Al Gore responds to Bill O’Reilly on snow-climate nexus

Al Gore is taking Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly up on his request to address this winter’s severe snowstorms.

O’Reilly on the Jan. 27 edition of The O’Reilly Factor asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra,” adding, “I have a call in to Al Gore.”

The former vice president and climate activist provided a response on his website Tuesday. “I appreciate the question,” Gore wrote.

“As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming.”

He then includes a blurb from February 2010 column by Clarence Page in The Chicago Tribune.

“In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow,” the column states.

“A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species."