Critics of those who claim that man-made global warming is a serious threat to the planet and settled science frequently point to the fickleness of scientists on the issue, noting that in the 60s and 70s scientists were warning of just the opposite. It now appears the critic's claims may have merit as a new consensus is beginning to once again return to the global cooling model.

Adherents of man-made global warming have supported the issue in a way akin to that of religious zealots, even to the point of attempting to cover up evidence that runs contrary to their beliefs or portrays it in a negative light.

A few years ago, Indiana birders enjoyed a decent flight of Snowy Owls. The winter of 2011/2012 saw 46 individuals reported. It beat the previous record Snowy Owl flight when 40 were counted during the winter of 1996/1997. It was a memorable flight that made news across the nation. Snowy Owl's invaded much of the county, but the Great Lakes were especially noteworthy. Owls were seen as far south as Texas, and Hawaii recorded it's first state record of this amazing white ghost.

Birders often wait years or even a decade to see another flight like this. Now, only two winters later, it appears the Indiana Dunes and much of the US is undergoing another invasion. It began light, but by November's end, sightings were literally snowballing in. Already, this invasion is getting more press than the 2007/2008 incursion. Likely due to the fact that the concentrations on the east coast are higher this time around. More people seeing them= more press.

So what have been the early highlights? Early returns? Well, December has just began and we have the following interesting reports:

A village in Finland's northwest has broken a 50-year-old record for its November snowfall. The country's meteorologists say that on Tuesday the village of Kilpisjärvi had in excess of 80 cm of snow covering it.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute says this breaks the previous record for November set at Sodankylä more than 50 years ago. Statistical records show that Sodankyla was covered by a relatively shallow 72 cm of snow in November 1961.

Kilpisjärvi is in the country's province of Lapland. The meteorology bureau says the new snowfall record in the village proves that winter is settling in and residents of the region should prepare themselves for it. Kilpisjärvi is gaining a certain infamy as Finland's snowiest location. Before establishing the new November snowfall record, the village had previously smashed all snowfall depths since records began for the month of December.

The Alaska Dispatch reported that meteorologists measured snow almost 127 cm deep here in December of 1975. Kilpisjärvi also holds the title for the most snow in a month. In April 1997, the total snowfall in the village was measured at a staggering 190 cm.

Kilpisjärvi is in the far north of the country and is on a strip of land sandwiched between the Finnish borders with Sweden and Norway. The stretch of the E8 Europe highway that passes the village is known as Four Winds Road. The moniker gives some idea of the extreme weather conditions Kilpisjärvi endures.

According to its own statutes, the IPCC is mainly responsible for anthropogenic climate change - and much less so for natural climate change, which has been around since the Earth first appeared. That could very well be the reason why the sun gets mentioned only with respect to its solar irradiance intensity at the edge of the atmosphere. There the irradiance is 1361 W/sqm and is relatively constant, and so the role of the sun on mid-term climate change is not taken into account.

However, for the first time in the history of the IPCC reports, the 2013 AR5 report discusses the Surface Solar Radiation (SSR) as a decisively important factor (chapter 2.3.3.). Decisive for the climate and temperature changes is not the solar irradiance at the edge of the atmosphere, rather it is the amount of solar energy that makes it to the Earth's surface.

Between the Earth's surface and the outer edge of the atmosphere we have the atmosphere with its clouds and aerosols, which determine how much solar radiation eventually reaches the surface of the Earth. Since 1983 the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program (ISCCP) has been measuring global cloud coverage. One spectacular result was the decrease in global cloud cover between 1987 - 2000, from 69% to 64%, i.e. precisely during the period of warming that triggered the CO2 hypothesis.

Nearly two months after devastating blizzards hit parts of South Dakota and Wyoming, farmers are still recovering from the loss of cattle and the effect on their businesses.

The week before the storm, it had been wet and mild and the prairies of the Great Plains were deep in mud.

Then, the first winter snow came early and unexpectedly in an icy blast from the north-west.

Trapped in the mud, 30,000 cattle suffocated and froze to death. They were buried in 20ft (6m) snow drifts, entombed in ice in what ranchers call the "breaks and draws" - the slopes and valleys - of the rolling prairie hills.

Larry Stomprud is a tall, thin cowboy wearing a black leather waistcoat and slim-cut blue jeans. Grey hair peeps from beneath his brown cowboy hat.

He is a tough rancher who has spent half a century herding cattle. But his voice falters and there are tears in his eyes as he describes the devastation on his ranch.

"I looked at my grandfather's records," he says quietly. "It was the worst storm for 150 years." His throat is strangled with anguish and with sadness as he says: "God entrusted us with the care of these animals and we failed them."

From Steven Goddard:
Arctic Air Forecast To Deep Freeze The US

Let's face it. The idea of human-caused global warming is a con job.

Records in the last 7 days:
205 snowfall records.
969 Low Max. 203 Low temps.
17 High Temp.
61 High minimum.
Yes, those are snowfall records in Texas. And yes, it is still Fall.

This year has seen the biggest invasion of Hawk Owls to take place in Estonia for many years. The first birds started to appear in late August - nearly two months earlier than usual. During this autumn up till the end of November birders have found 32 different Hawk Owls, an astonishing number for such a little country. Some of Estonian Nature Tours autumn bird trips offered brilliant views of this stunning northern owl.

Normally there are no more than 10 individuals encountered during one season. Yet this years movement has been already more spectacular than ever. It is impossible to predict the final numbers we will have by the end of winter, but it is clear that this is the best time ever to twitch hawk owls in Estonia this winter.

Something weird is going on up north. It's a little early for rare owls to be visiting Maine, but here they come. An invasion from Canada is underway.

The star of the show is a northern hawk-owl in Lincoln. It first appeared about two weeks ago in the area between the Lincoln Regional Airport and Penobscot Valley Hospital. Once a rare northern owl finds a place he likes, he tends to stay awhile. This one has.

Snowy owls have been popping up all over southern Maine. They're also early. The owl sighting in Biddeford Pool doesn't surprise me. They've had a habit of visiting the area for years, usually perching offshore on Wood Island. But the other owls have appeared in places where they are not customarily seen. A young male in Kennebunk settled on top of Mt. Agamenticus for a day. It perched on the rail of an observation platform in full view of an existing web cam maintained by the Regional Conservation land trust. The rare owl spent several hours on camera for the world to see. Now that's just lucky.

It's too soon for qualified scientists to offer opinions on why an owl invasion is happening, but nothing prevents unqualified columnists from speculating. I assume it has little to do with weather. No frigid blasts have forced other subarctic birds such as northern shrikes and rough-legged hawks to fly south in unusual numbers. Generally, invasions are triggered by one thing: food scarcity.

In the last 100,000 years or so, our planet has endured an Ice Age and a few mini-ice ages. But now, with the earth on track to be four degrees Celsius warmer by 2100, a "Heat Age" is looming over us all.

This is not fear-mongering. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), by 2100 we can expect a mean increase in surface temperature of 3.7ºC, with a likely range of 2.6-4.8 degrees. A warmer world will lead to mass migration from stricken areas and exacerbate existing wealth gaps between countries. In the words of David Victor, of the University of California, San Diego, the coming Heat Age will be "nasty, brutish, and hot."

Greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to reach a record high of 36 billion tons this year. That figure is expected to grow dramatically, as the great emerging-market boom of recent decades, which has lifted billions out of poverty and raised living standards around the world, puts increasing strain on the world's environment and resources. Indeed, by 2030, three billion new middle-class consumers - most of them in Asia - will add to the ever-growing burden of emissions.

We can already get a sense of the far-reaching consequences of climate change. In 2010, a major drought in eastern China damaged the wheat crop, forcing the country to rely on imports. This, combined with major wildfires in Russia's wheat-producing areas, helped to double average food prices in global markets.

In the Arab world, many people must spend around half of their income on food, compared with just 5-10% in Europe or the United States. Not surprisingly, the spike in food prices was a contributing factor in the civil unrest that sparked the Arab Spring.

As the link between global food prices and political instability demonstrates, we live in a globally interconnected world, in which we are failing to produce in the right way or create the right economic incentives to address profound environmental threats. As World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has put it, climate change is a big problem with small solutions.