Climate Change and Winter Weather

By Kristie Murru

Four Nor’easters in a month, here we are: cold, snowed in, and praying for summer, or at least a semblance of warmth.  Whenever these storms hit I always think of what my grandparents are saying just a few blocks away from me: “global warming isn’t real, it’s below freezing outside.”  For some people it is hard to separate immediate occurrences from gradual change. Just because it happens to be spring and we keep getting snow storms does not in any way imply that global warming is not in fact happening.  Weather patterns can change due to global warming, this is something that can no longer be denied. 

The wildfires in California, the hurricanes that ravaged the Caribbean Islands, and even these Nor’easters.  As the climate warms in the Arctic, rising sea levels affect not only that immediate area but New Jersey too.  Of course more research has to be done, but by using colder weather as a defining characteristic as to why global warming is not real, is an assumption not based on any factual evidence.  If anything, it only proves that the climate has been changed so much that it is now leading to severe changes in the world’s weather patterns that will only continue to escalate as sea temperatures rise.

Recently I read an article where people on the streets of the United Kingdom were being interviewed as to whether or not they believe climate change is a real problem.  One interview stuck out to me because the girl responded that yes climate change is a problem because if the climate warms and leads to more flooding in her area, then her personal life would be affected.  Her home would be destroyed and she would be forced to relocate.  I believe that a lot of people today have this mentality, that climate change becomes a problem when your immediate world is impacted, which would force them to take action.  Her opinion made me think of my own personal reaction to this most recent snow storm:

As a graduating senior at Ramapo College, I couldn’t help but find myself torn between wanting school to be closed, but also wanting to get it over with.  Clinging to the joy that has always been correlated with snow days as a kid, it’s difficult to be upset when school is cancelled.  At the same time, snow in such large quantities, storm after storm has become a hassle, with classes cancelled three times this semester.  This Thursday morning even after my parents had cleaned my car off on their way to work, most of what had been left was frozen solid.  And so, in order to have enough time to get to school before class, I needed to wake up earlier than usual to clean the car again.  With a mountain of snow to the right of my car, I needed to dig myself out so that I could clean the right side. Despite the trouble and inconvenience this storm caused me, it was manageable compared to what other states and cities experienced.  

Climate change is real, global warming is real, and no matter how people are moved to start taking action, something must be done.  Six inches of snow is not an unbearable feat to overcome, but it is something that impacted my own personal world and caused me to truly think about what these weather patterns mean going forward.