We had our first snow here in 5 years on Saturday. It was fun, although for you folks who get a lot of snow I can see how it would be a pain if it lasted for more than a few days. We accumulated about an inch, and by three in the afternoon it was mostly all gone, but was fun while it lasted. I did not build a grassy, muddy snowman and there wasn’t enough to sled on, although my front yard is sloped enough so that would be fun if we ever got the chance. My wife put out a bowl to collect enough snow for some snow ice cream, but when she went to get it it was full of water. Basically I just went out with my 3-year old and walked around for a little while, but he got irritated quickly as it kept fluttering down into his eyes. It was his first-ever sight of snow in real life, and he was pretty excited about it until he got out in it, then he just wanted to go back inside. I stayed out for a while, thinking about global warming and wondering if it’s all just hogwash or if we are all, in fact, doomed.
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6 Comments
Your 3 year old is very smart. Snow: fun to look at, being out in; not so much.
It’s real. Good times ahead for all. It snowed once in Central Florida when I was a kid. I thought that was cool. I think that was in 1978.
We got another three inches Saturday night and my kids had no interest in going out and playing in it. Whereas the week before they stayed out in it for hours making snow angels and just sitting around talking on a pile of snow.
Rigel: Yes. I’m beginning to think he’s already smarter than I am (I stayed out in it for a couple of hours while he sat inside all toasty warm watching Teen Titans).
Ken: No offense intended here, but what qualifies you to claim that global warming is real? I’m beginning to wonder if anyone knows, really. Here’s the thing: There was a mini-ice age that lasted through 1870 or so (it’s a fact; look it up) and, since then, we’ve been on a steady warming trend. So why shouldn’t we think that this is just the culmination of that trend? We were headed that way before we ever began really burning fossil fuels and such, why is that so hard to believe? Besides, I’m not so sure all this melting isn’t eventually going to result in a new ice age. I ask because I really want to know, and I’m not the kind of guy who will blindly follow the blind; I’m more of the blindly follow the shiny red laser pointer dot :-)
Maybe that’s a new post for me: Which would be worse, the culmination of Global Warming (drought, famine, heat strokes, etc) or the dawning of a new Ice Age?
Brrrr.
I vote Ice Age worse. Born and raised in Michigan and I despise the cold. I don’t know one way or another on global warming (though I’m rather doubtful, especially when anything weird weather-wise happens it’s now automatically blamed on it, weather’s been wired for all of recorded history, nothing special about it), but I have a hard time believing warming is a bad thing.
I’m still undecided. The way I see it, if things get bad, I’m probably going to get out. If there’s a heat wave/drought/famine hitting us, then I’m probably going to become a Canadian or at least live in the upper latitudes next door to my bud Ken McConnell in Idaho. If things go the other way, and a wall of glacial ice begins creeping down I’ll be heading south. So that’s either Mexico, Cuba or Puerto Rico or the like. I’m leaning Cuba, and there’s a whole ‘nother post about Cuba that I’ve still got to get into. Suffice it to say that I think Cuba should be the 51st state by now. Cuba could be a world power if only it had better leadership.
Anyway, end result is I think I’d rather live in Cuba than Canada, so I’d vote for Ice Age. And I’m sorry if I’m treating these disastrous events with a cavalier atitude, I know it would be cataclysmic either way, I’m just more of an Island guy than a Canada guy. No offense to any Canadians out there in internet land. Okay, I’m through apologizing to people now :-)
The problem with global warming is that it upsets weather patterns, not that everybody gets warmer. Also, in the ice ages, the winters were milder than they are now, it’s just that the summers were much cooler. It’s also the unexpected things that happen that will make it bad. In Germany they’re now able to get three harvests of winter wheat because of the warming. However, there is greater crop loss due to insects and mold because with the winters being milder, these things do die back enough.
But snow is cool. The good thing is in the North we’re prepared for it. Yeah, some people freak, but most places up here can handle a half foot of snow without too many problems. Now, three feet of snow in a day, that’s a problem.