Climate Change Causes Everything
August 9, 2007 · By Shane Edwards
Here we go again…
WHITEHORSE  A massive slide that hit Mount Steele could be the largest in the recorded history of the Yukon.
Oh, you mean like the Frank Slide and the Hope Slide? Wow. That must have been some big event.
Studies have now begun to try and determine what caused the slide.
Ms. Lipovsky said it could have been triggered by several factors, including climate change and permafrost degradation, if the bedrock underneath had become weakened by frost shatter.
Oh, yes, of course. Climate change. Because this has never happened before in the history of time. Except in 1965, and 1903, which were very hot years. Right?
Is there some rule that requires the media to ask if Climate Change caused any event first?
The slide has generated huge interest from top geologists across Canada, including Stephen Evans of the University of Waterloo.
“Firstly, we’re always interested in landslides involving glaciers or glacial ice because they move so fast, and because they’ve caused fairly substantial disasters worldwide,†Prof. Evans said.
Yeah, because you know, geology kind of suggests that… you know… glaciers abrade mountains. This causes landslides from time to time. That’s how the mountains got all pointy. But…
 “The other reason is because we’re trying to find a link between it and climate change.â€Â
Guh. I give up. Everything is caused by climate change. Tectonics, erosion, glaciation, everything. DOOM! DOOOOOOOM! STOP BREATHING! YOU’RE CREATING GREENHOUSE GASES!
There was a significant geological event, and these researchers are interested in discovering if their chosen field of study is related to it. Shocking.
I personally don’t fault the scientists for claiming that climate change might have something to do with the event. Climate might have a impact, it might not.
However, it seems like climate change impact is the default first question about of journalists mouths.
A bridge collapses, a land slide covers a glacier, you get the same response from many journalists…
WHERE IS A SCIENTIST, ANY SCIENTIST ! We NEED to ask him whether Al Gore was right – is climate change at the root all that is evil in the world?
“Oh, you mean like the Frank Slide and the Hope Slide? Wow. That must have been some big event.”
Since when did these take place in the Yukon?
Actually, I must admit that particular sentence was not sarcastic. I am fascinated by catastrophic natural events. I have been to both of those locations and checked out their interpretive centers with interest. This would be very interesting to me, but I don’t see the point freaking about climate change – I’d be riveted regardless, but this yanking the “climate change” chain every single time anything happens in the world is just getting stupid. That’s my point.
I wonder if gravity might have had something to do with it?
Yes, sometimes even I have to roll my eyes at some claims of global warming causing some event. I once heard a claim that an earthquake was likely caused by global warming. Not quite sure about that logic…
That said, there is at least a passing chance that this particular event was affected by global warming. These landslides do occasionally happen, but it’s possible this one would have occured later had the ground not been thawing.
Like it or not, it’s a big problem, and the current media darling. If that’s what it takes for people to act, then I’ll live with it.
Having lived & worked in the Yukon (as a geologist, gasp!) I think that GW would be a welcome respite from the long cold dark winters. Just build in geologically “stable” areas. On another note, if this BIG warmup is to continue, think of the crops one could grow in 24 hr daylight.
I love the title of this post.