by Ann Nurse

Created on: April 10, 2009   Last Updated: June 20, 2011

We hear so much debate about global warming.  It has become a political football but global warming seems to be a part of our new reality.  Global warming is a ‘political football’ with political pundits taking issue with the Republican and Democratic party about whether it is a “real” issue to the word.  Wikipedia explains global warming like this.  Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the observed temperatures increase since the middle of the 20th century was likely caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation.  When you read about greenhouse gases and human activity involving fossil fuels (gas and oil) it is easy to see why this becomes a ‘political football.’

Weather here is the United States has seems to be indicative of global warming.  Tornadoes are more frequent and the devastation from them seems to be more dramatic throughout the Midwest.  Recently there have been more deaths and greater property damage than we have had in recent times. 

Ann Jefferson, an assistant professor in the geography and Earth science department at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte made this statement in  the Courier Journal newspaper, Louisville, Kentucky- about the frequency of tornadoes in the Midwest. 

"Weather patterns that used to be limited to the south move  farther north now.  Both of things together will increase the frequency with which we see these big rainstorms, and those are likely to increase flooding in the future.  Climatically we have a higher frequency of rain-on-snow events, a real recipe for flooding.  Also we are getting more warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico farther north up the Mississippi.  It's both a warming and more so, the fact that the weather patterns have changed and are projected to continue to change so the precipitation patterns are changing." 

The article concluded with this statement.  All of these changes are part of the general shift in the world's climate know as global warming-primarily the result of billions of tons of heat-trapping gases released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.

This sounds more like

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