Weird Weather - is this the "New Normal?"

As a young girl growing up in the suburbs just outside of Washington, D.C., one thing I always prayed for every winter (as I’m sure most other kids did as well), was to wake up on any school-day morning to look out my window and find a winter wonderland of snow blanketed across my front yard and the remnants of cars peeking out from under a blanket of falling crystal white snow. SNOW DAY! Don’t you remember the feeling of freedom and excitement of the endless possibilities of fun that lay in the day ahead? It was a staple of most of our childhoods and some of my best memories were created on those unexpected winter days.

But our world is changing; the average temperature is increasing every year which is wreaking havoc in the way winter rolls out each season. The eight warmest years on record (since 1880) have all occurred since 2001, with the warmest year ever being 2005. Believe it or not, the snowiest winters on record were almost a century ago; we’re talking late 1800’s, early 1900’s. In the Washington, D.C. area, 1922 had the heaviest 24-hour snowfall ever recorded with 21 inches. Out of D.C.’s top five snowiest winter seasons, only one happened in the past 20 years (1995-96), the rest were prior to 1923 (yes, with the exception of Snowmaggedon 2010). To the dismay of millions of kids (and let’s face it, some adults too), those iconic snow days may now be in short supply.

We as the millennial generation may be the last to truly experience the magic of winter snow storms. By the time we have kids in the next 10-20 years, the snow day stories we will share with them could quite possibly sound more like made-up folklore than actual truth. The world we will experience as we move into adulthood and raise our own families in will not be the same world we once knew as kids. Not only will the luxury of building forts from eight feet of snow disappear, but facing more danger will become a reality caused by the Earth’s temperature increase. The dangers of drought, fires, tornados, more intense hurricanes and flooding are already “weird weather” phenomenons that we faced in DC in 2011- think about 20-30 years down the road! This is “the new normal,” a condition that scientists from all over are agreeing on will continue unless something drastic is done to slow the effects of climate change.

Both a decrease in snow and an increase in extreme weather events “[is] now influenced by climate change because all weather now develops in a different environment than before,” said Dr. Richard Somerville, a professor emeritus of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and science director of  Climate Communication.  “Some types of extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and or severe due to climate change, heat waves, heavy rain, floods, and droughts among them. Climate change is increasing the odds that extreme weather will occur." And there’s no question that extreme weather has been occurring. Texas is on fire due to incredible drought, the Midwest and Gulf coast are underwater with flooding, the South and Midwest have been ripped apart by ruthless tornadoes and the east coast just experienced a huge blow from Hurricane Irene at the end of the summer. If this isn’t extreme, I don’t know what is.

What could help put a halt to this new normal of weird weather? Anyone who’s been paying attention recently should know that the simple equation of increasing carbon dioxide plus poor regulation of the heat-trapping gas equals an increase in temperature and thus an increase in extreme weather. You might think that a somewhat simple solution, such as oversight by the EPA, would be a no-brainer. As Frances Beinecke, President and CEO of NRDC, explains in her recent blog, it turns out that EPA is not doing quite as good a job at that as we hoped. On September 15th, EPA announced it missed the September 30th deadline for proposing limits on carbon pollution from power plants -- the nation’s largest carbon polluters. Stalling on their obligation to protect us and our families from dangerous pollution is not acceptable. Something must be done to ensure that EPA does its job to stand up and regulate all forms of emissions that could become detrimental not only to the Earth but also to our health. These extreme weather events won’t stop unless EPA gets support and Congress stops obstructing them from doing their job.

Or maybe it has to be up to us—the youth—the ones who will actually feel the pain of climate change to take action on this. We know what it’s like to have a summer and a winter. We know how to ski and snowboard and we know what cool summer evenings can feel like without stifling humidity. I know that I want MY kids to experience those same things. In fact, I would feel guilty, as if I was robbing them of precious moments of discovery, if I just sat back now and watched Congress pass legislation to repeal clean air protections that would lead to more and more extreme weather and environmental devastation. Please join me and take action now to tell your representatives in Congress to vote to protect clean air- and the future childhood memories that depend on it!