seasons are changing whether we like it or not.

im hedging my bets and trying to be kind to the earth. i suspect we (humans) may be making the situation worse.

 

[Hawkeye]

ITA that we humans must try to help preserve our planet. It is horrible what we do to it. I mean we have old stores that used to be big box marts but now are empty. We take down trees just because we as humans prance around like we own the place and worst of all we kill animals simply because we can. Human beings are a horrible animal if you look at all the injustices we've done against the planet. WHere as every other animal-they just do what their instincts tell them to do. Fascinating.

Am I being harsh? Probably- but it's nothing more than a cycle it will change soon enough back to the cold.

Here in GA we have had very nice comfortable winters. Last year in October we had very strong winds that made it very cold! But it's been comfortable except for Summer where its very hot!

 

[MissMarley]

Man, I wish the cold weather here would go the hell away. we had an insane blizzard after thanksgiving. It's really cold here now too.

 

[amoona]

Honestly I don't know enough about global warming to give a strong opinion ... I could only tell you what I've been told. My cousin said she read something about how the season we have now no longer apply today. IDK ... crazy stuff.

All I know is I live in California ... never been in the snow and never want to be. But it is FREEZING cold here ... well by California standards it's freezing. It's like 55 degrees and all my cousins have caught a cold! We can trade weather if you'd like.

 

[veilchen]

I feel you, GreekChick!
I'm from Austria and here, too, the weather has been acting crazy the past year - we had the hottest summer ever (several weeks with ca. 37°C/98°F), the warmest autumn ever, and (so far) the warmest winter ever. In Vienna, there has been no snow yet this season, and even in the mountains there is hardly any so tourism is already afraid of massive money losses if skiing tourists cancel their holidays because of the lack of snow.
On Dec. 8 we even had 18°C/65°F! Normally it ought to have been 0°C/30°F or even less! It's already scaring me and I'm afraid we'll never have a real winter again, and I *so* love it. The warm weather is killing me - seriously, I hate it. I even once thought of going to nice chilly Canada, but obviously you're having the same problems that we have.
I don't know what causes these weather changes and I don't want to pretend to any explanation as I'm no expert, but the only thing I can say is that I'm deeply sorry and that the changes scare me - who knows what they might be leading to. I can remember a time when there were loads of snow at the end of October so that one could hardly walk out the door ... This October we had days of almost 30°C/85°F and endless sunshine, there was almost no rain at all. I'm really fed up with it ... Bye-bye white X-Mas!

 

[JULIA]

I share the same concern. I live in Canada too. I am wayyyy up north and we usually have a lot of snow in January. I look out my window right now and there is no snow and it's like +4 or +8. I'm pretty happy that I don't have to deal with big coats, awkward boots, slush, -40 weather...but I'm pretty scared to think about what's actually happening here. Global warming, El Nino...whatever it is, it may be great for us people, but animals are suffering!

 

[quandolak]

.....

 

[Beauty Mark]

Quote:

Anyways i dont drive a car..i refuse to. People keep telling me that i would not be able to do all these things without one...bs...public transport..even with their current cut of services to my suburb is more than adequate...people just talk rubbish about not being able to cope without cars....eg my father who had to have his serviced the other day and had to *shudder* use public transport..and he even foudn out it worked and he got to where he wanted on time...

It's almost 60 degrees in MA. Usually, this time of year even in the afternoon, you see your breath when you breath. A day like this would be considered a fluke. Right now, for this winter, days like these are more common than not.

I disagree with you about the car thing. I don't know where you live, but there are a lot of areas in the US that aren't serviced well in mass transit. You just can't go places unless you want to walk several miles one way to work. You basically have to live in a city to rely on mass transit. I don't drive and don't really want to, but I live in a city.

What I will say is that a lot of people do drive around excessively. When I was in high school, it was very popular to go driving around on Friday nights. No destination, nothing. People can stand to cut back on driving if they still do that.

 

[quandolak]

..........

 

[Beauty Mark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by quandolak Ermm i used to live in an area where it took me an hour of walking to get to the nearest bus stop that had only two buses a day ...and that took two hours to get to town

But that isn't practical for the elderly, people with busy lives/families, people with handicaps, etc. I'm all for walking, taking the bus/subway, but a 6 hour commute round trip isn't feasible, especially if you work 8 hours. Since our world practically requires people to travel a distance, our focus should be on mass transit and cutting down on emissions for cars.

 

[quandolak]

........

 

[Beauty Mark]

Certainly, people do overdo it. So many people buy the largest automobile possible for no reason except they want it. I normally don't care what people do enough that I think it should be restricted, but I think some of the larger automobiles should be, considering the pollution they cause. Most people do not need Hummers to ride about the city.

 

[MxAxC-_ATTACK]

I have a 1994 Explorer that lets out hardly any emissions.I dont have kids or anything. i bought the truck for offroading...I am also guilty of owing 3 vehicles.. just for myself. Its my hobbie.

I have to get them smogged (emissions test is called a "smog check") every other year. just like most cars in CA Unless they are brand new they have to be smogged ever 3 years and If they are older than 1974 They don't have to be smogged at all, Due to the fact that Not too many people drive cars older than 1974.