When It Snows On Your Global Warming Parade

Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen were going to go to the North Pole in the summer to raise awareness to global warming. Only one problem. All the friggin' snow!

Amid a stretch of extraordinarily heavy snowfall, strong winds and broken and shifting ice, the two men from Grand Marais, Minn., who had hoped to become the first adventurers to cross the Arctic Ocean in summer, abandoned their expedition Thursday after advancing only 45 miles in 24 days.

Conditions were so treacherous, in fact, that the men, who had hoped to make the crossing to call attention to global warming and the receding polar ice cap, couldn't be picked up and airlifted out by helicopter until Friday.

"The weather conditions deteriorated so significantly that it was putting them at risk," said Jane Kochersperger, a spokeswoman for the environmental group Greenpeace, which cosponsored the expedition.

But not to worry. These are environmentalists; never should facts stand in the way of a good idea. Too hot? Global warming. Too cold? That's right. Global warming.

Dupre, a carpenter, and Larsen, a dog musher, bicycle racer and wilderness guide, started their 1,200-mile expedition May 10 and had planned to complete the crossing -- the first ever in summer months -- by August. But almost from the start, the weather "was pretty chaotic," and not what they expected, said Carol Gregory, a Greenpeace spokeswoman.

Heavy and consistent snowstorms and strong winds and ocean currents made for difficult travel. Worse, the ice often shifted in such a way that it caused a backward drift as the men slept, offsetting much of the progress they would make during the day.

He said he believed the weather extremes in the Arctic "are directly related to global warming."

So, in a way, they proved their point, right? It was much colder, snowy and wintery. They admit that the weather was not as expected. Thus, it proves global warming.

Now, if they could do something worthwhile, like figure out what the dryer does with my socks.