I had a chance to talk with NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, who spoke at Rice University Tuesday evening, about this last night. I asked her what she attributed this years record number of disasters to. She cited four factors:
- Larger population in the United States
- More people with insurable property
- More people living in harm’s way, especially in coastal areas
- An increase in extreme weather events due to climate change
Lubchenco told me, “We have good reason to believe that what happened this year is not an anomaly, but instead is a harbinger of what is to come.”
She said there’s good confidence among scientists that the United States will see more heat waves, droughts and flooding events due to climate change, which is in line with a recent IPCC report on weather extremes.
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