With the recent record-setting snowstorms in the Mid-Atlantic states, global climate change deniers are once again crying foul with global warming and ringing the global cooling bell. People need a heaping helping of science literacy to weather this storm, to rationally understand the overall processes that can cause massive winter storms like this even when the average global temperature is increasing.

So, here are three sources to get you started:

1. My blog post, The Hot Air About Global Climate Change
2. A timely, short recap of the affects of global warming on global climate
3. A humorous, but poignantly true, report from the Daily Show

With 2010 Winter Olympics about to begin, big snow in the higher mountainous elevations is to be expected. But there are questions of whether there will be sufficinet snow for some of the planned events. Granted, Vancouver is not the coldest or snowiest place on earth, but its mountains usually have more consistent snowpack this time of year. In fact, it appears that this Winter Olympics will be the warmest on record.

As I sit in my office looking out at a gorgeously sunny day–where I live, it’s an unusual treat to have 7 days in a row with bright sun in the winter–and pondering the fact that our average snowfall is almost 15% below for this time in February, I think how odd it is that states to our east and to our south are having an exceptionally severe winter yet Vancouver is scrambling to preserve what little snow they’ve got. But then I think about the science and realize that global climate change does not mean hotter and drier everywhere at the same time. So, if you are in the global cooling camp, please cool down your hot rhetoric and learn more about the science.

UPDATE:

November 17, 2010: Here’s a study showing that Global Warming Could Cool Down Northern Temperatures in Winter.