Let me clear some things up!

Hi there,

First of all: yay, let's celebrate that from now on I don't have to overthink every word I post on here! Because finally, I will not be graded for it anymore. I'm very happy that my global environmental change course had us start our blogs, but I'm also very excited for not waking up in the middle of the night thinking "Did I actually cite that article?" or "Was that last post academic enough?".

So on to the order of business. I am going to clear a few things up in today's post. The reason for this: it seems to me that many people have a difficulty distinguishing between climate CHANGE, climate VARIABILITY and the ominous term GLOBAL WARMING. 

Not enough white stuff.. Look at it, so brown!

The lack of snow of the past month led to many conversations on the skilift that went as follows: "Oh there really is little snow this year, huh..?" "Yeah man, it's crazy! Never seen it like this." "Me neither. Damn climate change/ global warming."

And this makes me so incredibly angry! I realize this is slightly ridiculous, but as many of my friends know, climate change and nuclear energy are two very touchy, emotionally loaded subjects for me. Only talk to me about them if you are A) knowledgeable on the subject or B) interested and open-minded in learning something about it. Then I will enlighten you on the exact topic of this post and/or why nuclear energy is our only temporary energy option, if we want to reach the threshold atmospheric CO2 concentration of <350 ppm again. OK, sorry, back on topic..

So let's first discuss the ominous term that so many use but so few understand. GLOBAL WARMING. It's a physical process, and no, its definition is not that the UK is going to develop a tropical climate. It is however, indeed, a net increase in the energy contained in the earth's atmosphere, causing rising surface air temperatures. Also, the more correct term for it is RADIATIVE FORCING, which simply said is the increased trapping of longwave radiation because of a rising concentration of greenhouse gases. This is a gradual but alarming process, which is a DRIVER of our next topic.

Just to emphasize: global warming is a DRIVER of CLIMATE CHANGE. Climate change again mostly manifests itself through changes in the earth's hydro-ecological system. This includes desertification, glacial melt, sea level rise, and especially an increase in the extremes. This majority of the intensification in the system comes from a net transfer of freshwater from snow and ice, as well as increased vapour pressure leading to more precipitation and evapotranspiration. To make things easy: dry will get drier, wet will get wetter. Get ready for deserts, floods and storms. 

So essentially what climate change will intensify, is the term everyone neglects: CLIMATE VARIABILITY. It's been around since planet earth exists, because climate is per definition an average. Usually over a period of 30 years, which is the generally accepted definition by the world meteorological organization. Climate variability encompasses the anomalies, such as a very hot summer, or in this case, a winter with very little snow.

So in conclusion: there is no way we can attribute the lack of snow this winter to climate change. It is simply climate variability. So quit bullshitting that it's climate change. What we do know, is that global warming is leading to higher night-time minimum temperatures, and thus to less snow in the future. Climate change will be driving up the snow boundary, so lower-lying ski areas will be in trouble. So yes, climate change has an overall impact on the amount of snow. But it's climate variability you have to blame your lack of this season's powder runs on.


P.S. Sorry for the capitals, the italics and the bold print. But as I said; touchy subject for me.
P.P.S. Check out this Huffington Post article, which explains it quite well (or scroll down a few posts for the direct impact on the ski industry)