The cold snap that hit Ohio and other parts of the nation this week is an indication of global climate change. Ohio State University climatologist Lonnie Thomson has studied the effects of climate change on glaciers around the globe. He says public opinion on climate change tends to shift in response to cold weather patterns.
Thompson says climate figures are averages based on the weather. And while the world does go through ice ages and warming periods, Thompson says it’s the longer-term rate of change that is prompting alarm. Thompson says each of the past three decades has been hotter than the one before – and hotter than at any time in the previous 14-hundred years.
Thompson says frigid temperatures and other extreme weather events are connected to climate change that happens through a chain reaction, starting with the warming of the Arctic.
Thompson says when considering climate change, it’s important to look at what’s happening on a global scale. While it may have been five below zero in Ohio on Monday, it was 34 degrees Fahrenheit in Anchorage, Alaska.