Seven states, seven warning signs of global warming

“We’ve had decades and decades, and maybe even centuries, of periods of time when there’s been a tremendous rise in temperature and then a tremendous fall in temperature. And all you’ve got to do is look at the Little Ice Age of the mid-last millennia as an example. And so we’ve got to single out what’s natural and what’s man made before you can make policy.”

--Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)

Two-thirds of Iowa, the nation’s largest corn producer, is suffering extreme or exceptional drought, part of a crisis across the Midwest farm belt that, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has reduced corn yield per acre to its lowest level since 1995. Is global warming to blame? That will be clearer if such droughts become more frequent. But it’s a very bad idea to bet the farm against the possibility.

“I think it’s an inexact science, and there has been more and more questioning about some of the conclusions that were reached concerning climate change. And I believe that everybody in the world deserves correct answers whether the scientific conclusions were flawed by outside influences.”

--Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

Among the biggest stories of 2011 was the spate of wildfires that swept across the Western U.S., with few states hit harder than Arizona -- the Wallow fire, which burned more than 538,000 acres, was the biggest in state history. According to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, the damages from U.S. wildfires in 2011 exceeded $1 billion. Once again, making direct connections between such yearly phenomena and climate change is perilous. Yet climate models agree that as the world gets warmer, the wildfires will worsen across the American Southwest.

“I think this is the biggest scam since the Teapot Dome. I’ve got as many scientists who disagree with the science that it is getting cold, I mean warm, as say it’s getting cold. And these are good scientists. I’ve got a guy from the University of Alaska who disagrees with the whole (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report. But it’s not popular, so they’re not being heard.”

--Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska)

The rapidly melting glaciers and other dramatic changes that have affected many Arctic regions haven’t yet had a major impact on Alaska, so it’s not too surprising that Alaskans, whose state economy is massively reliant on oil drilling, tend to be less than enthusiastic about restrictions on carbon emissions. Most of the damage so far has happened in remote native villages or well off the coast where, out of sight of the average Anchorage dweller, sea ice is dwindling, posing a survival threat to the state’s polar bear population. Climate scientists, meanwhile, fret that as the problem worsens, Alaska will be prime territory for feedback loops -- natural processes that will make the climate problem worse, such as when permafrost melts and emits methane into the atmosphere or sea ice vanishes and the sun’s heat is absorbed into the ocean rather than reflected. Meanwhile, Alaskans can expect a future of bark beetle infestations, fires, coastal erosion and increasingly severe storms, according to NOAA.