As the Midwest continues its now late May struggle to emerge from one of the coldest winters in two decades; as Grand Rapids, Michigan’s 107 inches of snow sets a record; as southeast Michigan received frost advisories this weekend as temperatures plummeted into the ‘30s; and as global temperatures have shown no warming trend in ten years, the global-warming movement is understandably challenged in keeping its message of fear relevant.

For the most part, that means ignoring the inconvenient facts on the ground.

Michigan media used to routinely trumpet anecdotal warm weather with headlines like “Alaska’s summer backs case for global warming; Average increase of 2 degrees found” (The Detroit Free Press, 2005). No more.

Green groups like Environmental Defense once made newspaper rounds carrying charts that showed a lockstep rise in CO2 and temperature readings. No more.

Meteorologists who once trumpeted local warm weather like Alaska Summer 2005 or the U.S. Summer of 1988 (used by Al Gore to trumpet his Senate GW hearings), now tell reporters that “local weather, meteorologists caution, is not the same as global climate” (The Kalamazoo Gazette, 2008).

But the disconnect between the heated howls on TV and the cool weather outside is seeding doubt in the public mind. So the message is changing – from one of “global warming” to the all-encompassing “climate change.” Most prominently, The Goracle himself has made the tactical switch to “climate crisis” in his expensive, national “Alliance for Climate Protection” campaign.

And his disciples – from the press to politicians to academics – are getting the word.

At a recent conference on the auto industry, I had a brief exchange with a fellow panelist — and leading Midwest environmental economist who also advises Washington Democrats – in which I disputed man-made warming.

“You don’t believe in global warming?” she asked in surprise. “You want the world to fry?”

When I pressed her later on the point, I asked if this year’s winter wasn’t evidence that global warming wasn’t as simple as rising CO2 levels. She explained that, in fact, the problem was not global warming, but weather extremes. Climate change, in other words. She explained the Great Lakes would actually see an increase in snow pack (evidenced by Grand Rapids record snowfall) as a result.

In a matter of minutes, then – this academic had made the convenient political leap from fearing the planet was going to “fry” to how we might freeze at the same time.