Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Study Suggests Key Role for Warming in Extreme Weather

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Study Suggests Key Role for Warming in Extreme Weather

Click here to access article by Andrea Thompson from Climate Central.

When massive storms inundate coastlines or a veritable snowpocalypse keeps a city buried for days, the first question on many minds is: Was climate change to blame?

It may play more of a role than previous studies have suggested, according to scientists who advocate a different approach to searching for the fingerprints of warming in extreme weather.

In a new study detailed in the journal Nature Climate Change [behind a paywall], these scientists suggest that if investigations focus on the well-known and robust effects of temperature and increased water vapor in the atmosphere, they’ll find that these factors tend to exacerbate the impacts of such weather events.