Americans are amazingly provincial. They give aid to a small neighboring country and the citizens complain about needing for help to start at home. But that's a post for another day, perhaps.
Today, I have to complain that Americans are amazingly provincial because all they can see, with their blinders carefully in place, is that they're having a horribly cold winter. Meanwhile, the southern hemisphere is having an unusually warm summer. The various technologies that measure the mean global temperature all seem to agree about 2009. It was a very warm year - tied for second warmest on record. Even as cold as some of the winters in the last decade were, over all the last decade was the warmest on record and the years in the decade were all in the top of warmest on record, even if they weren't all the warmest ever (2005, however, does get that recognition).
The story is explained here: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/01/2009-temperatures-by-jim-hansen/
Yes, Americans are suffering a very cold winter. The world is suffering a very warm January over all. The glaciers are still melting, the oceans are still rising, and the climate is still getting warmer. So pull those fingers out of your ears, stop shouting "LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU." Even though most of the worst effects will happen after you are dead, you need to take responsibility now, because the later we wait, the more expensive and the more jobs will be lost trying to fix the problem.
Do you treat the cut on your foot while it's still small, or wait until the gangrene has set in and you have to amputate? Your choice.
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