Last week, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Climate Central chief climatologist Dr. Heidi Cullen, and ABC’s Rebecca Jarvis were interviewed about extreme weather. Dr. Heidi Cullen sits on MCAF’s Leadership Circle, and is the author of Weather of the Future, added notable comments about extreme weather and climate change.
Extreme weather is connected. The drought in the west is connected to the blizzard in the east. The cold we’re seeing here is very much connected to the broader pattern. And really in context, climate change, burning fossil fuels, means that we’re going to see more of these very expensive extreme weather events. Specifically the kinds of extremes we can expect. Heat waves, droughts, floods. We’re seeing those.
This winter certainly doesn’t disprove global warming. Every time we have a really cold winter, we ask ourselves over again, is global warming real or not? Cold winter doesn’t mean global warming is gone. And looking at the big picture, we have actually been globally incredibly warm.
Cleaning up the atmosphere is part of cleaning up our environment. It’s all inter-connected.
What’s the single most important thing business and government and all of us can do together? First of all, talk about it, and then really look at the opportunities presented to us to use energy smarter, to grow our food smarter, to treat our water resources with great care and converse.
Across the board, come together and stop treating it like a partisan issue. It isn’t.
Watch the ABC News panel here: