[OKC] We need an aggressive strategy for reducing GHGs that also supports real adaptation

[Shauna Struby]

We need an aggressive strategy for reducing GHGs that also supports real
adaptation. - Joseph Romm, Grist, 24 May 2011, 11:47 p.m. 

 

This quote came from an article posted late last night -- Missouri tornado
whips up media discussion of climate change and extreme weather -- and is a
very comprehensive roundup of discussion in the media regarding the link
between climate change and extreme weather. The story links out to multiple
sources, scientific data and other articles.

 

Some highlights from the article:

 

1.      When discussing extreme weather and climate, tornadoes should not be
conflated with the other extreme weather events for which the connection is
considerably more straightforward and better documented, including deluges,
droughts, and heat waves.

2.      Just because the tornado-warming link is more tenuous doesn't mean
that the subject of global warming should be avoided entirely when talking
about tornadoes. - Romm's conclusions from a May 2 examination of extreme
weather and climate change.

 

*        Climate change could be boosting one of those ingredients [for
tornadoes], but it depends on how these ingredients come together. -- Robert
Henson, a meteorologist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric
Research

 

*        The atmosphere is extraordinarily complex, and ultimately what's
happened the past month is probably a combination of influences, including
La Nina, other natural variability, and anthropogenic global warming. -- Stu
Ostro, Weather Channel senior meteorologist 

 

*        .... this year's incredibly violent tornado season is not part of a
trend. It is either a fluke, the start of a new trend, or an early warning
symptom that the climate is growing unstable and is transitioning to a new,
higher energy state with the potential to create unprecedented weather and
climate events. All are reasonable explanations, but we don't have a long
enough history of good tornado data to judge which is most likely to be
correct. -- Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D., Director of Meteorology, Weather
Underground

 

*        (This quote in the article was taken from a post Masters wrote in
2010) ... In my thirty years as a meteorologist, I've never seen global
weather patterns as strange as those we had in 2010. The stunning extremes
we witnessed gives me concern that our climate is showing the early signs of
instability. Natural variability probably did play a significant role in the
wild weather of 2010, and 2011 will likely not be nearly as extreme.
However, I suspect that crazy weather years like 2010 will become the norm a
decade from now, as the climate continues to adjust to the steady build-up
of heat-trapping gases we are pumping into the air. Forty years from now,
the crazy weather of 2010 will seem pretty tame. We've bequeathed to our
children a future with a radically changed climate that will regularly bring
unprecedented weather events -- many of them extremely destructive -- to
every corner of the globe. This year's wild ride was just the beginning. --
Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D., Director of Meteorology, Weather Underground

 

*        What we're seeing is the new normal is constantly evolving.
Globally what we're seeing is more volatility ... there's certainly a lot
more integrated risk exposure. -- Nikhil da Victoria Lobo of Swiss Re's
Global Partnerships team

 

*        In fact, the population hasn't even acclimatized to the climate
change we've had already -- in part because the GOP and the
fossil-fuel-funded disinformation campaign have obfuscated efforts to inform
the public. Hypocritically, the chamber itself led the effort to stop this
country from creating a serious adaptation fund. We've only warmed about a
degree Fahrenheit in the past half-century. We are on track to warm nearly
10 times that this century. Indeed, if we listen to the chamber and the
politicians it backs, emissions and temperatures will just keep rising, and
by the second half of the century, sea levels will be rising six to 12
inches a decade for centuries. - Joseph Romm

 

Full story here :::
http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-05-24-joplin-disaster-media-whirlwi
nd-link-climate-weather-tornadoes. 

 

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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