NOAA: Blizzard Rearranges Climate Change Announcement
Posted by
Ben on 2/10/2010, 9:58 am
By Louise Radnofsky
As D.C. continued to dig out from Snowmageddon and is keeping an eye on another storm system, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was busy making a climate change announcement.
NOAA, part of the Department of Commerce, is going to be providing information to individuals and decision-makers through a new NOAA Climate Service office. "More and more, Americans are witnessing the impacts of climate change in their own backyards, including sea-level rise, longer growing seasons, changes in river flows, increases in heavy downpours, earlier snowmelt and extended ice-free seasons in our waters. People are searching for relevant and timely information about these changes to inform decision-making about virtually all aspects of their lives," the release says.
Earlier snowmelt? That would be nice.
Turns out the release was planned prepared ahead of the snowstorm, which shut federal agencies today and forced its senders to hold a press conference by telephone instead of at the National Press Club.
It's not the first time inclement weather has put a chill on official efforts to tackle climate change. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to leave the Copenhagen summit early in December to get back to D.C. before the blizzard known as Snowpocalypse grounded all flights.
We know how this argument goes: Climate change-skeptics such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says that the weather conditions prove that "global warming" is a hoax; activists say that scientists are looking at longer-lasting weather patterns.
But, says NOAA spokesman Justin Kenney, they're happy to have a chance to educate people about the difference between the climate and the weather.
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