Climate Crisis AM 2/5/2024 Rivers In The Sky
The Pineapple Express has drenched California with near-record rains. The property destruction will run into the billions of dollars. The floods triggered by the weather event have killed people in past years. The rains are not over and could last another day or two. The “river in the sky,” as it is known, pulls moist air from the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and dumps it on the West Coast. Climate change is a primary reason for the huge deluges. According to Yale Climate Connections, “A 2022 study says climate change has already doubled the risk of a California megaflood. And an additional 1°C of global warming would double the odds again.”
More on the California flood disaster
Climate crisis costs–$12.5 trillion
The EV industry continues to be in trouble as adoption has been unexpectedly slow. Ford, which gambled billions of dollars on EV development and production, announced that its EV sales in January were only a few thousand. Its F-150 Lightning EV pickup had sales of 2,258, down slightly from January 2023. Total F-series sales, at 48,702, were almost entirely gas-powered versions and hybrids. Sales of the EV Mustang Mach-E dropped 51% to 1,295.
Why do people deny that climate change exists? A new study from The University of Bonn has some answers. People do not deny that the climate is changing. However, many people do not think humans cause the problem. The study was part of a poll of 4,000 US adults. Rather than self-deception, people may make decisions about climate change based on their politics more than anything else. The results, published in Nature, were that “…people on the political right might want to deny or downplay climate change because such beliefs are part of their political identity.”
A new report from Climate Central indicates that temperatures are warming quickly across all four seasons. However, the increase is most pronounced at night, in the northern parts of the US, and in the winter. The study looked at warming trends in 274 locations in a period that started in 1970. The authors reported, “Winter was the fastest warming season for the majority 74% (182) of the 246 U.S. locations analyzed by Climate Central. Locations with the fastest winter warming since 1970 were found from coast to coast, but were clustered in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region.”
