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'Half' of 2012's Extreme Weather Impacted By Climate Change

Posted by Soulskill on from the other-half-cause-by-rock-music-and-mini-skirts dept.

sciencehabit writes "2012 was a year of extreme weather: Superstorm Sandy, drought and heat waves in the United States; record rainfall in the United Kingdom; unusually heavy rains in Kenya, Somalia, Japan, and Australia; drought in Spain; floods in China. One of the first questions asked in the wake of such extreme weather is: 'Could this due to climate change?' In a report (huge PDF) published online today, NOAA scientists tackled this question head-on. The overall message of the report: It varies. 'About half of the events reveal compelling evidence that human-caused change was a [contributing] factor,' said NOAA National Climatic Data Center Director Thomas Karl. In addition, climate scientist Peter Stott of the U.K. Met Office noted that these studies show that in many cases, human influence on climate has increased the risks associated with extreme events."

3 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. It's old, too. . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 1, Troll

    I rather giggle at "Man-Made Global Warming". Primarily, because the planet has been in an Ice Age for the past 2-3 million years: we are merely between continental glacial advances.

    The HISTORIC climate for most of the US was hot and swampy for the past several hundred million years. Since genus homo has only been around for the last 2 million years or so, you can't even blame us for human-induced global COOLING. . .

  2. Re:cause and effect by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1, Troll

    "As a matter of interest, at what stage did you accept that smoking was carcinogenic, as an indisputable fact, proven beyond all reasonable doubt?"

    When the EVIDENCE, not the media or organizations with an agenda, said so.

  3. Re:cause and effect by BasilBrush · · Score: 0, Troll

    There have been no insults in this thread. You're just avoiding.

    So you do know the tobacco industry used the media to deny the scientific reality of the fact that smoking is carcinogenic. And they did if for decades.

    And yet you implied in your earlier message that it was the other way around. Why is that?