Six inches of snow on mid Vancouver island today. Will someone please tell me how all this cold weather is supposed to be indicative of a 'warming' period, when the global average and ocean temperatures are not rising. Certain studies indicate a fall is happening, and no 'peer reviewed paper' or flawed computer model can change that.

As for the 'weather isn't climate' arguments; such obvioius sophistry demands public ridicule. What is climate but the sum total of weather?

Jones, Nanaimo BC, Canada

So much for Global warming!!!! It's a fact that the Earth is cooler now and has been going this way for a number of years. Me thinks that the public needs to become more critical of the climate information they are being spoon-fed.

Ian deMontfort, London, England

Phoenix, AZ, set a new record for 32 days over 110F. It broke the previous record, set in 2002 of 28 days.

Australia is in the midst of the worst drought in 1000 years.

In march, temperatures more than 8°F above average covered much of the Asian continent.

Paul, Farnham Common, UK

Geoff Rowe, Gilbert, AZ, USA, yes it is true that the earth has been in existence for around 4.5B years, but man has been around for a lot less than that. When we talk about harming the planet, of course we reralise that the earth will outlive us, we are really talking about ensuring the planet remains a hospitable environment for mankind and the bio-diversity we currently enjoy. Man's existence on the earth is so far short and man's existance as an industrial society, incredibly brief.

You are correct in saying that modelling the climate is an immensely complex effort. However, observing the effects of increased concentrations of CO2 and water vapour in the atmosphere, and estimating the increased rate of the discharge of CO2 into the atmosphere as a result of out actions is withing the capabilities of our scientists.

Arrogance is not wanting to do your utmost to minimise your negative effects on this beautiful place.

Gemma, Leighton Buzzard, UK

Well said Geoff Rowe. There is an alternative scientific viewpoint. The planet heats up ,cools down. Takes millions of years. Get used to it. New taxation scam.

kenny, Hove,

In Florida,USA, we just had an abnormal April cold front. I am no rocket scientist, however, the current cold conditions world wide are a matter of common sense! This is not evidence of a cooling period or mini-ice age. This is the nail in the coffin, the straw on the camel's back. GLOBAL WARMING is here! Not the warming pushed by the elite to give us a sense of empowerment and purpose. This warming is caused by the Sun's reaction to a massive object approaching the inner solar system. As the planet warms the ice caps melt. This melting releases bursts of cold air that drift towards the equator. Imagine opening a freezer door. Large percent of the cold air is from the frozen objects inside. Mars is not burning coal or oil!

Michael Rodriguez, Orlando, USA, Florida

Our Magnetic field lines have been racing towards the Poles.
They are swinging wildly between the equator and the poles.
In the meantime, the Jet streams get confused and and full of
magnetic materials from the sun and other solar radiation.

Don't forget that our earth is a giant magnet. All electrical
impulses effect our planet and with the TRUE POLAR WANDER going on, you have Climate Change on a grand
scale which has just begun. Your warm will be HOT and your
cool will be ICE COLD from now on until the Planet decides
when to end this confusion and brings it into a full on ICE AGE.

pamela, Hector, ny

I'm with Geoff Rowe - I too find that humans are arrogant in the extreme to expect that the climatic conditions they have experienced in their brief lives on this planet are some kind of 'norm' and that any variation from this norm, up or down, is 'wrong' or 'dangerous' and that we should take steps to prevent any change taking place in the future. This ideal is impossible. The planet will continue to do what it does - with or without man's intervention.

So what if it gets warmer? So what if it gets colder? This has been going on for as long as life has existed and we are still here, aren't we? The future of the planet is not in doubt and not in danger; it will survive. Mankind may or may not. The real challenge is for mankind to find ways to adapt to its ever-changing environment, just like it has always had to.

Energies currently being expended on false 'Green' issues would be better put to trying to solve the potentially far more serious threat to humans of over-population.

Phil Dawson, Barry, UK

It's all down to me! I traded in my Jaguar XJ6 for a diesel last autumn. Since then we've had all this snow, so obviously the eco-warriors were correct. All we have to do is get another two people to do the same as I did and the world will be saved.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Actually the global average temperatures peaked in 1998, then went into stasis for a while then dropped precipitously in the last 14 months.

Not one single computerised climate model managed to predict this. None of them predicted that increased CO2 would increase ocean temperatures leading to increased water vapour that failed to reach the troposphere where it failed to trap heat, instead forming lower level rain and snow clouds making a negative feedback loop.

This has just been proven by real data gathered by the NASA Aqua satellite system. The mechanism for the continuous warming only exists in flawed computer models based on old theories. This mechanism does NOT exist in reality.

There is NO catastrophic global warming. There is no real data that points to it. The world's sq km of ice has returned to greater than normal levels this year. That is a FACT. Oceans are NOT rising globally, in some places the oceans are falling, in others it's rising as the earth's crust moves.

Ken Hall, Barrow in Furness, UK

Haha I can't believe that i have been quoted in an article that is dereputing global warming. I have been studying environmental geoscience for that last 4 years and have been well and truly convinced by the huge amount of evidence that it IS real, people constantly try to argue that it isn't but the evidence shows that we are almost definetly amplifying any natural oscillations. Anyway back to what's more important, the skiing was bloody excellent.

Iain Hayes, aviemore, Scotland

Alex Robertson writes of "the massive body of data built up and analysed over years, that demonstrates a long-term rise in global temperature caused by human activity." Well it's true that temperatures have risen since the end of the Little Ice Age about 150 years ago. The problem for the man-made global warming hypothesis is that 60% of that increase occurred before man's CO2 emissions took off in about 1950.

Robin Guenier, St Albans, Hertfordshire

the global warming is real, and as mentioned above it is really dangerous to mistake this short-term relatively good skiing conditions as a evidence to deny the fact that the ice is melting, the rainforests are shrinking and the deserts are expanding. It is dangerous for us to ignore these facts, and global warming-the depletion of ozone layer is a challenge encounters all human beings; thus, it need the coorporation of all nations, all races and all cutural parts. So, it is really misleading and even dangerous for the author or any other people to generalize so hastily about the global weather trends just based on this exceptional cases.

benjamin , Minnesota, china

The exceptional ski season doesn't go against the Global Theory, it proves part of it. With less fresh cold water to feed the Gulf Stream coming from the Arctic, Greenland and all the other nodic countries, it doesn't bring the same amount of heat in the North Atlantic as it is slowing down fast. That gives the Northern part of Europe and Russia the predicted colder seasonal weather.

Michel Tremblay, Montreal, Canada

I wish everyone would start looking at all the data; as in, the climate changes over many years before expressing their opinions on global warming based on relatively short time periods and the amount of snowfall in Timbuktu.

Dave, Columbus, Ohio

A few of these comments are dangerously ill-informed.

I doubt any serious scientist would consider the evidence from one ski season as a challenge to the massive body of data built up and analysed over years, that demonstrates a long-term rise in global temperature caused by human activity.

But if we're going to play that game, when I was younger winters were much colder and it was quite normal to have snow late into April and May at Scottish ski resorts. I even remember a week taken off school in Glasgow because people couldn't get through the snow drifts.

It's convenient and dangerous to deny global warming. We should enjoy the skiing while it lasts and try to get a bit more serious about what we can do to prevent any further temperature rise before it's too late. As we dither around and debate people - mostly in poor countries who have contributed least to global warming - will be losing their lives as flooding and desertification steadily increases.

Alex Robertson, London,

Every weather event seems to fit in with the evidence, cold, -climate change, too hot, - climate change ! wet, dry all fit. We are all doomed, doomed I tell you.

wills, soton, u

Global Warming is not a threat, it is part of nature. Humans are part of nature too. The real threat comes from those people that think they can overcome nature. Thus overcome God !

John, Baltimore, US

This snow is NOT caused by "Global Warming"!! Here in Canada, we've had BELOW AVERAGE temperatures for the past 6 months, and More snow than I care to shovel!! So don't come and say all this snow is caused by global warming!! So what would happen if we were going through a global cooling? (remember the '70s-80s paranoia?), A snowless winter? above-average temps? Heat-waves in the summer?
Did you know that the Earth goes through cycles of global warming and cooling? Been doing so for millions of years! The culprit is the SUN!!!
Al, Montreal, QC,Canada

Al, Montreal, Canada

Ok people, global warming models actually predict heavier snows, so it only supports the theory...
I suggest you all actually read up on the subject before celebrating.

bart, Santa Barbara, ca

It snowed in Reading too at the beginning of half term and apparently it rained in Gujarat, India even though it's not monsoon season yet. Seems like we need a bit of global warming at the moment.

Meera, Reading, UK

It snowed in the Seattle area last night with more forecast for tonight. Latest snowfall on record.

Read into it whatever you like.

Mark, Redmond, WA, USA

Good news coming out of bonney Scotland. I'm one of those people questioning the validity of "global warming". China just came off it's coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad Iraq received it's first snow in recorded history this last winter. The Pacific Northwest in the USA had it's coldest March on record and April is shaping up to be the same, as yesterday and today we had snow down to 500 feet elevation.
Maybe the promotion of the global warming frenzy has a political agenda and the real cause has been natural solar cycles and we're now coming out of the warmer period.

I don't claim to know the answer, but there are many independent scientists out there offering facts that refute the Al Gore crowd. the G.W. movement seem religiously devoted to their views. Unforntunently objective analysis at odds with the official line is now considered politically incorrect.

William Wallace, Seattle, USA

Here in Ohio the climate changes about four times a year...it's called seasons.

Alexandra, Wooster, Ohio

I get a charge out of the people that are touting because of a LOCAL cold winter or record snowy winter THAT is somehow proof that there is no such thing as Global Warming, this kind of thinking only proves that the people saying such things do not have a real understanding of what Global warming means as it relates to our climate and changes within it.

When considering what the effects of Global Warming e.g. equal, in the short term one must take into account two key words, "EXTREME WEATHER", that would be the end product of the Global Warming the earth is undergoing and it is because of Global Warming that we are seeing weather related records being broken on a worldwide basis.

We can expect that the short term effects produced by Global Warming weather human induced or not will continue to be EXTREME and more pronounced as Global Warming has a greater effect on the earth latitudes rippling outward towards the poles in longer lengths of time and it is this ripple effect that is causing such varying differences in related local weather / climate patterns, etc.

It's a bit late in the game to be trying to decide just what it is that "We" can do about it, It, "Global Warming / Nature" is in control, not "Us", we are just along for the ride and that is something that "We" humans have always had a hard time grasping because of either our ignorance, greed and arrogance.

We need to start thinking beyond LOCAL and come to grips with the reality of Global Warming on a total global scale if we are to survive as more than the next evolving era of humans on this planet.

Faced with the fact of "Global Warming" and it's effects are we learning now or just being the same old humans that we have always been, will we continue in the same manner or really change our ways ?

I don't believe that NATURE cares so perhaps "We" should or nature is going to run "Us" over in the process.

Lou, Parsonsfield, Maine

It seems as cold as being on top of The Cairngorms in my house in Devon. Global warming - yes, please or I'll be in a nice warm jail for being bankrupt with my Gas bill!

Garry, Barnstaple, UK

This type of report is demonstrative of the weaknesses in climate modelling.

All of the catastrophic models depend on the weather systems behaving in a predictable manner and responding accordingly to the stimulus the modellers believe controls it.

If it doesn't, the models fail, and guess what, the weather stubbornly refuses to conform to expectations.

James, Stourbridge.,

I don't think there's any doubt about Global Warming and that it's been happening for the last 160 years at least, but you can argue over the causes.
There is still a big debate over the sensitivity of the climate to CO2.
Solar cycles 21 and 22 were the two shortest on record, and sunspot activity was also high, which corresponded to the abrupt 2 decade rise in temperature.
We shall see! Solar cycle 23 still hasn't finished, making it over 12 years long at the very least (average is 11 - cycles 21 and 22 were less than 10). If the earth begins to cool a little because of this we'll have a good inidication that CO2 isn't the ONLY reason we've been warming.

John Muir, London,

Climates change, they always have and they always will. It's interesting though isn't it that the doom mongers always dismiss any cold winters or snow and ice as being isolated yet the moment we have a short drought or hot weather it is because of climate change. Last year's floods and the stormy weather of this rather cold and normal winter have all been attributed to global warming. Yet they conveniently ignore that temperatures actually haven't risen for ten years. Their claims of one hundred per cent scientific backing are similarly ludicrous.

I confidently predict that this will all turn out to have been hype and nonsense like so many scares in the past. I shall do so whilst shivering and turning on my heating this weekend in mid April whilst others enjoy their skiing in Scotland. This year they're getting their excuses in early and blaming it all on La Nina. I have news for them - it's just weather, normal unpredictable weather.

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

Henry from Nairn, you need to get out more.

We have had snow on the Ochil Hills all this year.

That`s probably a hundred miles south of you should you check.

Ian Paterson, Dunfermline, Scotland

The planet has been in existance for approximately 4.5B years. It is arrogant of us to believe that we understand the complex interactions which can effect our climate in 5 mins of study.

Worse, governments now believe that they can further damage our weak economies by "Green" taxes that are nothing of the sort but simple raids on the tax payer.

Examples? Why, 75K years ago was it something like 20 deg warmer than now? The little ice age, 400 years ago, Why? Why did the plant cool by 0.6 deg C last year and why are we not allowed to hear that? What part, exactly, does the Sun play in our climate?

The real problem is that while the "Tree Huggers" are rampaging and claiming that "science is 100% on their side" we have no balanced, rational debate on what might be happening and what might be causing it.

Geoff Rowe, Gilbert, AZ, USA

I live between the North Yorkshire Moors and the Yorkshire Dales. Now and again i can see snow on the tops of the hills but we never get snow down in the Vale of York. I remeber when i was younger the snow would stay for a week or so at a time. Now, we're lucky if it makes it past lunch time. I think global warming is a serious concern for all of us.

Ollie, Northallerton, Yorkshire, England

In Sweden we have also had an incredible season for snow. What everyone seems to forget is that while the white stuff has been abundant, temperatures have actually been higher than previous years with less snow.
These extreme snowconditions only goes to show that there is indeed something wrong with our climate..

Johan Andersson, Växjö, Sweden

http://www.stumbleupon.com/demo/?friend=4254423&msg=look+at+this#url=http://codgy.com/michigan-winter-ice-waves/

Global warming means climate change not that every place is getting warmer

martin, Davis, usa/california

freak late snow in the highest Grampian Mountain areas only means nothing. In the rest of lower lying Scotland not a drop fell though I can remember mounds of the stuff years ago in my coastal home town. Are you Americans still in denial ? Read the latest from Stern.

Henry, Nairn, Scotland