Global Warming Alert: Munich Buried In Snow

Over ten years ago, the National Review reminded us: "On March 20, 2000, The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that 'Snowfalls are just a thing of the past.'" The Independent removed the article years ago--probably from shear embarrassment--but this appears to be the article. From the lede:

Can you imagine a Christmas―or a lifetime without snowfall? You might think this is a bit of a stretch and unrealistic. But in some parts of the world, this is a reality that’s slowly unfolding. And unfortunately, this fragment of reality has the potential dangers of worsening into something not quite many are prepared. In Britain, an environmental shift is taking people by surprise, which results in warmer or even snow-free winters. Yes, what you’ve heard in the news is no hearsay. Neither will what you’re about to read below. We’ll show you why so you’ll have an open mind of the latest environmental happenings. It’s better to stay current and be informed.

Further into the article, it states:

    ... As it has been known, global warming is much apparent in less cold winters as opposed to hotter summers.

 * * *

    Are you mentally prepared for the time when you will have to spend Christmas without snow? Or experience winter rather warmly? No longer will a snowflake lightly fall on your shoulder. No longer will you wrap yourself cozily in many layers while buying Christmas goods. What more, no longer will you be able to mess around with snowballs or build a gigantic snowman.

 * * *

    As the words of the senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, Dr. David Viner, winter snowfall will soon become “a very rare and exciting event.” He added that “children just aren’t going to know what snow is.” From becoming an ‘infrequent’ occurrence, it may even accelerate its status to ‘unknown’.

Of course the snow never disappeared. It was actually quite the joke for a while that global warming conferences kept experiencing record cold temperatures, and several expeditions to polar regions to investigate ice free waters had their ships become stuck in ice.

    But here we are 23 years after The Independent's article and Weather.com reports: "Munich Paralyzed As Heavy Snow Buries Germany, Central Europe." 

    A potent winter storm has caused m​ajor travel disruptions and at least one major German city to stop in its tracks on Saturday.

    T​he storm system which has pivoted from northern Italy toward Poland, western Russia and Ukraine, brought unusually early and deep snow to the region, especially in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

    After initially announcing a halt in air traffic until noon on Saturday, all flights were grounded at Munich's airport until 6 a.m. Sunday. Other airports in the region, including in the Swiss financial capital, Zurich, also announced weather-related delays and cancellations.

This is reportedly the largest December snowstorm on record for Munich, with it receiving 17 inches of snow.

    Trains to and from Munich’s central station were also halted, Germany’s national railway said, advising passengers to delay or reroute their journeys. The news agency dpa reported that some passengers in Munich and the nearby city of Ulm spent Friday night on trains due to the halt.

    In Munich, no buses or trams were operating as of Saturday afternoon, the local transit authority said. Some subway and regional train lines were also affected by the weather.

    Downed trees left “many thousands” of people without power across the state of Bavaria, the utility company Bayernwerk told dpa.

The article goes on to describe the snow related disruptions in Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. 

    Amazingly, I didn't see a single reference to "global warming" in the article. That is no small thing. Michael Walsh's December 4, 2023, column, "'Emergency! Everybody to Get from Planet'" details how journalists are being propagandized into becoming climate activists, citing heavily from this Washington Free Beacon article, "Welcome to the Future of Climate Coverage, Where the Journalists Are the Activists." The latter article begins:

    In late September, with hundreds of journalists watching, Covering Climate Now co-founder Mark Hertsgaard began a two-day media conference with a call to arms.

    Climate change, he told attendees at Columbia Journalism School, isn't just a "problem" or "crisis." It's an emergency—one that requires breathless, around-the-clock coverage. Think COVID, Hertsgaard said, except it's the planet that's sick.

    "We know how to cover emergencies—we cover them a lot. … We saw that during COVID, right?" Hertsgaard said in a session titled, "The State of Climate Journalism: Issuing a Call to Action."

    It’s an interesting comparison. During COVID, the press, at the direction of various "experts," ruthlessly policed its own coverage. The possibility that the virus leaked from a lab, now considered the most likely scenario for its emergence, was roundly derided as a conspiracy theory. Those who questioned the utility of paper masks and the costs of remote learning were scorned. And in a cautionary tale about the mainstream media’s approach to "the science," the University of Pennsylvania scientist who pioneered mRNA vaccines spent years in the scientific wilderness, enduring sneers and abuse from the scientific establishment. She just won the Nobel Prize in medicine.

    For most people, this isn’t a story of journalistic triumph. For Hertsgaard, a journalist and the author of Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, it is a template, and he now spends his time telling other journalists exactly how to cover global warming. Some might say that is not very journalistic, but nobody seems to be complaining.

Goebbels would be envious, I think, of how compliant are modern journalists.