Extremely high and low temperatures have been plaguing people globally in recent times. The seemingly-endless winter in Northeastern US and the unbearable summer in Australia last year were enough to raise concern among the public about the climate reacting negatively to what most likely would be human activity. Events like the Climate March that took place a few weeks ago were examples of people spreading awareness and demanding action with hopes to work towards a solution to this problem.
Gillis discusses the statements that researchers have made regarding the link between human activity and climate change in “Scientists Trace Extreme Heat in Australia to Climate Change” in the New York Times. He describes how five groups of researchers studied retrospective data showing temperature changes between 2013 and 2014 and created computer models that show what the climate would have been like without human emissions. They have found that the human emissions throughout the years have caused accumulative changes in the atmosphere that made the heat waves more severe this year than they could have been. Climate scientist David Karoly from the University of Melbourne said that climate change is the definitive answer to the drastic rises in temperature. Although computer models are not always able to provide calculations and analyses that are accurate, Gillis mentions that similar results were widespread among different groups of scientists, which is why they were able to come to this conclusion.
In contrast, Gillis also explains how scientists were unable to make conclusions about the relationship between green house emissions and occurrences like droughts in California. While one group had found evidence supporting the negative effect of human activity of climate change in California, two groups were not able to make connections. Nevertheless, they were all able to agree on the fact that global warming can contribute to droughts by creating hotter climates in which waterfall evaporates. Dr. Myles B. Allen from Oxford University believes that scientists should not be quick to blame harsh climate changes on human activity, especially because there is not enough data to support this conclusion fully.
As Australia and several parts of Europe and Asia continue to experience extremely warm summers, the public is pushing researchers to work towards finding analyses that offer explanations. Climate change is also becoming a key issue in political debates as politicians either support action that regulates emissions or turn a blind eye to them. Gillis’ article is good in that it is inclusive of contrasting conclusions and the studies that that support them, making it informative in that they educate readers on different sides of the issue of global warming.
