Global Warming Science - www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming

South Dakota

[last update: 2010/11/04]

According to the  “Women News Network”:

[http://womennewsnetwork.net/2010/11/02/lakotaelderwomen-1008/]

This is an example of why the “global warming” scam had to be renamed to “climate change”. (But then the article almost appears to have been written by the Onion. For example: “During the winter months, women also face specific problems because of their gender. “When winter comes, I’ll just get me a fat woman and let her sleep on the windy side,””)

From the article: ““An average of 689 (reported) deaths per year in the United States results from excessive environmental cold exposure,” says educational resource group, the (U.S.) College of American Pathologists. While deaths from cold temperatures are hard to track accurately, each year hypothermia deaths are reported on the Reservation. “Each winter, reservation Elders are found dead from hypothermia,” says Brenda Alpin, founder of Laktoa Aid, in a 2004 report for UNPO – Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Although many hypothermia deaths are related to alcohol abuse, conditions leading to hypothermia in Elder Lakota women often occur due to poor health, poverty and lack of resources. “Climate change hits poor people hardest – especially poor women,” says Oxfam’s current 2010, ‘Sisters on the Planet’ initiative campaign. Deaths from hypothermia, “occur equally as frequently indoors as outdoors,” explains the College of American Pathologists. “A debilitated Elder may become hypothermic at home (inside) in temperatures as high as 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (22- 24 degrees Celsius).”” (In Chicago old people are called “the elderly” – on Indian reservations they are called “Elders”.)

South Dakota Temperatures

According to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, South Dakota winters have been getting warmer in the latter part of the 20th century (at a rate of 2.4 degrees per century for the last 115 years). The following figure shows average winter temperatures for South Dakota since 1895 [http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/sd.html]

So if winters are getting warmer due to global warming (“climate change”), what is the alarm about?

Once again, alarmists confuse climate and weather. From the article: “El Nino conditions are now predicted to cause unusual excursions of Arctic air into the central northern regions of the U.S. The NOAA – National Weather Service predicts a cold episode winter this year. The weather “favors the build-up of colder than normal air over Alaska and western Canada, which often penetrates into the northern Great Plains and the western United States,” states this winter’s report.”

The winter of 2010 was the 15th coldest in the last 115 years in South Dakota and this coming winter is expected to be cold too, due to the current La Nina conditions.

The article had a link to the following figure [http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/impacts/cold.gif] showing the standard La Nina weather expectation.

The El Nino / Southern Oscillation is the “most important coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon to cause global climate variability on interannual time scales” [http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/people/klaus.wolter/MEI/]

Combining the South Dakota winter temperature shown previously with the ENSO index shown above shows that the ENSO is highly influential on South Dakota weather.

(For more on ENSO see: http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/ENSO.htm)

Green Jobs

From the article: “American Indian Humanitarian Foundation figures now show that 24,000 households on the Pine Ridge reservation are substandard, placing their occupants in possible critical danger. …the recent 2009 U.S. federal economic incentive program, The U.S. Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has pushed for specific programs to help bring better housing to the people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. To date, $173,756,330 (USD) has been slated for contracts in an effort to improve conditions. Additional monies have been made available also to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in form of grant programs.”

($173+ million for 24,000 homes = an average of $7,200 per home)

Green job$: “The hope is that the new federal monies can reach on-the-ground programs and needs, as tribal members learn how to apply for grants and follow up correctly”

But the article did quote from Oxfam, and their fact sheet says “When natural disasters strike, they hit poor communities first and worst.” (thus confirming the trailer park / tornado theory).

[http://www.oxfamamerica.org/files/climatechangewomen-factsheet.pdf]

It’s typical of alarmists to misrepresent weather as global warming / climate change.

See: http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/ElNino2010.htm