Tollefson 2012 Nature Heatwaves blamed on global warming.docVIP

Heatwaves blamed on global warming Unusually high frequency points to human influence. Jeff Tollefson 07 August 2012 Corrected: 08 August 2012 Droughts are becoming more frequent in parts of the United States. M. MOHADJERIN/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINE Article tools Print Email Download PDF Rights Permissions Share/bookmark Connotea Facebook Delicious Twitter Digg Friendfeed NASA climatologist James Hansen made headlines during the US heatwave of 1988, declaring in testimony to Congress and during interviews on prime-time television that a build-up of greenhouse gases was increasing the probability of weather extremes. Now, as much of the United States sizzles through another torrid summer and the Midwest endures a historic drought, Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, claims that the future he predicted has arrived. Related stories Drought devastates US crops Wildfires ignite debate on global warming Atmospheric Science: Arctic heat link to weather extremes More related stories “The climate dice are now loaded to a degree that a perceptive person old enough to remember the climate of 1951–1980 should recognize the existence of climate change, especially in summer,” he and his colleagues write in a paper entitled ‘Perceptions of Climate Change’1 published on 6 August. Just days earlier, on 1 August, Republican senators had challenged mainstream climate scientists over the existence of anthropogenic global warming at a hearing in Washington DC, underscoring the stubborn political divide over climate policy. Just as he did 24?years ago, Hansen has plunged into the debate, pre-empting the publication of his study with an opinion article in The Washington Post2. Hansen’s team used seasonal temperature records for 1951–80, a period of relatively stable climate, as a baseline, then analysed the frequency and scale of subsequent temperature anomalies. On average, the team concludes, the globe has warmed by only about 0.5–0.6?°