USA Today (10/19/18) presents the upside of temperatures not seen since the Pleistocene Epoch.
The federal Climate Prediction Center foresees an El Niño system, a band of warm water that periodically appears in the Pacific Ocean, developing in time for this upcoming winter. This in turn means that 2019 will likely be the hottest year for the planet in recorded history, since we’re already at near-record temperatures (2018 is on track to be the fourth-hottest year) and El Niño gives a predictable boost to global temperatures.
So how did USA Today (10/18/18) report this latest harbinger of the climate apocalypse? In the print edition (10/19/19), the headline was, “Forecasters Say El Niño Will Keep Cold Under Control.”
The online headline (10/18/18) wasn’t much better: “Winter Forecast: Warmer-Than-Average Temps Expected for Most of USA, Thanks to Developing El Niño.” Actually, mostly “thanks” to the hundreds of gigatons of carbon dioxide humans have released into the atmosphere since 1850—but they say don’t mention it.
The story, by Doyle Rice, twice mentions that El Niño is a “natural climate pattern” or a “natural climate cycle”—but never mentions that it’s occurring in the context of highly unnatural human-caused climate change.
“If the prediction comes true, it would continue a streak of unusually warm winters that goes back to the winter of 2015–16,” reports USA Today. Taking the average temperature across the 20th century as “usual,” there hasn’t been a single year in the 21st century when the contiguous United States hasn’t been “unusually warm.”
ACTION:
Please tell USA Today to mention climate change prominently when it reports on signs of record-breaking winter warming.
CONTACT:
Email: letters@USAToday.com
Twitter: @USA Today
Please share your messages to USA Today in comments. Remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
And burning down your house will take the chill off a cold winter’s night.
Oy gevalt …
I know it’s no laughing matter, but that comment gave me the best laugh I have had today!
Global warming will extinguish life on the planet within the current century unless mankind somehow reigns in the American automobile industry, and the media keeps mum about it.
We are in imminent danger of utter destruction from fossil-fuel emissions, and USA Today reports that temperatures this winter will be warmer than average. Oh how nice for those of us in northern areas.
The US military is the largest burner of fossil fuel/gasoline in the world..China -for all their official climate folderol- has every intention, (in fact, actual plans) to overtake the US .
Ive been hearing this same kind of – frankly bizarre and pathological – weather cheerleading from local TV weather reports for a long time…in fact its reached absolutely grotesque proportions with the dingy local anchor cooing and purring like some kind of “phone sex” bimbo for any prediction of abnormal warm patterns….Then again the local weather I get are Baltimore Md. area broadcasts, so…maybe they are just like that. I have noticed lots of boo hoo ing and cry-tit’ing over the weather here in Md.
Letter: It is very disappointing that the above referenced article mentioned nothing about how our climate has been altered by human impacts. It is all very well that the northeast won’t see such cold weather as it has recently experienced (also due to climate change), but to ignore the fact that “warmer” temperatures translate to furthering the extreme drought in New Mexico, for instance. Warm winters translate into very little snowmelt and very hot summers both of which exacerbate drought conditions. Another El NIno means that 2019 will likely be the hottest year for the planet in recorded history, since we’re already at near-record temperatures. To ignore the impact of climate change is irresponsible. I hope you will do a better job of reporting next time.
The following is the email I sent to USA Today:
Your article “Forecasters Say El Niño Will Keep Cold Under Control” by Doyle Rice in your October 18 edition, would have better been titled “Climate Scientist Note that El Niño Is One More Sign that Climate Change Is Getting Out of Control”, but of course then you would need to have written a completely different article. It is shameful that your editorial slant is to turn a blind eye to perhaps the greatest existential threat to life on our planet. It is critically important that your reporting about record-breaking weather patterns and events clearly contextualize them in the reality of Global Climate Change and its growing threat to life on our planet.