02 Jun 2011 Forum: Is Extreme Weather Linked to Global Warming?
In the past year, the world has seen a large number of extreme
weather events, from the Russian heat wave last summer, to the
severe flooding in Pakistan, to the recent tornadoes in the U.S.
In a Yale Environment 360 forum, a panel of experts weighs in on
whether the wild weather may be tied to increasing global
temperatures. That global air and ocean temperatures are rising,
and that human activity is largely to blame, is no longer a
subject of debate among the vast majority of the world’s climate
scientists. But there is no such consensus when talk turns to
another important question: Is climate change already causing
more extreme weather events, including worsening downpours and
flooding, intensifying heat waves, and more powerful hurricanes?
Yale Environment 360 asked eight leading climate experts whether
they think there is growing evidence that human-caused global
warming is contributing to an increased incidence of extreme
weather — and to