We are beyond climate warning
July 25, 2021
Breaking news: Heat in Pacific Northwest is “historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented.” Western drought upgraded from “extreme” to “exceptional;” worst in 1,200 years. And yet, millions of Americans still doubt global warming. Why?
There are two reasons the danger of global warming has been so difficult for so many to heed. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe highlighted the first. In the dead of winter he brought a snowball into the Senate chambers and had a good laugh about global warming. Yes, Jim, cold days still happen. But they’re getting harder to find. Since 1894, nine of the 10 hottest years in Fresno occurred in the last decade.
The second is highlighted by predictions of what a 4 degree Fahrenheit-hotter world would be like: grim. It’s hard to imagine how intolerable. Portlanders no longer need to imagine. This summer, global warming is serving up a preview of that world. The weather for the entire Pacific Northwest has been as much as 40 degrees hotter than “normal.”
It is time for Congress to pass a carbon tax (the Energy Innovation Act, HR2307), to begin addressing the approaching disaster. No longer can we say we haven’t been warmed.
Bruce Ratcliffe, Fresno
https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article252966413.html
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