10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CLIMATE CHANGE APRIL 21, 2023 Extreme weather is tragic and destructive: What's the link to global warming? Extreme weather conditions and events in the United States are causing major concerns in every area of the country. Although many regions witnessed greater magnitudes of extreme weather events about a decade ago, today’s weather events are more deadly, more destructive and more devastating. Since this past winter and early spring of 2023, America faced destructive tornadoes in the Midwest and the mid-South. There were also massive and disastrous hurricanes in the Southeast, deadly wildfires and floods in the pacific West, mountains of cold snows in the Midwest and the North Central, severe drought in the southwest and the drying up of life-sustaining lakes in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Sierra-Nevada and Southern California regions. The extreme weather events are unprecedented, not only in the United States, but across the globe. Since the 1960s, when the Club of Rome convened in Italy to warn us about global warming, global temperatures have continued climbing to dangerous levels. The 2015 Paris accord was able to have more than 130 countries become signatories to the U.N. Climate Action Agreement. There have been several proposals to make the environment safer and prevent future staggering environmental disasters like the ones we are experiencing today. Now is the time for more individual and policy implementation actions to save the planet — not more talk and unworkable piles of legislation. We urge our readers to read the new 2023 U.N. Climate Action Report. Extreme Weather in the U.S. Recent ABC News TV reports showed the tornado-devastated ruins of communities in the mid-south of the United States. ABC News Writer Julia Jacobo's April 4, 2023 article was titled, “Is Tornado Alley Shifting due to Climate Change? Scientists explain how warming climate affects tornado activity.” Ms. Jacobo wrote, “More violent and widespread tornado activity — like the line of severe storms in recent days that killed dozens of people—is expected in the future as global warming persists, experts told ABC News.” Ohio State University Associate Professor of Meteorology, Jana Houser told ABC News that the deadly/ destructive tornadoes in the midsouth this year “is a representation of what we might perhaps expect to WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 happen in a particularly active tornado season, as we move forward in a warming climate regime.” A recent PBS NewsHour discussed the topic, “Why the U.S. is leading the World in extreme catastrophes.” The April 2 science conversation started with a scientific statement: “The U.S. is Earth’s punching bag for nasty weather.” The PBS NewsHour said that we can find some explanations from the circumstances of the U.S. physical geography. How? The climate scientists say, “The U.S. is getting stronger, costlier, more varied and more frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet.” They continued, “Two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to naturally brew the nastiest weather.” Several climate change experts who talked to the Associated Press said that “Nature dealt the United States a bad hand, but people have made it worse by what, where and how we build…” In addition, it is widely believed by many climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that climate change has influenced the extreme weather events across the U.S. Rick Spinrad is the head of NOAA. He cautioned, “Buckle up. More extreme events are expected.” As far back as March 15, 2016, the Weather Channel released a report which categorically stated, “Scientists found links between extreme weather events and climate change.” We were warned and admonished to watch out for extreme weather events in the future. The Scientists did say that “extreme weather events such as heat waves or drought are being worsened by man-made climate change…” Reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found a link between extreme weather and climate change due to man-made global warming. The 2023 United Nations Climate Change/Climate Action report is Above: Forest fire in California. Photo by Luis Sinco, BBC. Below: Fort Myers, Florida after Hurricane Ian. Giorgio Viera, Bloomberg. highly anticipated. It is the sixth assessment report of hundreds of scientists who are members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This 2023 report represents the key scientific input to a global conference COP28 which expects countries meeting this year to review progress towards the Paris Agreement goals. The world wants an answer to a key evaluation question: how well are we reaching laid down goals and objectives of the 2015 Paris Climate Action Agreements? The 2023 U.N. Climate Change report mentioned that the 1.5 C global temperature limit is still achievable. The global community does not want to exceed the risky and precarious 2.0 C level. The report also outlined “critical actions required across sectors and by everyone at all levels.” While the 2023 report reminds everyone in the world that increments of global warming could “come with more extreme weather events,” it emphatically stated the following: The report reiterates that humans are responsible for all global heating over the past 200 years leading to a current temperature rise of 1.1 C, above pre-industrial levels, which has led to more frequent and hazardous weather events that have caused increasing destruction of people and the planet. - Conclusion In the April 2019 Groundcover News edition, I wrote an article titled, “Earth Day: Reflections on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability.” I noted that scientists agree nearly unanimously that human activity is causing Earth’s atmosphere and oceans to warm up, which threatens rising sea levels and warmer weather atmospheres. They say we must drastically reduce the amount of carbon we’re adding to the atmosphere or suffer the consequences in coming decades. In May 2021, Groundcover News published another of my articles, “Climate Change, Environmental Concerns and Net-Zero Carbon Emissions: Think Globally, Act Locally.” We attempted to show our readers the concerns of thousands of students at U-M and many more at other local universities and public school systems. We also shared with our Washtenaw County community what the University of Michigan’s administrators, faculty, staff and students are doing to address the risks and challenges of climate change. We definitely shared local government efforts by Ann Arbor City Council, Ypsilanti City Council and Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to set achievable goals for reaching net-zero carbon emission by 2030. Not all climate scientists accept the statistical link between extreme stormy disasters such as tornadoes see WEATHER next page
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