LA Times - "Can somebody, please, help George Will understand climate?"

[TomCADem]

The funny thing is that the LA Times lists the following as opinion while many anti-Democratic hit piece are presented as news.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-climate-will-20120710,0,7227437.story

"Come the winter there will be a cold snap, lots of snow, and the same guys, like [Washington Post columnist] E.J. [Dionne], will start lecturing us. There's a difference between weather and climate. I agree with that. We're having some hot weather. Get over it."

Will would be almost right, if he weren't willfully ignoring the evidence pointing to a changing climate. It is true that commentators on both sides of the political question about global warming tend to confuse weather with climate, with those who favor denying the problem pointing to cold winters as proof that it doesn't exist, even as alarmists see hot summers as proof that Armageddon is nigh.

In a nutshell, the distinction is this: Weather is what's happening outside your window right now, while climate is what's happening in a wide geographic area over long stretches of time. If the only thing we had to go on was that the sidewalks in Washington, D.C., are hot enough to melt rubber soles, Will would be correct -- that's just a nasty heat wave. Unfortunately, there's much more to it than that.

The 12 months ending in June were the warmest, in terms of average nationwide temperatures, that the United States has experienced since record keeping began in 1895 (that's a measure of climate, Mr. Will, not weather). In fact according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, of the dozen warmest 12-month periods on record, all have occurred since 1999 (climate again).

[Blecht]

1. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it."

Upton Sinclair

[struggle4progress]

2. +

[SoutherDem]

3. George will is the smartest idiot I know.

Unlike most Republicans who discard facts altogether, George Will takes a fact and then misses the meaning. I have seen him do this on many occasions on many subjects.

[HopeHoops]

4. Unlikely. He's either totally right or totally wrong - no center territory.