Graph explaining how greenhouse gas pollution intensifies
precipitation events, including snow storms, from Trenberth et
al., 1999. “Snowmageddon.” “Snowpocalypse.” “SnOMG.” These
popular depictions of the record snowstorms that have crippled
the Mid-Atlantic region demonstrate that the American public
knows the weather is disastrously out of control. Instead of
galvanizing Congress to take action to stop the manmade
disruption of our climate, these storms are being used by
Washington pundits to excuse inaction. Sen. Jeff Bingaman
(D-NM), the chair of the Senate energy committee, is turning to
these killer storms to justify his resistance to passing strong
climate legislation, telling the Hill’s Alexander Bolton that
“the blizzards that have shut down Congress have made it more
difficult to argue that global warming is an imminent danger”:
It makes it more challenging for folks not taking time to review
the scientific arguments. People see the world around them and
they extrapolate. I think that it’s hard to