All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Britain is experiencing its coldest winter since record keeping began in 1910, with snow and ice closing London’s Heathrow airport and stranding half a million Christmas travelers, including your correspondent (I would like to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of some good friends). The Daily Telegraph reports:
- Forecasters warned that parts of Britain could see record low temperatures this week of -26C (-15F). Heathrow will experience lows of about -9C (16F) tonight and further snowfall is expected in the South East during the evening rush hour.
- Motorists continued to struggle. The M25 was closed in both directions for about six hours while drivers on the M40 in Oxfordshire suffered severe delays.
- Commuters were warned to expect treacherous conditions with thick ice and freezing fog today. Train passengers also face delays and cancellations, particularly in the North. Eurostar services between London and Paris have also been affected.
As bad as the weather is, a friend in the UK emphasizes that the real problem is worse: a new zero-tolerance for risk in Britain. Also from the Telegraph:
The airport cancelled all incoming flights on Sunday (December 19) after the authorities were unable to de-ice the taxiing areas and stands where planes are parked.
The runways are fine--only a few inches of snow fell at Heathrow--but the apron areas where the planes are parked are slippery and the workers might fall down, so the world's busiest international airport is closed. As my English friend commented by telephone earlier today, "two or three decades ago Heathrow would have stayed open and nobody would have really noticed the ice. You did what you had to do in those days. Not so much today."
My preferred explanation for the transportation paralysis gripping Northern Europe is the Gore Effect. However, like my friend I am concerned about the creeping zero-risk-tolerance mindset at work here. Do you see this sort of attitude creeping into the US, or is the Atlantic Ocean protecting us from this latest threat from Europe?
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Comments :
May '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Yeah, our daughter called this afternoon, snickering about Heathrow- 9 centimeters of snow, and 23 degrees F, stop the world!
Our airport closed last weekend because of the 17 inches of snow and 35 MPH wind gusts, but it was less than a day.
Nov '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
George Savage
. ..However, like my friend I am concerned about the creeping zero-risk-tolerance mindset at work here. Do you see this sort of attitude creeping into the US, or is the Atlantic Ocean protecting us from this latest threat from Europe? ·
In another recent thread I mentioned seeing Mike Rowe speak, and his observation that the trades had been denegrated in the U.S. Another interesting point he made relates directly to this. I think I can remember what he said well enough to quote: "I got a lot of heat from OSHA for saying this before, but I gotta say it. Safety is not first. Safety is second or maybe even third. Getting the job done is first."
Dec '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
From The (UK) Independent March 20, 2000:
Snowfalls are a thing of the past.
h/t Ace of Spades HQ
May '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Changing times:
The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans when large parts of racing car debris, from a crash, flew into the crowd, killing many spectators. The driver (Pierre Levegh) was killed, as were 83 spectators. A further 120 people were injured in the accident. In terms of human toll, it is the most catastrophic accident in motorsports history.
And the race went on ...
Nov '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
I worked for several years with the former head of the Ilinois State Police, who was part of a Marine tank crew that fought on Okinawa. He told me more than one story I will never forget, but this one comes to mind:
The crews in those days did most of the maintenance and repair on their own tanks. Another guy and me were working on one of the treads of our tank when the brake slipped and the tank rolled back just a couple of inches. My buddy held up his hand and said, "Huh, look at that", showing me where the tread had pinched off the end of his ring finger right at the last joint. He wrapped the stub in an oily rag and walked back to an aid station where a medic sewed up the end and put a bandage on it. He came back in about an hour and went back to work on the tank. That's just the way we were.
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Amish Dude makes a great point. From his link to the Independent:
Not the best prediction, eh? I wonder if my inability to travel to the UK is related to a lack of investment in de-icing equipment because AGW theory made snowfall officially impossible.
Jun '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
The safety obsession is definitely here, and has been growing for a long time, especially in Portland. We tend to blame it on the huge influx of Californians that occurred in the 1990's (a non-scientific conclusion, admittedly), though we all know it's a national phenomenon. Snow, in particular, is a pathological fear here now. My two favorite stories are the following: 15 years ago, a snowstorm was coming during the work day. Everyone was panicking, "Go home! Go home!" Suddenly, thousands of people got in their cars and clogged the streets so badly, that they wound up sitting through the storm stuck in their cars in gridlock. Stuck for hours. The second one was not too long ago when the school districts closed school the day before a snowstorm was supposed to come.... it didn't snow... everyone got a free day off.
I've been out of the country in Russia which has no such inhibitions (to a fault, though). I only missed one flight while I was there due to weather. Since I've returned, I can clearly tell that the safety obsession has only gotten worse in the 6 years I've been away.
Jun '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
And by the way, I've already seen the AGW flock defend the recent cold weather. They still say that the year as a whole was one of the hottest ever. Until the penguin becomes our national bird, I don't see them standing back.
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Whatever the weather, catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is just around the corner. It is the non-disprovable hypothesis.
Next time you meet an AGW enthusiast, ask what evidence would satisfactorily disprove or at least call into question the underlying hypothesis. My bet is that he will splutter and obfuscate but finally be unable to answer.
Jul '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Here in Marin County, we call Meals on Wheels whenever the temperature drops below 60 degrees.
Dec '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
The UK still leads the USA by a long ways in the risk avoidance bureaucratic sweepstakes:
A girl fighting for her life after a car she was travelling in plunged into an ice-cold river was not rescued for almost two hours because health and safety rules prevented police from entering the water.
Jul '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
A girl fighting for her life after a car she was travelling in plunged into an ice-cold river was not rescued for almost two hours because health and safety rules prevented police from entering the water.
Similar story out of Maryland. A deer was struggling in an icy river. The Fire Department and Maryland Natural Resources Police were on the scene, debating whether rescuing the deer was worth the risk.
Two passers-by saw the deer and took an inflatable raft out of their van. The police warned them not to go out into the river without life vests, but they went anyway. After rescuing the deer, they were cited by police for not wearing flotation vests.
Dec '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Kenneth
Similar story out of Maryland. A deer was struggling in an icy river. The Fire Department and Maryland Natural Resources Police were on the scene, debating whether rescuing the deer was worth the risk.
Two passers-by saw the deer and took an inflatable raft out of their van. The police warned them not to go out into the river without life vests, but they went anyway. After rescuing the deer, they were cited by police for not wearing flotation vests. · Dec 19 at 8:44pm
That seems awfully petty of the cops. However, the real question is whether they'd have behaved differently if it was a little girl and not a deer struggling in the water. (I can understand the public policy rationale for discouraging human beings from risking death to save a wild creature.)
Dec '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
George Savage
Whatever the weather, catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is just around the corner. It is the non-disprovable hypothesis.
Next time you meet an AGW enthusiast, ask what evidence would satisfactorily disprove or at least call into question the underlying hypothesis. My bet is that he will splutter and obfuscate but finally be unable to answer. · Dec 19 at 8:25pm
That's because all the evidence is asymmetrically unidirectional: it can only support the AGW hypothesis but can never be cited to disprove it.
May '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Stuart Creque
That seems awfully petty of the cops. However, the real question is whether they'd have behaved differently if it was a little girl and not a deer struggling in the water. (I can understand the public policy rationale for discouraging human beings from risking death to save a wild creature.) · Dec 19 at 9:00pm
Shouldn't the "public policy" be to let people die doing stupid things if they choose? I agree that saving a drowning girl is a moral imperative, but if two people want to risk their lives to save a deer, I say, good luck with that!
Dec '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
Ryan Gaines
Shouldn't the "public policy" be to let people die doing stupid things if they choose? I agree that saving a drowning girl is a moral imperative, but if two people want to risk their lives to save a deer, I say, good luck with that! · Dec 19 at 9:33pm
Maybe it should, but it's not. If it was, there wouldn't be seat belt laws (at least, not for adults), but there would be a provision that someone who wasn't wearing a seat belt at the time of a crash could be left on the roadside, or billed 100 percent for the cost of the accident response, or denied insurance cover if they haven't paid a special premium for seat belt non-users.
And by the way, what if the little girl was drowning because she went in to save some wild animal?
Dec '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
I usually ask why, if man is the culprit, is there global warming on Mars? This typically prompts a change in subject.
Dec '10
Re: All I Want for Christmas is for Al Gore to Go Somewhere Else
A serendipitous find: a news story that links the UK and the deer-through-the-ice discussions.