Dear GOP: Please Stop "Bring 'Em On"ing Mother Nature

Posted by The Green Miles

You just had to do it, didn't you, Republican Party of Virginia? Couldn't let last weekend's Snowmageddon go by without a taunting video the snow backed up your belief that global warming didn't exist? And national Republicans giddily joined in.

Never get in all up in Mother Nature's grill and sneer, "Bring 'em on."

Just five days later, the DC area is waking up to intense snowfall & 60 mile per hour wind gusts, creating whiteout conditions. Is this "normal," RPV? We here in DC would kill for some of those placid, bucolic scenes featured in your video. Instead, we're getting, simply put, a winter hurricane:



Which is exactly what climate scientists have been warning to expect as our climate continues to change unchecked. Just last week, the National Wildlife Federation issued a report on Global Warming & Oddball Winter Weather that warned, "Global warming is bringing a clear trend toward heavier precipitation events."

And there are signs that even the national media, which can't even be trusted to publicly state that trying to insure the uninsured is a good thing, is finally willing to call out Republican climate ignorance. Here's TIME:

Brace yourselves now — this may be a case of politicians twisting the facts. There is some evidence that climate change could in fact make such massive snowstorms more common, even as the world continues to warm. As the meteorologist Jeff Masters points out in his excellent blog at Weather Underground, the two major storms that hit Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., this winter — in December and during the first weekend of February — are already among the 10 heaviest snowfalls those cities have ever recorded. The chance of that happening in the same winter is incredibly unlikely.

And that's before today's Snowstorm #3.

The facts of global warming are more clear than ever:

• 2009 was the 2nd-hottest year on record & the 2000s were the hottest decade on record.
• We risk major, costly impacts if we don't act to curb global warming by cutting carbon pollution now.
• The transition to clean energy & efficient technology could not only avert billions in climate costs, it could create 1.7 million jobs.
• The only question is the political will of our elected officials (i.e. Sen. Jim Webb).

But hey, if you're tired of the snow, global warming is here to help! Spring is now arriving 10-14 days sooner. We'll be back to record heat waves before you know it!

Full Disclosure: While I work for the National Wildlife Federation for my day job, I blog for Blue Virginia on my personal time.

VA GOP Mocks Bob McDonnell's Position on Global Warming

Psoted by The Green Miles

Here's Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on global warming:

"I think it's a real concern, and we need to find ways to be able to reduce (carbon dioxide) emissions," [McDonnell] told reporters after a rally with Sen. John McCain in Virginia Beach. "Well, there's some debate that various scientists are going on. I think the temperature of the earth, from the science I've seen, has gone up and what we need to do is promote reductions" in carbon dioxide.

Well, the Republican Party of Virginia is out with a new video sticking it to that Al Gore-loving, treehugging Bob McDonnell by mocking the whole concept of global warming. Why? Because it's snowing! Get it? HA! Never mind that 2009 was the 2nd-hottest year on record, or that the '00s were the hottest decade on record.

I wonder what that science-listening Bob McDonnell's position on evolution is? Hey RPV, I smell a web video ...



UPDATE 2/9: The original video was mysteriously deleted. We here at Blue Virginia have helpfully found the re-posted video for you:

Virginia GOP Goes With "You Lie" Guy

I've got just one word for this: pathetic.



P.S. Click to "embiggen."