Global Warming?—not yet—but maybe

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;

Another hot summer, with triple digits is upon us. It is not even August yet and that is our warmest month in Kansas. It is still too early to declare this the work of global warming, but we don’t hear the usual critics on the right changing their minds and calling for greener fuel, less use of fossil fuels, or any step that may slow down global warming.

Kansan farmers routinely ask that they be exempt from green regulations because they can’t afford them right now. It’s probably not much different from the rest of the country.
The severe storms have been predicted for years by scientists who say that warmer climate is set to intensify storms, making them more destructive.

This year’s drought, in the US, is one of the worst years ever. According to the Huff Post;

“More than half of the continental United States is in some stage of drought, while most of the rest of the nation endures abnormally dry conditions.

In its monthly drought report, the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., announced Monday that 55 percent of the country was in a moderate to extreme drought at the end of June.”

News of fires and dry timer in Colorado are more evidence that his is an extra hot and dry year. Here in the mid-west the drought is drying up cattle ponds, ruining a lot of crops that can’t be watered and some cities are having to make deals with farmers to share rivers, such as the Smoky Hill. The temperatures are as high as 106 degrees.

According to our local KAKE TV station;

“This year, 80 percent of the U.S. is abnormally dry, and the drought expanded last month with the 14th warmest and 10th driest June on record going back to 1895.”

There have been droughts in Kansas’ past. The worst, in the 1930s, was at least partially man made. Modern forming practices have prevented a return to the Dusters of old.

And yet there are still those who say this has nothing to do with global warming. They say it is just a trend and they are normal. One example is this editorial for The Washington Post;

"CAN YOU BLAME the scorching weather on climate change? Not really. Or at least not yet.
In a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report released last week, researchers attempted to determine how much they could attribute six extreme weather events last year to human-caused global warming. Even now, months on, some experts worry that drawing conclusions is precipitous."

There is some truth to that, but how much sense does it make to completely ignore what is happening and just assume things will return to normal. We know many people will waste gas, bypass regulations and just live as if nothing is wrong. Eventually they won’t be able to just ignore our changing climate. But they will as long as they can.

  

Michael Conroy / AP file