Sound preposterous? At least an over-statement?
Well that's the headline of the first part of a series published today in Scientific American. The full title: "Storm Warnings: Extreme Weather Is a Product of Climate Change."
Are the recent extreme events truly no longer examples of predictions, but instead reality? The article notes:
Increasingly, the answer is yes. Scientists used to say, cautiously, that extreme weather events were "consistent" with the predictions of climate change. No more. "Now we can make the statement particular events would not have happened the same way without global warming," says Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.
Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies--companies that insure insurance companies--tends to agree with that sentiment, according to the piece. The company pays close attention to these events because the buck stops with them when it comes to damage.
"Our figures indicate a trend towards an increase in extreme weather events that can only be fully explained by climate change," says Peter Hoppe, head of Munich Re's Geo Risks Research/Corporate Climate Center: "It's as if the weather machine had changed up a gear."
I don't know about you, but I don't think of Scientific American as exactly a lefty advocacy rag.
Pretty amazing stuff. Very much worth reading this piece, and the ones to be published as part of the series in coming days.