First, the climate has always changed.
But it is changing faster than before.
Temperature records that go back for many
decades show a clear upward trend.
The last 20 years have included some of
the hottest on record.
As a result, the oceans are rising
and we can measure that.
We know that water expands when it gets hotter.
And ice that’s sitting on land is also melting
and pouring into the oceans.
Hurricane Sandy in 2012 is an example of the dangers
of rising ocean waters – a relatively small storm
made catastrophic from rising water.
And these changes are exactly what climate
scientists predicted when they first noticed that we are
pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Those gases trap heat.
And sooner or later, they said, it will get warmer.
And that’s changing the weather.
Now, you can’t blame every big storm or heat wave on climate change.
But the overwhelming majority of climate scientists
agree that a warmer world means different weather
– maybe way different.
You know we live in a society that depends on
predictability. If we make the weather unpredictable
more people are going to suffer.
From flooding, heat waves and more intense storms.
So, we’ve already seen the world’s average temperature
rise about 1 ½ degrees Farenheit
since the late 1800s.
And, there’s more warming already baked into the
atmosphere that we can expect to see in the coming decades.
But it’s not too late to keep a lid on warming.
It won’t be easy….and it won’t be cheap.
But at least we know the solution.
Change the way we use energy and the land.
The good news is it’s already happening.
