La Niña Threatens to World’s Weather

The above title came from an article on the UK’s TimesOnline with the same title, “La Niña Threatens to Wreck World’s Weather” From the very beginning the story it tries to grab the reader’s attention by trying to scare them in the first paragraph, “Experts predict a run of severe weather in the coming months, with devastating floods striking some parts of the world while severe droughts afflict other regions, as the climate phenomenon known as La Niña gathers momentum.” From there the next two paragraphs are about current extreme weather and how it could “exacerbate” the California drought. Then about about cold and snow in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, which is common in La Niña events. Then it talks about more floods and drought and even mentions how La Nina could “rearrange the pattern of sea ice around the Antarctic.”

Here is my problem with this story, it seems over the top doom and gloom. La Niña patterns in the Pacific “alters” world weather patterns not “wreck” it. They do mention that the La Niña is in its developing stages and that it will continue to get stronger, and they also quote a source that says it isn’t going to be real strong. (That I agree with. From all that I have seen and read I think we are in the ball park of a weak to moderate La Niña.) After they state that La Niña is in its early developmental stages, and they go on to blame it for weather events this summer, for example the strength of Dean and Felix and flooding monsoons in Asia.

How can you blame La Niña for weather events this summer? When NOAA in its press release about the”developing La Nina” says, “While we can’t officially call it a La Niña yet, we expect that this pattern will continue to develop during the next three months, meeting the NOAA definition for a La Niña event later this year.”

I want people to understand that world weather patterns are not this simple. There is more to what happens with the atmosphere and the overall weather pattern than just one La Niña or El Niño event. While we live in an age where the drum beat of Climate change gets louder and louder we need to become more familiar with our weather and have a better understanding of how the atmosphere works. If we don’t and just accept all that we are told from one side of the debate or the other we will be taken advantage of.

I am not a Global Warming denier or an alarmist either. I don’t think the solution is in government mandates and higher taxes in the name of curbing Climate Change, but we shouldn’t just sit around and do nothing. I think the solution could be in technology and the markets. Finding new and cleaner ways to do the things we currently do now and there is definitely a demand for cleaner eco-friendly products.