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Warming globe adding to volatility

This is in response to the letter June 29, “There’s plenty of hot air in climate debate.”

Although the author of the letter claims to reflect U.S. government and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change data, I could find no data on that site nor any other governmental site that addresses climate change that support any of his false claims.

Rather, “The conclusions of the IPCC’s Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius special report were startling: A half degree more of warming would mean substantially more poverty, extreme heat, sea level rise, habitat and coral reef loss, and drought. And we cannot prevent this level of warming unless we act immediately to cut emissions deeply”

Indeed I do not have to cite all the studies worldwide that conclude that the temperature of our atmosphere is indeed rising at alarming rates and has had a major severe impact on all who call earth home. For those interested in learning more of the science and how they know without a doubt the rise in the temperature is due to human activity, primarily burning of fossil fuels, I suggest reading the IPCC report, go to NASA site, or any of the numerous sites that present actual scientific studies on this threat. Just Google climate change. Numerous studies will come up … all showing the link between climate change and adverse impact on our planet, and all who call her home.

The studies will show that indeed worldwide there has been significant increase in droughts and in forest fires and glaciers are melting at alarming rates, causing increase in sea levels. Much of what he said in his letter is just plain incorrect. The temperature of our atmosphere has risen and will continue to rise if we do not take serious and direct actions. The rise in temperature contributes to an increase in severe weather events, destruction of animal habitat, and deaths of humans.

However, do we really need to read studies to tell us something is wrong, very wrong, with our climate? We see on the news the increase in forest fires across wider and wider areas of our country. Remember last year smoke was so severe from the forest fires in Canada that some of us could not even leave our homes?

The USA has seen droughts that dried up entire lakes and floods that destroyed entire towns? From 2010 to 2019, more than 130 major flood disasters were declared in the United States, averaging 13 disasters per year. In the previous decade, only 23 disasters had been recorded.

We are experiencing Heat waves that continue today, affecting more than 130 million people across the West, the East Coast, southeast Texas and South Florida. Heat kills about 1,200 in the USA every year. We can only expect this number to increase as the heat waves with longer lasting and with higher temperatures increase.

Our oceans are warming, destroying oceanic life such as coral reefs. The warming of our oceans can also result in an increase in the number and severity of hurricanes.

Beryl just made history as it grew in strength crossing the extremely warm ocean. Scientists fear the hurricane season, which is from mid August to September, could be the worst on record. Right now this hurricane left at least nine people dead in Texas, and millions without power (and in midst of record breaking heat).

Time to dispute the fact that the temperature is rising at an alarming rate and yes we humans are the cause are over. We now need to figure out how we can stop the atmosphere from continuing to heat up and what we can do to mitigate the impact.

Climate change is real. Climate change is caused by human activity.

If we do not take immediate actions, the temperature will continue to rise, causing much more pain, suffering, and yes even death to our planet and all who call her home. These are facts.

Judi Lutz Woods is a Fredonia resident and member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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