| Just a degree or two degrees hotter doesnât seem like a lot. You would barely notice the change on a sunny afternoon. But over time, itâs enough to change our environment from top to bottom.
West Virginia has warmed 2.17 degrees between 1970-2019, according to Climate Central's 2020 Earth Day Report.
About half of West Virginians believe in climate change.
Every state is growing warmer, with higher temperatures fueled by everything from powerful ocean currents and giant coal-fired power plants to commuters, and leaky old buildings.
West Virginia lies in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, where higher temperatures put the regionâs critical forest cover at risk. Increasingly heavy rainfall and powerful storms cause flooding in West Virginian winters and springs, while higher temperatures threaten drought in the summer and fall.
The leading cause of temperature increases today is human-derived greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide and methane, which trap heat in our atmosphere.
The more gases we emit by burning fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal, and in our farming practices, the more heat is trapped. Plants and trees mitigate the situation somewhat by absorbing carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide, too, but that process makes it more acidic.
As temperatures rise, winters grow shorter. The ice on the Great Lakes forms later and disappears earlier. Coloradoâs snowpack is melting as much as 30 days sooner than it was just a generation ago. With less snow in the New Mexico and Colorado mountains to feed the Rio Grande, the river is drying up. Arctic icecaps are melting.
Meanwhile, springs are wetter, with flooding more common (and more destructive), and summers are drier with longer stifling heat waves that can be debilitatingâand deadlyâfor those who cannot afford the price of staying cool. Wildfires are whipped across mountain forests by overheated winds, and barges run aground in the low waters of the Mississippi River.
Evaporation threatens supplies of water for drinking and irrigation, while algal blooms choke inland lakes. In the heartland, crop yields are declining. Along the coasts, land is getting too salty for farming, as intruding saltwater seeps into freshwater aquifers and groundwater. Dairy and beef cattle stop eating, foliage trees grow dull, and sugar maple trees die.
Spectacular beaches are also disappearing. Rising seas threaten the existence of scenic barrier islands, and ocean levels around the world could rise more than four feet by 2100 if aggressive mitigation efforts arenât undertaken, according to a study published on May 8, 2020, in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.
Some states are taking actions to burn less coal, use less electricity, tighten fuel standards, encourage people to drive less, create greener cities, and construct more efficient buildings to change our consumption, our behaviors, our habits, and our attitudes about warming temperatures.
The State of West Virginia has been slow moving, protecting the coal industry. |
