New Study Connects Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change
ZURICH, Switzerland, April 27 (UPI) — The study, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, found the mild overall warming caused by climate change has increased extreme heat events by four times.
The researchers claim the frequency of such events will increase by 62 times if emissions are not curbed soon. Extreme precipitation events have also increased due to greenhouse gas emissions, at a rate of 22 percent since the Industrial Revolution.
“People can argue that we had these kinds of extremes well before human influence on the climate — we had them centuries ago,” said Erich M. Fischer, lead author of a study, according to the New York Times. “And that’s correct. But the odds have changed, and we get more of them.”
While the average global increase in temperature appears small at the moment, the researchers assert that such changes alter the amount of deadly weather events that are likely to occur in many areas.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
