In response to this column by Thomas Friedman, I emailed him thusly:

Dear Mr. Friedman,

In your column "Global Weirding is Here", you suggest that "surely the silliest is the argument that because Washington is having a particularly snowy winter it proves that climate change is a hoax".  I agree with your statement completely:  one year — even several — does not necessarily indicate a trend.  However, I remember vividly during the tragic hurricanes that seemed to be constantly hitting the Gulf Coast during 2005 (Katrina, Rita, etc.) global warming ("weirding") advocates who attempted to paint the active hurricane season as itself evidence of the existence of man-made (or, perhaps, man-exacerbated) climate change — a phenomenon, we were told, about which the "debate is over". 

For example, Robert F. Kennedy said "Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. ... Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children."  Activist and author Ross Gelbspan wrote “The hurricane that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming.”  Al Gore himself said (referring not just to hurricanes but to the spate of abnormal weather in 2005) "unless we act quickly and dramatically ... this, in Churchill's phrase, is only the first sip of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year until there is a supreme recover of moral health."

Is the ribbing of Al Gore part of a "festival of nonsense", or merely giving him and his fellow travelers a taste of their own medicine?  I would vote the latter.

Sincerely,
Dave Smith
Houston, TX

Update:  the same column was reprinted in the Chronicle.  I submitted an edited version of the above to the editorial page.