Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Deadly Extreme and Violent weather affected 80% of Americans
By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
Violent and deadly weather events have affected more than 240
million Americans — about 80% of the nation's population — over
the past six years, says a report out today from an environmental
advocacy group.
Last year was particularly awful for weather in the USA, with at
least 14 weather and climate disasters across the nation that each
inflicted more than $1 billion in damage. They included a series
of devastating tornado outbreaks in the central and southern USA,
the ongoing drought in the southern Plains, massive river flooding
along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and batterings from
Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.
Environment America's report looks broadly at county-level
weather-related disaster declarations from FEMA for 2006 through
2011 to find out how many Americans live in counties hit by recent
weather disasters. The report focused on weather and climate
events, and did not include geological events such as earthquakes
or volcanic eruptions.
"I think their analysis of the FEMA data is correct," said
meteorologist Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground, who was not
part of the report.
Whether directly tied to climate change or not, The number of
Americans impacted by weather calamities in recent years is
sobering:
•From 2006 to 2011, federally declared weather-related disasters
have occurred in 2,466 of the 3,068 counties, parishes or boroughs
across the USA.
•During that time, weather-related disasters have been declared in
every U.S. state except South Carolina.
•Also during this period, weather-related disasters affected every
county in 18 states.
If climate change is helping to fuel some of these disasters, as
Environment America claims in the report, the group argues the
onslaught of catastrophes could become the norm in decades to
come.
"Global warming increases the likelihood" of more extreme weather,
said Nathan Willcox, Environment America's federal global warming
program director.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) last November also reported that disasters such as heat
waves, floods and other weather events will likely worsen with
global warming.
"Given that global warming will likely fuel even more extreme
weather, we need to cut dangerous carbon pollution now," says
Willcox. The burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal —
and the resulting release of excess amounts of carbon dioxide — is
what's most scientists say is causing global warming. Reducing the
output of these "greenhouse" gases is the goal of most
environmental groups.
Masters said the report does an "excellent job" highlighting the
impacts of climate change on extreme weather.
But connecting specific extreme weather events with climate change
is a slippery slope, counters Kristen Averyt, a scientist with the
University of Colorado, who was also not part of the report.
"Extreme events like the Texas drought are consistent with what we
expect in a warmer world, but determining whether climate change
caused or exacerbated a specific event is not easy.
"The answers are not just about mitigating greenhouse gas
emissions — they're also about adaptation to events and reducing
our vulnerabilities," she says.