In the last several years, the weather in North America has become more erratic. With tropical storms, hurricanes, droughts, mudslides and now a devastating flood in the American Midwest, the past decade has practically been a Hollywood disaster film in the making. The only problem is, the extreme weather patterns being experienced in North America are real and, according to government climate experts, getting worse.
A new report issued by the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) states that extreme weather conditions could have a profound affect on agriculture and human health. The report comes at a time when vast areas of the American Midwest are submerged, with the worst flooding seen in more than 15 years devastating farmlands and displacing thousands of residents.
And unfortunately, according to the new CCSP report, these types of extreme weather conditions are likely to continue in the decades to come, and even intensify and become more frequent. As the global warming trend continues, rising temperatures cause the Earth’s atmosphere to absorb water vapor in ever greater degrees. According to the CCSP, this dramatically increases the likelihood of flooding and severe rainstorms.
Scientists have already observed that annual precipitation in the United States has increased approximately 7% over the last 100 years. That number is expected to continue to rise as surface temperatures edge upward.
The new report was overseen by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and is the US government’s most thorough assessment to date of global warming, and how the changing climate will affect human life in the decades to come. According to Richard Moss, the former head of the CCSP, the longer nations delay cutting back on emissions, “the higher the bill will be from these impacts.”
Unfortunately, the CCSP report paints a fairly grim picture of weather conditions in North America over the next several decades. Rising temperatures brought on by global warming will likely result in an increase in drought conditions in some areas, and severe flooding in others. The report indicates that the northwestern United States is likely to experience heat waves, while the Southwest will be at greater risk of drought, with periodic intense flooding.
The good news is that the US government is finally beginning to take climate change seriously, and many government agencies are springing into action to assess the extent and potential damage of global warming, including the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the Department of the Interior, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Politicians are also starting to take global warming seriously; even President George W. Bush (a longtime global warming skeptic) has called for a cap on carbon emissions, and is beginning to reconsider his administration’s environmental policy.
weather weather..it is always major topic of discussion when all else fails..What can anyone do about it..Nothing I believe except talk about it …Better to worry about gas prices before we dont have to worry about the weather as we cannot afford to go anywhere…carol stanley author of “For Kids 59.99 and Over”
Comment by carol stanley — July 1, 2008 @ 2:21 pm