The Week That Was: No Cats, Dogs or Babies, Either

By Climate Central

Say goodbye to Peyton Manning in Indianapolis. Say hello to the new iPad (What? Yet another new version?). And say, “Oh my God” to the viral video on YouTube that deals not with cats, dogs or babies, but atrocities committed in Uganda.

How viral you ask? Try more than 58 million views at last look (59, 60, 61 by the time you look). Did we mention it’s also 27 minutes long? Aren’t we supposed to be a society riddled with short attention spans? What was the question again? The video, “KONY 2012,” was shot by a 24-year-old filmmaker out of Southern Cal and it brings into focus the terror inflicted by rebel leader Joseph Kony.

Perhaps you’ll watch that video on your new iPad (please do NOT call it the iPad3, even though the last version was the iPad2). Is it just us, or without Steve Jobs around to show us how thrilling this thing is we don’t feel quite as compelled to rush out and buy the new one? Or, to borrow a line from the Washington Post’s review, perhaps that’s because we’re feeling the eternal agony of the upgrade cycle. Maybe we’ll wait for the next one, which could be called the iPad3, or iPad5, but definitely not the iPad4.

Unfortunately, there is no app to help us close the chapter on Manning’s career as the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. All he did was lead the team to two Super Bowls, win four MVP awards, be selected to 11 straight Pro Bowls and manage to take an ever-changing cast into the playoffs for 11 straight seasons. Oh yeah, he also put Indy on the NFL map, and was essentially responsible for the gleaming new stadium that sits downtown. For all of that, the team thanked him by cutting him this week. His cardinal sin? He missed last season with a neck injury, after never missing a game his entire career. He was also controversy-free and starred in what may be the funniest athlete commercials. Ever.

Finally, say hello again to The Week That Was. We have no atrocities, no football, and no waiting in line. Get viral on us.

Monday, March 5

Should We Tell the Whole Truth About Climate Change?
The essential and utterly valid message, is that the Earth is warming; it’s largely due to us; it’s going to keep warming unless we do something, and there’s a significant chance that the consequences will be disastrous. But is that the whole truth in every detail? No.

Wacky Winter Weather May Be Global Weirding
Its been a weird wacky winter across most of the country, with crazy hot temperatures smashing hundreds of records, and snow droughts in large swaths of the northeast, mid-Atlantic, the California Sierra, Colorado and Utah. Is this climate change? Global warming? Perhaps global weirding?

Tuesday, March 6

The Nuclear Winter of Our Discontent
If a nuclear war were to break out, the least of our short-term worries would be climate change. But, depending on the size and number of weapons used, a nuclear conflict could seriously impact the global climate system, ushering in a period of dramatic global cooling.

“Chasing Ice” Catches up to Earth’s Changing Climate
It’s probably hard to imagine all of Manhattan tumbling into the Hudson River and washing away in less than five minutes, but that’s the equivalent of what you’ll see in the film “Chasing Ice,” as a city’s worth of towering icebergs collapse violently into the ocean, and that’s just one of countless spectacular images that flash across the screen.

Wednesday, March 7

Women Are the True Face of Climate Change
For many it's hard to put faces to the dramatic changes our planet has seen from rising temperatures. But as climate change becomes more disruptive to daily life around the world, it’s more likely that the faces of that disruption will be those of women. 

Angling for Climate Change on Super Tuesday
Now we’ve just gone through Super Tuesday for the GOP, each candidate claiming victory one way or another, my editor wants to know . . . what’s the climate angle? Geoff, you’re a good guy and a fine editor, but please! There is no climate angle!

Thursday, March 8

The Winter That Wasn’t Checks In at Fourth-Warmest Ever
The stats are in on the winter that wasn’t, and the December through February period stacks up as the fourth-warmest winter on record for the Lower 48 states, according to newly released numbers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

A Swing From Drought to Deluge in Texas and Nearby States
As has been the case in other parts of the country in recent years, the parched region from eastern Texas to northern Louisiana and Arkansas is swinging sharply from experiencing severe drought to facing the risk of potential flooding in a span of just a few short months. Or as climate blogger Joe Romm might colorfully put it, Texas and nearby states may be swinging from “hell to high water.”

Friday, March 9

Move Over Beatles, Here Comes the Sun — Literally
In the end, the solar storm that sent a chunk of the Sun screaming toward Earth on Tuesday at four million m.p.h. turned out to be much ado about nothing. We’re not out of the woods yet, though. The Sun goes through a boom-and-bust cycle every 11 years.

Jim’s Frank TED Talk: Speaking Out on Climate Change
If there’s a grand old man of climate science, it’s got to be Jim Hansen, of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Sciences. Now he’s out on a limb again, with a TED talk in which he says that if we delay as long as 10 years to start taking drastic action to save the climate, we’re in real trouble. It sounds pretty apocalyptic. But given his track record, it’s probably not something to ignore.

Saturday, March 10

Antarctic Trek Dramatizes the Dangers of Climate Change
Two men took an almost absurdly daring and arduous journey crossing of the entire frozen continent of Antarctica. It wasn’t just a stunt. The trip was a commemoration of the first expeditions to reach the South Pole a century ago and to to dramatize the dangers of climate change.

China Pushes Back Against EU Emissions Trading Fee
China is pushing back forcefully against the European Union's new program to charge airlines fees for their greenhouse gas emissions, holding up billions of dollars worth of orders for Airbus jets in protest.