A warm start to the winter season has left the Great Lakes virtually ice-free and with their lowest ice cover to kick off a new year in at least 50 years.

On New Year’s Day, only 0.35% of the Great Lakes were covered in ice, the lowest on record for the date, and well below the historical average of nearly 10% for this point in winter, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).

This year’s missing ice in the Great Lakes adds to a growing trend of winter ailments plaguing the US, from dwindling snowpacks in the West to an ongoing snow drought in the Northeast, all becoming more common due to warming temperatures from the climate crisis.

  • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    The poster made the claim that if it were available, most people would use it. It’s not available to you. So your position is not part of what I am pointing to.

    The reality is that even when it is available, most people don’t use it, because driving is very convenient, good for being lazy, comfortable, and doesn’t require much thinking.

    Make no mistake about it. We just want to blame corporations, because it’s easier and more comfortable than blaming ourselves and it makes it easy to justify changing nothing in your own life. It’s an uncomfortable reality that people just don’t want to accept.