With a great deal of hype yesterday, the United States Department of Commerce announced its vision for a new government climate agency spearhead by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Planned as a media event at the National Press Club yesterday, officials were forced to instead make the announcement via teleconferencing due to the major winter storm that struck the nation’s capital and shut down the federal government.
It was ironic that the announcement of the NOAA Climate Service had to be changed due to the extreme winter weather. In recent years the term ‘Gore Effect’ was coined to explain the unseasonable weather that oftentimes accompanies appearances by former vice president and Nobel Laureate Al Gore or when a global warming event is held.
Cold and snow have followed Al Gore and these events across the globe with amazing frequency since 2004. Hearings and press conferences about climate change in the nation’s capital have been besieged by winter storms and global warming events across the earth have been struck by severe cold in recent years. Just this past December, the United Nations Climate Change Conference felt the Gore Effect when severe cold and snow arrived in Copenhagen as international delegates worked on a global warming agreement.
Climate officials are quick to point out that what used to be termed ‘global warming’ is now called ‘climate change’ and has little to do with short term weather. The shift in vernacular has been made in recent years to allow climate scientists to better explain virtually any weather or climate condition that falls outside the norm.
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