New Analysis: Evidence of Climate Change Stronger Than Ever
Dan Heyman, Public News Service-WV
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/30358-1
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(01/18/13) CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Climate experts say the evidence is stronger than ever that climate change is happening, and that it comes with devastating consequences for West Virginia and the rest of the nation.
A new draft of the National Climate Assessment, released this week, says the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, are becoming more apparent.
Carol Browner, former White House director of Climate and Energy, says those impacts will increase as global emissions continue to rise.
"This new assessment really confirms what the scientists have been telling us and what our eyes are telling us. It's getting hotter. We're seeing more violent, more frequent storms. We're seeing impacts on the economy and we're seeing impacts on public health."
The report comes as 2012 made the record books as the hottest year in U.S. history. It presents a grim outlook for future extreme weather events.
Browner says we need to do more to reduce greenhouse gases. The assessment is issued every four years, and the current draft is available for public comment until April 12th.
The Obama administration has implemented several regulations to curtail emissions of carbon dioxide.
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first-ever carbon pollution standard for new power plants. That provoked harsh criticism from the coal industry and it's political allies, but Browner says there is much more work to be done.
"The administration has already taken some important steps, but we've got to really continue, as a country, to take this issue seriously. That's what this report is telling us."
Many of West Virginia’s most important business and political leaders maintain climate change is unproven and some even charge that it's a hoax.
Jim Sconyers, chair of the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, says people need to get their heads out of the sand, especially given the dramatic damage West Virginia has suffered during recent climate events.
"Climate change is real. People like to keep saying there's this side of the story and then there's the other side of the story. Well, there's no 'other side' of the story. I was just out walking in the forest today. Where I was walking the devastation is just on a scale that I have never seen before."
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