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Last week, or maybe the week before it, I read an article called “the death of snow” in a Danish newspaper called weekendavisen. It bluntly stated that we might
by jaabe 8y ago
Last week, or maybe the week before it, I read an article called “the death of snow” in a Danish newspaper called weekendavisen. It bluntly stated that we might need to get used to the idea of being the only Scandinavian country without snow, and how it would change our national identity.
This got me thinking about a story from my childhood. My grandparents told me that my great grandfather used to work as a sleigh driver during winters at the end of the nineteenth century. I hadn’t believed them of course, I mean, how could one occupy such a job, where you would only be needed a couple of times each year. I had forgotten the story until I read the article about our dying snow. Now that I was reminded, however, I decided to find out if it was true. It was, it turns out that we used to get so much snow each winter that sleigh driver was a legitimate job title. At least until some time during the past hundred years.
I’m sure we would have replaced sleigh drivers with modern snow machines by now. Only the truth is that there has only been one or two winters in my life, where we’ve even had enough snow for a sleigh ride to be possible.
I’m afraid the death of Danish snow, and, the drying out Europe’s most important river, is only the beginning of our trouble.
- lazyjones 8y agoHalf of Europe is suffocating under snow right now, are you serious? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/15/thousands-cut-hotels-hit-avalanches-alpine-snowfall-breaks-records/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/15/thousands-cut-ho... The alleged disappearance of snow in Europe has been an alarmist claim since at least 20 years ago and the only major change was that every heavy snowfall is now also an effect of global warming, according to alarmists.
- cobookman 8y agoWe were also in an ice age back then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
- ced 8y agoAccording to that article, the last little ice age dates to 1850, so that's a bit too far back, no?
- trhway 8y agoEven just 30-40 years ago - back then a teenager, in the 198x in my hometown in European part of Russia i did a lot of cross country skiing every winter. These days, in the last 15 years, they have mostly had stretches of several snowless winters in row, and the winters which would have snow it would be only minor snow, staying for just a few days, not suitable for anything. Back then, growing tomatoes (private vegetable gardens were a practical necessity in USSR and has since then became national hobby) was a risky business - early August colds and mists would kill the harvest before it gets ready. The cherries and apricots were stuff of dreams available only at the sky-high prices at the private farmer markets from the traiders coming from the USSR South. These days tomatoes, cherries, apricots grow really well with very good problem-less harvests. Anybody wonders why Russia is so quiet about climate change and just continues pumping the oil non-stop polar bears be damned? With each degree of temperature up, another significant part of the country becomes more suitable to live and overall "cold tax" on the Russian economy becomes smaller (whereis the 2 most recent periods of peak cool climate - 190x and 198x - and associated bad harvests/etc. produced great social instability as a result: the revolution of 1905 and the collapse of USSR)
- cmarschner 8y agoData for the Netherlands is pretty consistent: https://twitter.com/sustainable2050/status/1086639086067171334?s=21 https://twitter.com/sustainable2050/status/10866390860671713...