[OKC] Is Extreme Weather Caused by Climate Change?; plus, Assessing the Gulf Spill's Long-term Damage

[Shauna Struby]

>From Yale Environment 360's newsletter:

Today at
<http://yale.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b70b711355cbb09eb9f5e5702&id=
b7b6ace1de&e=cfccb27a6f> Yale Environment 360, science writer Alyson Kenward
takes an in-depth look at one of the most controversial aspects of climate
change science -
<http://yale.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b70b711355cbb09eb9f5e5702&id
=8f2798471d&e=cfccb27a6f> the link between rising global temperatures and
extreme weather events. As Kenward explains, scientists have been reluctant
to definitively tie increased heat waves, floods, and other wild weather to
global warming, noting that discerning trends is tricky because extreme
events are, by definition, rare. But using a new technique known as "extreme
value approach," scientists have been comparing the frequency of extreme
events over the past century with the recent frequency of such events. What
they are finding is that heat waves, for instance, seem to be on the rise,
and almost certainly as a result of rising greenhouse gas emissions. "It's
clear," writes Kenward, "that what used to be highly unusual events are now
becoming more common."
<http://yale.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b70b711355cbb09eb9f5e5702&id=
a4e9daad7d&e=cfccb27a6f> Read Kenward's report.

Also at Yale Environment 360 this week, marine biologist Carl Safina writes
about
<http://yale.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b70b711355cbb09eb9f5e5702&id=
28f4dcb0d2&e=cfccb27a6f> the state of the Gulf of Mexico one year after the
massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Although the spill's long-term
consequences are still unclear, Safina explains that short-term damage to
fisheries, marshes, and marine life has been less than was feared. The real
problem, Safina notes, is the two-pronged, long-term assault on the Gulf:
Engineering works on the Mississippi River to the north deprive the Gulf's
wetlands of silt, while from the south 10,000 miles of oil industry canals
allow salt water to enter the wetlands and kill them. Safina says the best
use for much of BP's spill compensation funds would be to use them to
re-engineer the Delta's flow of water and sediment, "reuniting the Delta
with its mother, the Mississippi, and letting the river revive America's
greatest wetlands."
<http://yale.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b70b711355cbb09eb9f5e5702&id
=33972dc620&e=cfccb27a6f> Read Safina's article.

 

Shauna Lawyer Struby

imagine, innovate, collaborate, transition

Co-chair, Transition OKC

Past-president, Sustainable OKC

www.goinglocalokc.org <http://www.goinglocalokc.org/> 

www.sustainableokc.org <http://www.sustainableokc.org/>  

Fresh Greens blog <http://freshgreens.typepad.com/> 

 

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