Winter is Back

The Association of American Law Schools held its annual meeting in New Orleans this past week. Two sessions were on global warming. It was freezing outside.

How ironic! N’awlins was below 32°. The news reports devoted long segments on how to keep your pipes from freezing.

Europe is in a freeze, reminiscent of Napoleon’s and Hitler’s defeats by General Winter, the freezing, heroic GI’s fighting the Wehrmacht in the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Day 1944, and the withdrawing Marines from the Frozen Chosun in Korea. Winter’s back.

Copenhagen was snowing during Copenhagen. Copenhagen may be cold, but it hardly ever snows. Even the large carbon footprint couldn’t warm up Copenhagen during Copenhagen. Winter’s back.

The Chunnel broke down because of freezing weather in France, trapping 2500 passengers on 4 trains under the English Channel for hours without food, heat, lighting or power. Winter’s back.

18 inches of snow in London. That's not a traditional English winter.

The Lower 48, with the conspicuous and fortunate exception of Southern California, is in a deep freeze, in some cases going back weeks. Ra smiled on the BCS Title Game in the Rose Bowl last week, while the Florida Bowls suffered. Winter’s back.

Florida citrus growers struggled to save their orchards. That’s a real winter.

16 inches of snow fell on the National Mall, 23.2 inches in Philly, 24.9 inches on Long Island in a vicious N’oreaster. That is not global warming. It should have put a freeze on the Health Reform Bill, but Senator Reid froze the Senators in session until Christmas Eve. Little hot air was generated in the Senate because it was mostly in a back, non-smoked filled room. Winter’s back with a vengeance.

Remember the winters of 1994 (The winter from hell) and 1996? They’re back.

Snow is blanketing Mid-America, and cities are exhausting their snow plowing budgets. That’s a true winter.

Atlanta airport cancelled flights because of snow in Atlanta. That is a true winter.

Heating oil prices are unfortunately jumping. I remember those days; we had a 1,000 gallon tank in Massachusetts. Winter’s back.

The Dakotas are freezing below normal - winter’s back.

The Siberian Express has awaken from hibernation. Winter’s back.

Much of Asia is freezing. New Delhi‘s in the 60’s. Now is the time to visit the Taj. Winter’s back.

Ever since the prophet Al Gore trumpeted global warming, global temperatures have been dropping.

Newsweek and Time forecast a coming global freeze a quarter century ago. Now they trumpet a different tune. But winter is back.

How soon we forget what a real winter is like.