The mainstream media if finally catching up to the blogosphere on the importance of the UN assessment of global climate change. Although, the Koch Brothers, other fossil fuel producers, their bought Republican (and a few Democratic) lackeys, and their media echo chamber continue to deny it, their lies are getting harder to sell, because the effects are now hitting people where they live.
The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects.
Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, they said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century.
“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the scientists declared in a major new report assessing the situation in the United States.
“Summers are longer and hotter, and extended periods of unusual heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced,” the report continued. “Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours. People are seeing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies, the plant varieties that thrive in their gardens, and the kinds of birds they see in any particular month in their neighborhoods.”… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Click through for much more information.
The effects I have noticed personally here in Oregon is that summers have gotten hotter and winters have grown both shorter and colder in the time I have loved here, and this is one of the places where the effects have been rather moderate compared to other places.
At the very minimum, the US government must end all tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuel producers.
I would also assess every Republican and DINO politician a Methane Tax equal to the amount of the contributions, perquisites, and third party advertising they get from fossil fuel polluters to cover the cost of their BS.
