Mother Jones has posted everything you might want to know about the record flooding along the Mississippi, including the big question: Is this destruction just the ravages of an angry Nature, or is it the ravages of an angry Nature that's pissed about climate change in particular?
The answer to "did climate change cause this?" is basically "well, no." Of course the direct cause of the flood was massive rainfall: up to four times the normal amount in some areas this April. But what caused the rainfall? As usual, we're going to pussyfoot around saying that climate change is definitely to blame, because the fact is it's hard to prove how the global climate contributes to any single weather event. But can climate change cause more precipitation, severer storms, and worse flooding? Uh, yeah, that's kind of its thing.
Treehugger sums up:
Record flooding along the Mississippi, devastating drought and wildfires in Texas — we can't just build more dikes, bust more levies, or seek federal aid when these extreme weather events hit. We need to start understanding that they're being exacerbated by climate change, and will continue to grow more severe as time passes. And that's why mitigating these storms must be made part of the dialogue. Republican politicians can deny climate change all they want — but it's happening right now. Actually, it's pretty much slapping us in the face. Let's see if it'll wake anyone up.
