Study: Climate Change Taking Heavy Toll
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A federal advisory panel has delivered its assessment on climate change, and it’s not pretty. Expect hotter temperatures and more “extreme weather events” across the US in coming decades, says the panel of 240 scientists and other experts, reports the Hill.
“These changes are part of the pattern of global climate change, which is primarily driven by human activity,” says the draft report of the National Climate Assessment. (Read it in full here.) Some other highlights:
- It’s a problem now: “Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” says the report. “Americans are noticing changes all around them. Summers are longer and hotter, and periods of extreme heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced. Winters are generally shorter and warmer.”
- Severe weather: “Certain types of weather events have become more frequent and/or intense, including heat waves, heavy downpours, and, in some regions, floods and droughts. Sea level is rising, oceans are becoming more acidic, and glaciers and arctic sea ice are melting.”
- How much hotter? Most of the US will be 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit hotter over the coming decades, says the report. Under current emissions, temperatures could rise a staggering 5 to 10 degrees by 2100.
The report does not make recommendations on how to fix things, notes the LA Times, but environmentalists and their legislative backers hope the forecast will prompt the White House to move, something which is unlikely given the current administrations dismal record on the environment. “The findings in the report are a three-alarm fire,” says Democratic congressman Henry Waxman. The last assessment came out in 2009, and “evidence for a changing climate has strengthened considerably” since then, say the authors, reports NPR.
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The most outrageous uncontrolled global experiment ever conducted by humans. It’s funny that we thought nuclear Armageddon was the test. THIS is the test. It’s strange that so few people understand that adding energy to the system is the real risk. Early advocates for climate change awareness made a tactical error by focusing on sea level change. The ferocity of the weather is a far more convincing argument for changing our ways.
Even now, the inability of scientists to unequivocally blame climate change for the severity of Sandy, for example, is a hindrance to convincing the vast majority of myopic people that climate change is already hurting them.
We need to change our rhetoric and start drawing a direct line between “radical weather” and people’s wallets. We need to be told that Sandy should have cost FEMA and taxpayers $30 billion, but due to climate change, Sandy is costing us $60 billion. That’s an argument that will convince even the “I built this” crowd that it’s time for action.
I’m sad to say that the rhetoric won’t change until it’s too late Jim. There are just too many nuts out there.
In the mountains of Tennessee at the moment. Raining, cold, flood warnings, seasonal weather, except yesterday when it was 82 degrees here.
Northern Ontario here ! What 9 degrees celsius? I see green grass in the back yard !!!
But, but… Climate change is a hoax! I read it on the internet and they all said it was a conspiracy to – to do something I remember. How could they all be wrong? The world is still flat isn’t it? Everyone knows that!