Despite misinformation effort, U.S. is targeting climate change

[applegrove]

Despite misinformation effort, U.S. is targeting climate change

By Frances Beinecke at the Las Vegas Sun

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2014/jul/11/despite-misinformation-effort-us-targeting-climate/

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This week, the Heartland Institute came to Las Vegas to host what it called “the biggest gathering of global warming skeptics in the world.” Meanwhile, back in the real Heartland, intense storms have flooded the Mississippi River. Rising waters have swamped city streets and submerged thousands of acres of crops in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Twin Cities alone have experienced their wettest year on record; residents have coped with weeks of flood warnings.





Heartland Institute conferencegoers may travel to the desert to deny climate change, but their Midwestern neighbors can’t escape reality that easily.

And the reality is our climate is changing is dangerous ways, and pollution from human activity is causing it. A full 97 percent of scientists support this finding, as do experts ranging from the Pentagon to Wall Street. The evidence shows that climate change is happening here and now. In 2012 alone, extreme weather cost our country more than $140 billion; taxpayers picked up nearly $100 billion of the cost of cleanup, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council analysis.

Las Vegas is no stranger to the hazards of global warming. The region is in the midst of the driest 14-year period on record, and Lake Mead — the source of 90 percent of Las Vegas’ water supply — hit its lowest level ever this week. Local scientists estimate that temperatures will rise about 2 degrees within 16 years and 4 degrees in 46 years.




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