Every time a severe winter hits some region of the world, the same question reappears, almost always with a mocking tone: if it’s this cold, where is climate change?
The question is neither new nor inherently ill-intentioned. In fact, it’s understandable. For years, we were told the planet was becoming a cauldron, and extreme cold seems to contradict that idea. Today, U.S. media outlets are reporting the arrival of a cold front bringing heavy snowfall, with even the threat of light snow in the “Sunshine State” (Florida), where extreme cold is rarely part of the landscape. Every time something like this happens, the same denialist sentiment resurfaces.
It is important for us to know—whether here in Colombia or anywhere else—that an episode of severe cold does not contradict the reality of climate change. On the contrary, it is connected to it. Climate change affects the Arctic with greater intensity, a key region for climate balance. As the temperature contrast between the pole and middle latitudes decreases, the large air currents that usually keep the cold “locked in” become more unstable. When this occurs, polar air masses can shift toward areas where they were previously uncommon, bringing extreme cold to places unaccustomed to it.
The complexity lies not in the physics of the phenomenon, but in the public conversation built around it. Denying a problem as serious as climate change with an Instagram post of a snowstorm is a simplification that confuses more than it clarifies. Failing to understand the problem—or refusing to understand it—is costing us our future.
We could say, then, that cold fronts bring not only snow and blizzards, but an excess of denialism. The climate does not operate based on beliefs or political affinities; it operates by physical laws. Turning it into an object of mockery or denial doesn’t just misinform—it erodes trust in evidence and impoverishes the debate.
In fact, the relevant question is not why there are such harsh snowfalls if everyone says the planet is getting hotter over the years. What we must ask ourselves is whether we are prepared to understand and manage a climate system that is increasingly extreme, erratic, and unpredictable. That conversation loses its meaning when it is reduced to slogans, even when world leaders and heads of state choose to question or ridicule a widely documented reality.
This winter will pass. What remains to be seen is whether public discussion can mature enough to stop being ideological and start being responsible.