By July 8^th 2012, Colorado was experiencing its most intense wildfire in state history. By July 8^th, nearly everyone in the Mid-Atlantic learned the meaning of a new word – “Derecho”, a sudden, powerful windstorm that cut off power to millions of people and killed more than 20 in the region. By July 8^th, farmers in the heartland and throughout other parts of the country had come to grips with shrinking yields (and shrinking profits) caused by a punishing drought and extremely high temperatures.

On July 8^th, during ABC’s Sunday public affairs show, in response to a discussion about rising temperatures and climate change, political columnist George Will said the reasons for the recent heat wave is because of one word: “summer”. “What’s so unusual about this?”, he pondered. Mr. Will, your ignorance is astounding.

 

 It bears noting that George Will is a very smart man. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He’s won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. He has been an ABC political commentator for over 3 decades. He knows (or should know) his stuff. So the fact that he, among all other climate deniers, is so blissfully ignorant of how rising temperatures affect climate change and fuels extreme weather is astonishing. Americans can’t escape the realities of extreme weather by burying their heads in the sands or refusing to read a newspaper. The evidence is in plain view.

As it turns out, the month of July ended up being the hottest single month the U.S. has ever recorded. The first 7 months to the year has been the hottest first 7 months in U.S. history. The answer to Mr. Will’s questions is: “history”. If something happens that has never happened before, that’s pretty “unusual”. It doesn’t usually happen. In fact, it’s never happened. And these “never happened before” events suddenly keep happening over and over again. At some point, the unusual, becomes usual. At some point, we have a new normal. And the new normal is not natural phenomena as George Will implies.

For decades, scientists have warned about how increasing greenhouse gas emissions will result in warming temperatures. These warming temperatures will begin to affect weather developments. This summer, we’ve received a sneak-preview of what is to come in the coming years and decades if we continue to ignore the problems and refuse to embrace common sense solutions.