'Snowfalls Are Now Just a Thing of the Past'

That was the headline on this March 2000 story in England’s Independent:

Britain’s winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.

Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain’s culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.

The first two months of 2000 were virtually free of significant snowfall in much of lowland Britain, and December brought only moderate snowfall in the South-east. It is the continuation of a trend that has been increasingly visible in the past 15 years: in the south of England, for instance, from 1970 to 1995 snow and sleet fell for an average of 3.7 days, while from 1988 to 1995 the average was 0.7 days. London’s last substantial snowfall was in February 1991.

Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community. Average temperatures in Britain were nearly 0.6°C higher in the Nineties than in 1960-90, and it is estimated that they will increase by 0.2C every decade over the coming century. Eight of the 10 hottest years on record occurred in the Nineties.

However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.

“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.

Screencap here in case this 10-year old article quietly vanishes:

Meanwhile, now is the time when Tim Blair juxtaposes:

2007:

Campaigners, who want to draw attention to the impact of aviation on global warming, have been massing all week … The protesters want Heathrow’s expansion plans dropped and the growth of air travel halted.

2010:

Heathrow airport has closed its runway due to snow … Gatwick Airport has closed its runway until at least 3pm because of heavy snow

That’s a lot of decline to hide; in any case, it’s good to see the MSM’s history of projecting current trends infinitely into the future isn’t just reserved exclusively for equities and ideologies.

By the way, it’s worth remembering that after heavy snow returned to the DC area last winter, Time magazine took the exact opposite stance of the Independent ten years ago:

And that was after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote in the L.A. Times in September of 2008 that global warming has made snow in the DC region “so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don’t own a sled.”

Fortunately though, as the MSM tells itself: “Climate Change: Get Over Objectivity, Newspapers.” So it really doesn’t matter to them what they say, does it?

Besides, as I wrote back then, global warming: is there nothing it can’t do?

(H/T: Kate O’Hare.)

Update: “Left wing ‘scandal’ of the day: Fox News urged … climate change skepticism!”

So let’s recap: journalists junking objectivity on climate change: Good.

Being skeptical on this key issue where the goal is to regulate virtually every aspect of our lives? Very, very bad.

Mencken, who never saw a religion or politician whose pretensions he didn’t want to prick, would have loved it.

More: “Global Cooling is what we must expect because of Global Warming,” as we take the party from London and DC to the tropical climate of a hothouse UN convention on climate change in sunny Cancun, complete with video from PJTV alumnus Steven Crowder.