Wrong, Forbes and NBC, climate change isn’t the end of White Christmas — is it worth it?

from climaterealism

Author: H. Sterling Burnett

Forbes Several media outlets, including NBC News and NBC News, published ill-timed articles on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day claiming that climate change could cause snow to end Christmas Day. This is wrong. Although countless mainstream media have repeatedly declared that “snowfall is over” in the past, data shows that snowfall has generally remained relatively stable over the past few decades, with snow falling earlier and snow falling later. Overall snowfall trends have changed little, with white Christmases remaining as frequent or rare as they were historically during the Little Ice Age before the late 1800s, when winters were much harsher due to entirely natural factors.

Forbes'The Christmas article, “Will climate change end the dream of a white Christmas?” NBC's Christmas Eve report, “How climate change is making a white Christmas a rare event,” is both misleading and particularly ill-timed. This is misleading because snowfall and accumulation during or around Christmas is not uncommon and untimely since even at the time of the story, New York and Boston and other areas on the East Coast were experiencing their first snowfall in years White Christmas, with one and four inches of snow on the ground in more than two cities. Don't think this is proof that Christmas snowfall is becoming increasingly rare in these parts, it turns out that these two cities get relatively little snowfall and snow accumulation on Christmas Day because they are located on the Atlantic Ocean, which moderates temperatures throughout the region.

misleadingly lamenting the disappearance of the show, Forbes wrote:

For generations, the allure of a white Christmas has captured the imagination of the world, a phenomenon immortalized in song and film. However, as climate change causes global temperatures to rise, it is increasingly unlikely that many areas will be covered in snow in December. Recent data reveals a chilling truth: Climate change is reshaping winter, with impacts that extend far beyond holiday aesthetics.

According to NASA, Earth's average surface temperature has risen by about 1.1°C since the late 19th century, with most of the warming occurring in the past 40 years. Winters once characterized by long periods of snowfall are becoming shorter and milder.

Neither Forbes Neither NBC nor NBC are the first to assert that climate change means the end of snow. Sadly, for the sake of media integrity, they probably won't be the last to make such false claims either. this new york timesCNN and daily telegraphand other promoters of fake climate news have made such claims before. For example, Climate Change Week and Climate Realism have debunked such claims over the past few years.

have Forbes NBC not only looked at slight increases in temperatures to speculate on the decrease in snowfall, but also looked at long-term snowfall data captured by Rutgers University's Global Snowfall Laboratory, and they found that the extent of snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere has increased over the past few years. year of mild warming. (see picture below)

In fact, during its run the now-defunct website Cold Weather Report detailed the number of record snowfalls set in the United States and around the world in recent years. Electroverse has a longer, consistent record of reporting on unusually severe cold and snow events and the hazards they cause. Forbes And other mainstream media outlets don’t seem to bother to check the records of discussions on such sites before publishing their annual, seasonal, misleading and alarming climate change stories about the end of snow.

As discussed in Climate Overview: Snow Cover, NASA satellites have also measured slight increases in snow cover in North America, Europe, and throughout the Northern Hemisphere since the 1980s. (see picture below)

Some fall, winter, and spring seasons bring colder and more snow than others, and some do the opposite, with warmer temperatures and less snowfall, but there is no downward trend in snowfall, snowpack, or snowpack extent over the long term. . Credible news outlets should report this fact rather than trying to push alarm and climate action based on a false narrative that White Christmas is over.

H. Sterling Burnett

Dr. H. Sterling Burnett is director of the Arthur Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy and editor-in-chief of Environment and Climate News. In addition to directing the Heartland Institute's Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy, Burnett brings together environment and climate news and is editor of the Heartland Climate Change Weekly email, as well as Environment and Climate Host of a news podcast.

Relevant