Seite - 173 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

• ‘Heavy downpours are increasing in most regions of the US, especially over the last three to five decades. Certain types of other extreme weather events, including heat waves, and floods and droughts in some regions have become more frequent and intense. The trends are projected to continue.’ • ‘Scientific analyses are now indicating a strong link between changing trends in severeweather events and the changing climate.’ • ‘There has been an increase in the overall strength of hurricanes and in the number of strong (Category 4 and 5) hurricanes in theNorth Atlantic since the early 1980s. The intensity of the strongest hurricanes is projected to continue to increase as the oceans continue towarm.’ • ‘Global sea level has risen by about 8 inches since 1880. It is projected to rise another 1 to 4 feet by 2100.Many coastal areas of theUSwill be increasingly affected.’ Dr James McCarthy, Professor of Biological Oceanography, HarvardUniversity • ‘Ocean processes are linked to many types of extreme weather and recent ocean studies are helping us understand the growing intensity of extreme weather events on land. Some of the observed changes in the ocean, which only a few decades ago were thought unimaginable in our lifetimes, are now occurring as a result of human-caused climate change.’ • ‘The additional heat in the climate system caused by the greenhouse gases that we release with the burning of fossil fuels and land-use practices is nowpenetrating deep within the oceans.’ • ‘Formanyof us in ocean science the compelling evidence for human-caused climate change came with the observations of deep ocean warming, the ice core data that demonstrates linkages between Earth’s past Policy considerations 173