At Least "Global Warming" Has A Sense of Irony

No matter which side of the Global Warming debate you're on (fun fact: there's actually five sides), you have to admit that this is pretty funny. The day before Obama is supposed to arrive in Copenhagen to discuss how we can "solve" the climate change problem, the city has been hit by four inches of snow.

Maybe you're saying to yourself: four inches doesn't sound like much. Copenhagen is in Denmark, which is part of Scandinavia, and it's always cold and snowy there, right?

Not so fast. Unlike Norway or Sweden, Denmark is known for rather mild winters. According to the BBC, Copenhagen's average temperature in December is between 34 and 40 (Fahrenheit). The country has not had a "white Christmas" (as defined by the Denmark Meteorological Institute) for 14 years, and has only had seven in the past century.

Global Warming Now in Doubt, Americans Say

In the past six months, apparently 14 percent of Americans have changed their minds about the existence of global warming, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. In April, the same survey said that 71 percent of people felt there was "solid evidence the Earth is warming", but in October's survey only 57 percent said that was true.

There was also an 11 percent decline (from 47 to 36) in respondents who said the Earth's warming was due to human activities. Also significant is a nine percent decline (44 to 35) in people who said global warming is a "serious problem". The decline goes across all political opinions, but it is most pronounced among independent voters.

So why is this? Could it be that health care and swine flu have replaced global warming as the biggest threat to life on Earth? Could it be, as Megan McArdle suggests, that "45 million Americans spent the last year reviewing the scientific evidence on Global Warming and changed their minds"? Or was it the unseasonably cool summer that most of North America experienced, combined with the earliest snowfall on record in many places in the Rocky Mountains, that has swayed opinion?

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Google (Flooded) Earth

Google Earth is apparently now a political tool, as opposed to, you know, its intended purpose of providing accurate information about the geography of the world we live on.

A new plug-in for the mapping program allows you to "see" the destruction that Global Warming will wreck on our coastal cities and beach resorts. It's the perfect device if you really want to know what Greenland will look like without all that ice (I'm guessing it will be rocky and empty), or if you just can't wait to see Miami turn into America's Venice.

Or, if you're like Al Gore (who provides the narration), and spreading the fear of Global Warming is your only real purpose in life.