Saturday, August 04, 2012

Climate Change: Here, And Worse Than Expected

That's the finding of a soon-to-be-published new analysis of recent weather changes, as NASA scientist James Hansen reports in a new article:

"This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change."

and

"These weather events are not simply an example of what climate change could bring. They are caused by climate change. The odds that natural variability created these extremes are minuscule, vanishingly small. To count on those odds would be like quitting your job and playing the lottery every morning to pay the bills."

This peer-reviewed analysis won't stop the deniers from denying, of course. I just hope that someday they get called on the carpet and held accountable for all the damage they've done by spreading their misinformation. It'd be a very small bit of justice served, admittedly, but at least there'd be that.

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