Is global warming real? : Toledo experiences record-breaking low temperatures, but globally, temperatures rise

Courtesy of Michael Weintraub

This map shows the difference between 2014 average temperatures and the twentith century average. The blue area shows that the 2014 temp. was lower than the average.

If global warming is really changing the face of this planet, then why on Earth is it so cold?

Last Friday, Feb. 20, Toledo broke a record for the coldest temperature recorded in February. According to the Blade the temperature at 7:40 a.m. was -19 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to AccuWeather, the 2013-14 winter was the snowiest winter in Toledo history. The greater Toledo area received snowfall of over 84 inches, which is about 47 more inches than normal.

With all of this abnormally blustery winter weather, Toledo residents begin to question, ‘Is global warming even real?’

The long story short is yes, global warming is real, according to Michael Weintraub, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Toledo.

“We get this disconnect, ‘what warming?’” Weintraub said. “It was not warmer than average in central North America last year, but what’s interesting … Alaska had one of its hottest years last year.”

Overall, according to Weintraub, the world is experiencing a trend of increasing temperatures.

“Even here on average it’s rising, but not in 2014,” Weintraub said, “And that’s the way weather works… weather varies a lot.”

In 2014, the average temperature in the Midwest was lower than the twentieth century average, according to Weintraub, but everywhere else the temperature was warmer than the historical temperatures.

“It’s like we’re sitting in front of a cold draft in a hot room,” Weintraub said. “It doesn’t feel hot to us because we happen to be the ones sitting in front of the draft.”

Weintraub said there is a good reason for this shift in winter weather patterns.

“What we’ve been getting is this persistent weather patterns since late 2013,” Weintraub said. “A ridge of warm high pressure air is pushing up the west coast and up into Alaska and the jet stream, which is a global current of air that circulates the earth.”

Weintraub said that “the jet stream kind of works like a waterbed.” He said that a push in one area causes a bulge in another.

“What’s happening here is this ridge of warm high pressure around Alaska is pushing the jet stream north to our west and its responding by bulging south further east,” Weintraub said. “It’s dipping south right over us that’s opening up the door to allow cooler weather from the artic regions to wander south.”

Basically, the colder weather that has been occurring in Ohio is a product of a fluctuating jet stream. The cold arctic air is being pushed south because of warmer temperatures in Alaska. So technically, global warming is real and is still causing abnormally cold temperatures here in Toledo.

“Although it may seem colder in our region and other parts of the world, the Earth is getting warmer overall,” said Nacori Lyons, a fourth-year environmental studies major.

Lyons said that through her studies at UT she has learned how climate change impacts the world globally, not just locally.

“Climate change affects different parts of the world differently,” she said. “And some of the effects include higher incidences of extreme weather and more violent storms, as well as increasing or decreasing average temperatures for different regions.”

According to Lyons, in Ohio the winters have been colder the past few years, but this doesn’t mean that global warming isn’t still an issue.

“Some people don’t realize that global warming is in fact a global issue, not a local one,” Lyons said. “It may seem to us in parts of the United States that climate change isn’t happening because of recent cold winter conditions, but other parts of the world are experiencing different problems, such as higher temperatures, drought, floods and other extreme weather and climate fluctuations.”

Lyons said there is a definite need to care about our changing weather and climate patterns.

“We actually do have a pretty clear sense of where [global warming is] coming from,” Weintraub said.

According to Weintraub the warming in Earth’s temperatures can be attributed to the greenhouse effect, the notion that excess gases like carbon dioxide trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, which causes high temperatures.

“This is about as accepted in the scientific community as is the science that smoking is bad for you,” Weintraub said.

He said that it is generally accepted that humans are a root cause of excess greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere.

“We’re putting an extra six billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year,” Weintraub said. “Most of the CO2 humans are putting into the atmosphere is coming from fossil fuel emissions, but changes in land use are an appreciable factor as well.”

These changes in land use include deforestation, increased agriculture and increased concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

According to Weintraub, it is unrealistic to hope to change the American dependence on fossil fuels as an individual consumer, but he said there are steps you can take to help reduce carbon emissions.

“Climate change is definitely still a problem,” Lyons said, “It is not an issue that will go away on its own, especially if humans are contributing to it. There are many things students can do if they are concerned about climate change.”

Weintraub said the biggest problem is that “each one of us feels hopeless in the face of such a giant problem, but there are some small things that we can do individually.”

He said that changing our dietary choices can impact the environment. According to Weintraub it takes less energy to produce vegetables than it does to produce beef or chicken. If our economy produced less meat in total, we could even reduce the number of carbon emissions.

“Eating less meat in general is going to reduce your ecological footprint,” Weintraub said.

Besides food choices, Lyons said that people can get active in environmental policy and conditions.

“They can educate themselves and others on the issue,” Lyons said. “Reduce their environmental impact and resource consumption by recycling, carpooling, reducing waste and supporting more ‘green’ products, and they can contribute to or support organizations that research and promote efficient policy changes that will reduce human contributions to climate change.”

According to Weintraub and Lyons, even though it is still cold here in Toledo, and global warming doesn’t seem real, it is still shaping the climate of our planet, and it is still very important to play a role in reducing anthropogenic effects on our climate.