Al Gore Cant Have It Both Ways Regarding Global Warming

Al, you can't have it both ways.

From Al Gore's Blog

An Answer for Bill February 1, 2011 : 11:43 AM

Last week on his show Bill O’Reilly asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?” and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.

As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming:

“In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”

“A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.”

But in March of 2002, a debate calling for a climate change strategy because global warming was making the earth hotter and producing less snowfall each year.

Moorhen

The birds must be getting a bit desperate as this long cold snap shows little sign of abating.  This Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) on the canal seemed to be trying to chip through the ice to the water below.  The photo shows very clearly the bird's curious feet, with its long toes, well adapted to walking on soft uneven surfaces.  They do swim but they mostly inhabit the vegetated margins of lakes and rivers.  Resident in the UK, they eat water plants, seeds, fruit, grasses, insects, snails and worms - most of which must be in short supply in this weather.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg had a Katrina/Gulf Oil Spill Moment

Mayor Bloomberg is in hot water with the slow response to the blizzard that hit NYC yesterday. With advanced notice to the pending snow storm, Mayor Bloomberg had an Obama moment. Just like the Gulf Oil Spill, the lack of foresight and initiative cost lives and financial hardship to the residence of NYC. It took other counties from another state to help bail them out. The unions and city hall are blaming each other for the mess. Since the Mayor wouldn't stand up to the unions and decided to cut funding for police and firefighters, I blame the unions and Mayor Bloomberg and both should be blamed for NYC's nightmare.

(CBS New York) NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — A winter storm that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on New York City is also whipping up criticism about how the city handled the response.

City officials said Monday night it could require another 24 hours to clear the snowy and icy side streets, WCBS 880′s Ginny Kosola reported.

The heavy snow sent city emergency services into a nose dive, with ambulances and fire trucks trapped in snow and facing long delays. There was also bickering between the city and some unions over whether a snow emergency should have been called, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported.

As residents were being asked not to call 911 unless there was an emergency, sources said the city was having difficulty responding to many high-priority calls.

Crews from Burlington, Somerset and Mercer counties in New Jersey arrived in New York City to help with the back load of calls – 20 crews were assigned to Queens and 20 ambulances went to Brooklyn

At one point there were 120 ambulances stuck in the snow, Kramer reported.

EMS and fire sources questioned why the city didn’t call a snow emergency to keep cars off streets, which would have made it easier for emergency vehicles and snow plows to get around.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg blamed the fast pace of snowfall. He said it fell at 2 to 3 inches per hour during some periods overnight, and many main roadways had to be plowed repeatedly.

Walking off the pudding

There were a few people out for a good, healthy walk after all that turkey and Christmas pud on Christmas Day.  This was the scene along the canal bank in Saltaire, approaching Hirst Lock.  The canal is frozen over in all but a few places where there is running water, such as the side channel by the lock. The ducks were very grateful for the patches of open water and had congregated there.  If you look carefully you can see someone standing on the ice - definitely not recommended!  There were also a number of big rocks strewn across the canal - stupid people thinking they might try to smash the ice, I suppose.  All that will happen is that, when the thaw, comes the rocks will sink and add to the debris in the canal, which has to be drained every so often to clear it out.

Splat!

Ho ho ho .... what have we here?  Oh dear, oh dear..... sorry children everywhere....it looks like a very special person had an unfortunate encounter with white-van-man on our street.  Oh dear, oh dear!

A Christmas card from Saltaire

Virgin snow

I'm getting bored with 'ordinary' snow pictures.  (Oh dear, that could be difficult if the winter carries on as it has begun.)  For the sake of something a bit different, I started playing with this image - gave it the mono treatment, a minor crop and a bit of experimenting with blending modes.  Can anyone guess where I might have taken it?

Snow magic

The Saltaire Boathouse Inn (bar and restaurant) seen from the footbridge across the River Aire between Saltaire village and Roberts Park.  For the difference the seasons make, see here.

According to the media, this country is paralysed because of the snow.  (What that really means is it's snowy in London and the south-east.)  There does seem to be all sorts of chaos in the transport systems and I must say I'm very glad I don't need to get anywhere in a hurry.  But - hooray! Someone has actually cleared a path down the pavement on the main road through Saltaire.  It makes my walk to work a good deal safer.  Thank you, whoever it was.

My world

This was what we woke up to on Saturday morning.....more of the cold white stuff.  It's not as bad here (so far!) as in other parts of the country (and other parts of the world for that matter) but, given that lots of people are hoping to get away for Christmas, it's not very welcome.  The last lot had only just melted too.  My daughter is up from London for the weekend, and was hoping to go and see her grandfather in County Durham.  The same planned Christmas visit was cancelled last year because of the snow - and it very much looks (at the time of writing) that this year's will go the same way. Families all over the country will be similarly affected - but unless you really have to travel it's simply not fair, on the emergency services and those whose journeys are imperative, to clog the roads up unnecessarily.  My photo shows the main road through Saltaire - what was the old turnpike route from Leeds.  It's well gritted and traffic was flowing freely but the side roads are nasty and the pavements soon get packed down and icy.  Brr.  I'm curling up with the newspaper and a hot drink!

Christmas pud?

I spotted these balled topiary box trees in the city centre - with a dusting of snow on top, they reminded me of traditional Christmas puddings.  I have one of these (tree, not pudding!) in my back yard, but it long ago ceased to be perfectly spherical.  The red box behind them is a small modern mail box, outside the National Media Museum.  I suppose it's handy for tourists to post their postcards: "Just visited Bradford's National Media Museum... it's great! Really interesting..."

When I'm in Bradford I usually try to find time to visit the Media Museum.  I consider myself very lucky that, of all the national museums, Bradford has the one in which I'm most interested - Film, Photography and TV.  This time I saw an exhibition: 'Land revisited' by Fay Godwin (1931-2005), one of Britain's greatest landscape photographers.  Do click the link to see some of her incredible black and white images.  The exhibition is well worth a visit if you're in the area - if not, explore the website, as there's some interesting stuff on there, including photos and some biographical material about Fay Godwin.

Snowy Saltaire

This is nothing more exciting than the gateway into the carpark in the centre of Saltaire, but a frosting of snow and a few red berries against a blue sky transformed the scene into something rather pretty.  These Victorian railings are among the few that survived WWII without being turned into armaments.  Behind the shrubs you can see Salts Mill, with the morning sunshine just lighting up its facade.  This might have to be my Christmas card next year!

(Again, this photo was taken before the heaviest snow fell. We have had no more here since Wednesday and everywhere has started to look a bit grey and dirty now.  I soon get fed up with it!)

Snow joke ....

This section of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, down by the entrance to Roberts Park in Saltaire, is a popular spot for visitors.  There is usually someone there feeding the ducks and pigeons, so the birds have learned to congregate there.  With snow on the ground and ice floes in the canal, they were probably hungrier than usual - but there were few visitors about.  The ducks were milling around, more in hope than expectation.  Perhaps standing on the snow was warmer than swimming in the water.  Not much trade for the ice-cream boat either! When it's raining we say "Nice weather for ducks" - but this.... it's snow joke!
(The photo was taken before the latest snowfall.  The canal is completely frozen over now.  In fact pretty much the entire UK is covered in snow, as this satellite picture shows.)

Blizzard

I interrupt the run of 'pretty' snow pictures to show you the latest development.  This was taken from my office window yesterday at about 1pm.  You can just make out Salts Mill chimney in the background.  It snowed on and off all day but, even so, here we have a good deal less than those unfortunates who live nearer the east coast.  My sister, in Lincoln, was unable to get home from work on Tuesday and spent the night in an hotel near her office.  The snow now seems to be covering much of eastern and central England and Scotland, to a depth unheard of at this time of year.  Because we're not used to it, it causes severe disruption to transport, businesses and schools.  It's probably no worse than 'in the olden days' but most of us have forgotten those times, as we've had a succession of mild winters until last year - and in the olden days we all lived much more local lives.  Now there are just too many people trying to get around on the roads.  I'm very thankful that I only have a short walk to work and that most of the things I really need are very localised.  Though I worry a bit about my mother, as neither my sister nor I could easily get to her in this weather.  I spoke to her last night and so far she seems fine, though she has not been out for over a week now.  It all shows little sign of letting up.  It might be a long winter!

(The most bizarre thing was that, even as it looked like this outside, inside we were in short-sleeved T-shirts with the desk fans blowing, as the temperature in the office rose to 27℃ (80℉)! The building is hermetically sealed and somehow they never can seem to get the heating right.)

First snow

Snow has the power to transform English churches into something magical and its effect on Saltaire URC always pleases me, even though the church is far from a quintessential country church.  We woke up on Saturday morning to a couple of centimetres of crisp, sparkly white stuff and even though I had a 'To Do' list as long as my arm, I couldn't resist a walk.  The sun was not very high so the shadows were long but the snow around the church was virgin.  No-one had yet walked or driven down the drive - and I didn't go and spoil it either!

[After the great but inconclusive size debate, would it be very eccentric of me to post 'landscape' format images in Blogger's X large size and 'portrait' format ones in its Large size?  This one certainly looks better bigger.]

Lone tree

More snow this week, though thankfully it didn't stay for long. We didn't really want it (or at least I didn't) but... Isn't nature beautiful? This tree is etched like black lace in the snow and mist, on High Bank Lane - up the valley side to the south of Saltaire. For such sights, I can almost forgive the treacherous slithering and sliding on the pavements on my way to work.

Many thanks to Diggestive for honouring me with this award - if anybody deserves it, it's Alan at newsfromnowhere and Betsy at myfivemen, as their scribbles invariably brighten my day. So I would like to pass it on to them both, with my thanks.

From the canal bridge

Well the snow wins today, as its back again! It was sheet ice yesterday - quite a challenge to get to work - and then it snowed again. Boo!

This picture was taken last week at one of my favourite spots, looking west along the Leeds-Liverpool canal towards Salts Mill (see its chimney in the far distance). (Isn't it great when someone in a red jacket walks into shot at just the right time?) I really like seeing how the scene changes with the light, the weather and the seasons. To compare, see my posts of 9 December and 26 November.

The black shed contraption on the left is where they used to load goods from the mill onto canal boats. That mill is derelict and becoming steadily more overgrown with weeds and even trees sprouting through the brickwork. It has been 'for sale' for years but I can't see anyone wanting to buy it. It's a rather ugly red-brick building with none of the charm of the older stone-built Victorian mills and it is in a very dilapidated condition.

Icicle

I've seen lots of photos of massive icicles on other people's blogs. I haven't had any on the gutters, but this one hanging from my washing line had me confused at first. Then I realised it had formed close to the wall under the outlet for my condensing central heating boiler - and somehow slid down the line!

The snow is gradually clearing away and everywhere is starting to look dirty and gritty. We are all truly sick of it, I think. But while it's still around, I can't decide what to post on my blog - more authentic "now" pictures ...or some cheerful and colourful shots taken in better weather. I think the cold is seeping into my brain and causing a mild paralysis of thought!

Still standing

Snowy winters come and go but the Salts Mill complex in Saltaire has stood, through good times and bad, for over 150 years, in the Aire valley north of the city of Bradford. This photo gives a good idea of the sheer size of the mill. The main chimney on the left is 250ft (76.2m) high. To the right of it is the oldest part of Salts Mill, a six-storey building and huge 'sheds' that housed all the processes for storing, scouring, combing, spinning and weaving the wools used to produce the fine worsted and alpaca cloth Salts was famous for.

The Leeds-Liverpool canal runs behind the line of trees, providing a transport route for the mill. It cuts through the gap in the buildings (see my picture on 2 January). The New Mill, on the right, was built in 1868 as an extra spinning mill and was extended in the early 1900s.

This view is really of the back of the mills. The village of Saltaire, its church and other important public buildings lie behind and to the left of the mill complex. You can just glimpse the snow-covered roofs of some of the houses.

Snow blossom

What with the snow and being hemmed in at work from before dawn until after dusk, there are precious few opportunities for taking photographs at the moment. I'm making the best of what is around. This willow tree is in the carpark at work. Covered in snow, it looks as though it is in full foliage or perhaps even blossom.

You can just see Salts Mill in the background. In this weather, it certainly makes life easier that my home, work, friends and most necessary things are situated within a mile radius. I'm so glad that I don't have the anxiety and frustration of a long commute each day. But I do wish they'd find a teensy bit of grit for the pavements!

Saltaire New Mill

Saltaire New Mill, glimpsed through the trees. Not much to say about this one except that I thought it was an unusual view of the Mill.

And it's still snowing...