Download documentation

“Climate change is intensifying drought…”
“If we look at the entire spectrum of rainfall types we see all the [climate] models agree
in a very fundamental way -- projecting more heavy rain, less moderate rain events, and
prolonged droughts”
Source: NASA
"In a warmer climate, wet years get wetter and dry years get dryer…"
Source: 130 Iowa scientists in climate statement
“As of July 2012, 71 percent of the U.S. was considered to be in the ‘abnormally dry’ to
‘exceptional’ drought categories, the highest percentage in the 12-year history of the U.S.
Drought Monitor.
Researchers turn to other indices, such as the Palmer Drought Severity Index, which
measures the balance between moisture demand and moisture supply, to compare
modern drought events to historical conditions dating back more than a century. Based
on the Palmer Index, at the end of June the U.S. had the largest moderate-to-extreme
drought area since the 1950s...”
Source: Climate Central & U.S. Drought Monitor
“…Costing Billions”
June-September drought 2012 costs:
Estimated economic losses: $20 billion
Estimated insured losses: $15-17 billion
Overall agricultural crop losses for the June-September 2012 drought were
approximately $20 billion. $15-17 billion was recovered by the public-private multi-peril
crop insurance program, making it the biggest loss in U.S. agricultural insurance history.
In average years insured losses were around $9 billion.
Source: Insurance Information Institute
“Wildfires now burn twice as many acres as they did
forty years ago”
“Twice as many fires over 1,000 acres each year, with an average of more than 100 per
year from 2002 through 2011, compared with less than 50 during the 1970’s…. On
average, wildfires burn twice as much land area each year as they did 40 years ago.”
Source: Climate Central
“13 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the
last 15 years”
Hottest is defined here as highest global mean surface temperature.
“Reto Ruedy, a program manager at the Goddard Institute, told PolitiFact that the
institute’s data produces the following ranking of hottest years. Items on the same line
are statistically tied.
1-2: 2010, 2005
3-8: 2007, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009
9-12: 2012, 2011, 2001, 2004
13: 2008
14: 1997
15: 1995”
Source: NASA via Politifact
“Insurance claims due to extreme weather have cost
our economy hundreds of billions”
“Beginning in 1997, the PCS no longer considered an event a “catastrophe” unless it
resulted in insured losses that totaled $25 million or more. For the period 2002-2011, the
total insured losses for U.S. catastrophes (in 2011 dollars) were more than $230.1
billion.”
Source: Insurance Information Institute via National Association of Insurance
Commissioners
2012 was at least another $56 billion in insured losses
Source: Insurance Information Institute
"Climate change leads to more asthma attacks"
“Heat … increases ground-level ozone concentrations, causing direct lung injury and
increasing the severity of respiratory diseases such as asthma.”
Source: CDC
“Climate change will affect air quality through several pathways including …pollen and
mold spores and increases in regional ambient concentrations of ozone, fine particles,
and dust. Some of these pollutants can directly cause respiratory disease or exacerbate
respiratory disease in susceptible individuals.
Humidity and temperature also partly determine the formation of PM2.5. …These
adverse health impacts intensify as temperatures rise.
Other airborne exposures are also likely to worsen with climate variability and change.
Changes in the hydrologic cycle with increasingly variable precipitation and more
frequent drought may also lead to a global increase of airborne dust, which… will trap
ozone and other airborne pollutants near the ground causing exacerbations of
respiratory disease.
….Drought, declining water quality, and increased temperatures contribute to the growth
of harmful algal blooms that produce toxins that can be aerosolized and exacerbate
asthma and respiratory diseases.”
Source: CDC
“Pollen and other aeroallergen levels are higher in extreme heat. These can trigger
asthma, which affects around 300 million people. Ongoing temperature increases are
expected to increase this burden.”
Source: World Health Organization
"Climate change leads to stronger storms"
“Future projections based on theory and high-resolution dynamical models consistently
indicate that greenhouse warming will cause the globally averaged intensity of tropical
cyclones to shift towards stronger storms, with intensity increases of 2–11% by 2100.
…Higher resolution modeling studies typically project substantial increases in the
frequency of the most intense cyclones, and increases of the order of 20% in the
precipitation rate within 100 km of the storm center.”
Source: Research article from World Meteorological Organization experts in
Natural Geoscience: 'Tropical cyclones and Climate change'
“The intensity of precipitation events will likely increase on average. …The strength of
the winds associated with tropical storms is likely to increase. The amount of
precipitation falling in tropical storms is also likely to increase.
Heavy precipitation events will likely be more frequent. Heavy downpours that currently
occur about once every 20 years are projected to occur about every four to 15 years by
2100…
The intensity of Atlantic hurricanes is likely to increase as the ocean warms. Climate
models project that for each 1.8°F increase in tropical sea surface temperatures the
rainfall rates of hurricanes could increase by 6-18% and the wind speeds of the strongest
hurricanes could increase by about 1-8%.
Cold-season storm tracks are expected to continue to shift northward. The strongest
cold-season storms are projected to become stronger and more frequent.”
Source: EPA