A new report entitled: Explaining Extreme Events of 2014 from a Climate Perspective has just been published. It is the 4th in a series of reports that started in 2011 and represents the culmination of 4 years of research on this topic which has resulted in some 79 research papers being published.
The full report can be found at: https://www2.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american-meteorological-society-bams/explaining-extreme-events-from-a-climate-perspective/
This fourth edition of explaining extreme events of the previous year (2014) from a climate perspective is considered to be the most extensive yet, with 33 different research groups from around the globe exploring the causes of 29 different events that occurred in 2014.
Over half of the papers published have shown that human-caused climate change influenced an event's frequency and/or intensity in a substantial manner. To me such a hjosir percentage must surely provide comprehensive evidence that climate change is influencing extreme climate events and as the world warms.
The concern then becomes that as we continue to emit greenhouse gases it is likely that we are going to see more extreme climate events. In my mind do two things:
- They provide concrete proof to the climate deniers that they are wrong
- They emphasise the need to reach an international agreement on greenhouse gas mitigation in Paris in the coming weeks.