Reminiscent of the Obamacare gov site, the linked article from a NASA site, has this at the top [just in case it goes down]."
"Please note that the Earth Observatory website will be undergoing routine maintenance the morning of March 20th and may be unavailable. Thank you for your patience."
[It would appear that Earth is now the agency's BIG GREEN planet, not blue.] MORE FROM NASA:
NASA has become the pseudo-scientific arm of the Ministry of Truth.
It just seemed cold. It just seemed like we were shoveling feet of snow repeatedly. Actually, it was bikini weather, the tenth warmest winter on record. If I distrust the record and the measurements, that's just because I'm ignorant.
I was going to post the same link.
I remember when NASA was all about space exploration. Oh well, as long as muslims feel good about themselves while they are blowing people up and beheading them.
The heart of liberalism: Persuading people to discount their own experience.
“The Great Lakes, in particular, were chilled until they reached nearly 91 percent ice cover.”
It was actually 92.2% coverage on March 6.
Go to Dr. Roy Spencer's website for an expert opinion that mirrors what I said above. Even though he explicitly points out the reality of greenhouse gasses, Dr. Spencer has come under constant attack by the alarmists, as he does not believe that warming will be a major problem going forward.
This article by NASA is fair enough, in that the important thing from that perspective is the global average temperature, not the temperature of the eastern US in particular. It is undeniably true that the West Coast had an unusually warm winter. I personally don't believe current temperature measurements are being tampered with, as there are several sources for them. (I will say I think the historical record has suffered some corruption.)
It seems to me that a more productive approach than arguing about how much the planet will warm, is to identify win/win scenarios that reduce CO2 production while also stimulating real economic growth and improving the human condition. I will point out that many rabid environmentalists seem to be set on humanity having a lower-tech and in fact generally lower standard of living in the future. That is idiocy, and that is the main thing that needs to be fought.
The low-hanging fruit among win/win scenarios is replacing all coal-fired electricity generation with nuclear. Even current generation nuclear is extremely safe, and if a reasonable amount of R&D were put into it, thorium based nuclear power would completely solve the world's energy needs for the foreseeable future, certainly for long enough to develop either LENR or fusion.
Solar power is also a great technology, but it should be used mainly for endpoint generation (roofs are generally wasted space anyhow). Solar isn't a good fit for industrial-strength electric generation. I'm against wind power, if nuclear expands as it should wind won't be competitive and every wind turbine out there will be a rusting monument to environmentalist stupidity.
Replacing coal electric generation is simply a good idea, independent of global warming. There are plenty of interesting things to do with coal besides burning it, so there is not necessarily a huge impact to coal producing areas in the long run, although coal mining is a pretty environmentally unfriendly thing given some of the common practices. What makes burning coal such a bad idea, independent of CO2, is the particulate and mercury pollution emitted. It is simply a dirty form of power, killing tens of thousands of people a year.
The other motivation for advanced nuclear is that civilization needs powerful, high-density energy sources for many things, including space travel. Once practical nuclear/LENR/fusion spacecraft exist, there will be a new wave of pioneering and an explosion of wealth like nothing seen before.
We are seeing the effects of no frontiers - oppressive government, limited opportunity, less self-reliance, squabbling over limited resources and a general oppression of the human spirit. We need a new frontier! We need to open up access to the Solar System, and let the next dynamic age of humanity begin!
(If you made it this far, congratulations! Obviously I have strong feelings on all this. BTW, NASA is not the right entity to cause the space frontier to take off. That will take commercialization.)