Natural disasters not cause for concern J. Fed Fox | Collegio
Reporters Climate change is not a plausible scenario for a
realization of the end of the world scenarios coming up. Despite
an apparent increase in extreme weather anomalies, climate
change seems to be a minuscule fac tor. Following Hurricane
Sandy, a dry summer, El Nino patterns, Monsoon seasons and other
cyclical patterns over long periods of time have shown that this
is not unusual. The U.S. has bad droughts every few decades.
Charles Blatchley, physics professor and former meteorology
teacher at PSU, says weather can’t be analyzed based on the
short term. “If you take a longer view of history, the level of
severity we’re experiencing isn’t new,” Blatchley said. “Record
cold summers hit Alaska while the Midwest had record heat.”
Average global temperatures have steadied over the last few
years and haven’t exceeded 1998 levels, which peaked because of
El Nino. The general trend has been increasing since the 1600s.
In fact, the 1950s saw an even w