Great Lakes reaches second highest ice cover on record

Euan Mearns says:
March 5, 2014 at 12:09 am
The ski resorts have had excellent snow this year, skiing possible in the Glen Coe car park earlier this winter. I think I also read that ski tows had to be dug out before use on several occasions as well.
That being said we’ve only had a few nights of frost here in Limousin much milder than last year’s long drawn out affair and the previous year’s really cold spell in Jan/Feb.

“While Putin takes over eastern Europe . . . the U.S. defense department is busy fighting climate change.”
And doing it damned well, I might add.
Once again, it’s colder than hell here, just like it was last week, and the week before, and last month, and ever since mid-November, and my wife can no longer throw a shovelful of snow high enough to get it up and over the piles along the edges of the driveways, and we officially gave up on keeping the long winding path to the front door open weeks ago, and this is the first time in my fifty-some years here that I hit those “completely disgusted with winter” emotional depths by New Year’s Day, which can become even more depressing when you realize that you still have five more months of “Possible Snow” season left at that point.

Q.Why are you carrying that Elephant Gun??
A. To scare away elephants!
Q. But there are no elephants here!!
A. See how good it works!!!
Just a brief note , my comments at the Guardian have been put on “pre-moderation” , obviously I,m doing something right since i have made about 250 comments and only 2/3 have been deleted.

Going to be hard to Set new all time record with this going on.
Duluth-Superior icebreaking starts this week
3/3 – Duluth, Minn. – The United States Coast Guard will start breaking ice in the ports of Duluth, Minn. and Superior, Wis. beginning March 4 in preparation for the 2014 shipping season.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alder will commence icebreaking operations in the waters of the Duluth Harbor out to Lake Superior. This will include ice covered areas normally used by recreational users such as but not limited to Superior Front Channel, Superior and Duluth Harbor Basins, East Gate, the Entry Channels into Duluth and Superior Harbor and the ice in Lake Superior adjacent to Minnesota Point.
These icebreaking efforts will expand and increase in frequency as the ice and demands of shipping require. This will include all navigable waters in and around the ports of Duluth and Superior, as well as the waters of Silver Bay, Taconite Harbor and Two Harbors in Minnesota.
USCG

Second highest? Closies only count in horseshoes… Model runs for the lower Great Lakes basin show mixed sun and cloud with temps running around to above freezing. If there a new record it will be only be for a brief few hours very early Friday morning. Sunrise on Friday plus ambient temps should take of the record pretty quickly.

Eric Simpson says:
March 4, 2014 at 11:13 pm
F.A.H. says at 8:47 pm
….
So true. As Walt Kelly’s Pogo said:
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
(That’s how Holdren and the Misanthropic Malthusians would have it…).
Too worried about (supposed) “pollutin” and not enough about rootin-tootin-Putin….

There’s that year again. 1979. I’ve been seeing that year a lot, lately. Growing up in the upper mid west, that was the gold standard of winters. Especially if you were a kid, and not the dad who had to dig out the family car completely buried in show, as the temp plummets to all time record lows (that were later broken in Feb 1996).

Mac the Knife says: @ur momisugly March 4, 2014 at 9:53 pm
F.A.H.,
Pathetic, isn’t it? Adding insult to Obama’s self inflicted injuries, Russia launched a ‘test’ ICBM today. The missile defense system that could have knocked it down…., the missile interceptors we were scheduled to install in Poland and the Czech Republic in 2009 were canceled by Barack Hussein Obama in Sept 2009. They were canceled without any concessions by Russia, but Hillary Clinton cackled away as they pressed the ‘Reset Button’. The missile contrail today looked like an extended middle finger, waved at the EU and Our Dear Leaders administration, while our Defense Department has been directed to attack ‘carbon’. In sharp response, John Kerry (not the swiftest boat in the water) verbally attacked Israel.
Could it get any more irrational? Any more dangerously naive or stupid?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You have to understand where the Progressives are coming from. The current US foreign policy is based on INTERDEPENDENCE.

“Economic Interdependence and War: A Theory of Trade Expectations,” International Security, Vol. 20, no.4 (Spring 1996)
Does economic interdependence increase or decrease the probability of war among states?
With the Cold War over, this question is taking on importance as trade levels between established powers such as the United States and Russia and emerging powers such as Japan, China, and Western Europe grow to new heights. In this article, I provide a new dynamic theory to help overcome some of the theoretical and empirical problems with current liberal and realist views on the question.
The prolonged debate between realists and liberals on the causes of war has been largely a debate about the relative salience of different causal variables. Realists stress such factors as relative power, while liberals focus on the absence or presence of collective security regimes and the pervasiveness of democratic communities.(1) Economic interdependence is the only factor that plays an important causal role in the thinking of both camps, and their perspectives are diametrically opposed.
Liberals argue that economic interdependence lowers the likelihood of war by increasing the value of trading over the alternative of aggression: interdependent states would rather trade than invade. As long as high levels of interdependence can be maintained, liberals assert, we have reason for optimism. Realists dismiss the liberal argument, arguing that high interdependence increases rather than decreases the probability of war. In anarchy, states must constantly worry about their security. Accordingly, interdependence – meaning mutual dependence and thus vulnerability – gives states an incentive to initiate war, if only to ensure continued access to necessary materials and goods.
The unsatisfactory nature of both liberal and realist theories is shown by their difficulties in explaining the run-ups to the two World Wars…..

Bill Clinton with his ratification of the World Trade Organization in 1996 and his ‘Reaching Out to China’ for campaign contributions put in place World Interdependence. Both the IMF and WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said so.
(For IMF see: Convergence, Interdependence, and Divergence, Finance & Development, September 2012, Vol. 49, No. 3 (wwwDOT)imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/09/dervis.htm)
For Pascal Lamy and Ian Goldin (University of Oxford )

Rethinking International Institutions
The simple fact is that with interconnectedness comes interdependence. In order to protect the global commons, world leaders must pursue shared solutions as inclusively and efficiently as possible – a process that can be accomplished only through international institutions. Failure to do so would threaten the tremendous progress that globalization has facilitated in recent decades….
…In order to increase the productivity of global negotiations, the Oxford Martin Commission recommends creating coalitions of motivated countries, together with other actors, such as cities and businesses. As outcomes improve, international bodies’ legitimacy would be strengthened, which over time would enhance countries’ willingness to delegate powers to them.
Moreover, the commission proposes creating voluntary platforms to facilitate the creation of global treaties in vital areas. For example, a taxation and regulatory exchange would help countries to tackle tax avoidance and harmonize corporate taxation, while promoting information sharing and cooperation. Likewise, a cyber-security data-sharing platform could prove vital to understanding, preventing, and responding to cyber attacks.
As governments learn to collaborate with one another and with other actors, such as businesses and civil-society groups, faith in the power of international cooperation would be restored. In such an environment, breaking the gridlock on urgent global issues would be far easier than it has become in the current atmosphere of disillusionment and mistrust.…
(wwwDOT)project-syndicate.org/commentary/pascal-lamy-and-ian-goldinpropose-mechanisms-for-improving-global-governance-and-cooperation#vmmmppk181rXXIfl.99

Obviously with all this international economic interdependence, the shipping of US technology and jobs to other countries the reaching out of US leaders such as Bill and Hitlery Clinton, Obama and John Kerry, war is no longer a threat and the USA can ignore Russia’s maneuvers and China’s saber rattling in ‘a declining state of stability and security in the South China Sea’ and just keep their eyes trained on the real goal, Global Governance.
Unfortunately not everyone seems to be with the program or as Benjamin Carlson put it on January 30, 2014 00:20 “China is playing chicken with the US military in the South China Sea”
Unfortunately I do not think the Progressives assumptions about ‘Economic Interdependence’ are correct and that leaves the USA up a creek having given away all our paddles (along with our economic technology and military secrets) to the Chinese.

I live on the north shore of Lake Erie and an avid angler. The ice fishing has been terrific with abundant catches of large yellow perch and walleye. Thanks to anglers in both the US and Canada we fought for smaller limits and moratoriums on commercial fishing on Lake Erie back in the early 90’s. Fish were scarce but the state and provincial fisheries departments were telling us there were ample stocks based on their computer models. After immense pressure the admission was finally made that the computer models were faulty and indeed fish stocks were dangerously low. Naturally, my skepticism carried forward when I discovered that global warming was merely a theory based on computer models. Our observations and common sense trumped computers and I’m certain we will be vindicated once again concerning CAGW.