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reefs.” Climate change won't just harm others, forcing the Peruvians to
suffer from thirst or sweeping more Bangladeshis away in flooding seas;
on the contrary, we beter pay serious atention, for our own way of life is
on the line.
For one thing, as I mentioned in the introduction, the changes in
the Arctic are already altering weather paterns over the northern hemi-
sphere. Just consider the strange events in the United States in 2012: the
huge thunderstorm and tornado complex—the derecho—that swept
over central and eastern portions of the country starting on June 29;
the vast wildfires in the West beginning as early as April; the massive
drought in the Midwest, threatening food crops and on occasion closing
Mississippi River traffic; and Superstorm Sandy that wreaked havoc over
major parts of the Northeast in November. In that single year, the altered
climate caused significant harm to nearly every region of the country.
And that's just 2012: the same patern is borne out by the bizarre epi-
sodes—too many to list—in the seasons since then. Researchers now
state outright that there is a strong link between climate change and
these extreme weather paterns. According to the Environment America
Research & Policy Center, the frequency of extreme precipitation events
has increased by 30 percent from 1948 to 2011. 25 Are you confident that
you will escape such events in the forthcoming years and decades? 26
Climate change will be just as real where you live as anywhere else on
Earth. In the United States, it will raise average temperatures; increase the
amount of moisture in the air, making heavy precipitation events (of rain
or snow) more likely, thus causing an increase in flooding and landslides;
increase the number of blisteringly hot days in the summer; change the
water cycle and increase evaporation, in most regions resulting in a drier
landscape and more frequent droughts; and create the conditions for
more insect and waterborne diseases. It will force the migration of local
species into new habitats further north, as well as the absorption of spe-
cies moving from the south, thus altering the balance between mutually
dependent forms of life within each local ecosystem. The changes to the
water cycle will alter the rivers, streams, and open landscapes throughout
the country and the fundamental character of each region. These changes,
and many more, are likely to have an adverse effect on food production,
outdoor activities, seasonal rituals, the physical structures we have built,
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