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Climate change is real, human-hastened

To the editor:

Letter writer Phil Dreitz dimisses the threat posed by human-caused global warming.

However, in its report “Catastrophe Modelling and Climate Change,” Lloyd’s of London states that the 8 inches of sea-level rise off the tip of Manhattan increased Superstorm Sandy’s surge losses by 30 percent, and that “Further increases in sea level in this region may non-linearly increase the loss potential from similar storms.”

This document also asserts that there is conclusive evidence that climate change is human-caused.

Moreover, in its 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, the U.S. Department of Defense warns: “As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing, and severe weather patterns are accelerating. These changes, coupled with other global dynamics,…will devastate homes, land and infrastructure.”

The U.S. military has expressed concern about climate change since the George W. Bush Administration, and dozens of Defense Department documents on this issue can be accessed at climateandsecurity.org.

It’s important to look to independent organizations like the insurance industry and the military when evaluating the threat posed by climate change. Because they depend on scientific evidence to assess risk, they are less amenable to politicized science.

Our common values like national security and concern for our children’s future should unify Americans on this issue. It just doesn’t make sense to make the permanent changes to the earth’s physics and chemistry we are making without looking at this closely together, across political divides, with open ears and open hearts.

I’m encouraged that the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. Let’s urge our members of Congress to work together and find a path to slow climate change.

References

Catastrophe Modelling and Climate Change, Executive Summary, p. 4

https://www.lloyds.com/~/media/lloyds/reports/emerging%20risk%20reports/cc%20and%20modelling%20template%20v6.pdf

U.S. Department of Defense 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, Chapter 1, p. 8

http://archive.defense.gov/pubs/2014_Quadrennial_Defense_Review.pdf

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Terry Hansen

Hales Corner, Wis.

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