Summer's scorching signs of a troubled environment
But now Washington is scorching and Moscow is choking. Of course, one cannot claim with certainty that the general warming of the planet is directly responsible for particular episodes of extreme weather. The proximate cause of both Moscow's heat and Pakistan's floods is a halted jet stream that parked undesirable weather systems over these areas, and it's not clear that climate change would increase the frequency of such "blocking events."
It is likely, however, that climate change will nevertheless result in more severe weather -- heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, snowstorms and other dangerous weather events -- even if not by an identical mechanism. Higher temperatures may also make natural disasters with unrelated causes more destructive. At the least, the events in Moscow and Pakistan serve as examples of the sorts of thing that scientists predict will happen more often in regions unprepared to cope, underscoring why people must take seriously the risks associated with continuing to pump carbon [dioxide] into Earth's atmosphere.
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1 comment:
Here is a modest proposal and interesting thought on this topic:
"The remarkable lack of tropical cyclones and the related lack of damage in recent years -- welcomed by insurance companies and coastal homeowners alike -- should raise more questions about the wisdom of putting the world on a path to lower carbon emissions—as such actions may in fact reverse a trend of fewer tropical cyclones. This would lead to the weather reaching extremes that no one can handle."
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2010/08/imagine-if.html
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