COLUMBUS, Ohio – As central Ohioans struggle through the worst early December on record, many experts say climate change is happening in Ohio and the cold weather is a result.
The 8.7 inches of snow that has fallen in the first 10 days of December is the most in any Dec. 1-10 period on record, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 8.5 inches in the first 10 days of December, 1957.
In 2012, Ohio broke 55 heat records, ten snowfall and ten rainfall records, and experienced one large wildfire.
People are definitely contributing to the problem, according to Ohio State University ecology professor Stuart Ludsin.
“Ninety-eight percent of climate scientists would wholeheartedly agree that humans are playing a dramatic role in driving these climate patterns, through primarily fossil fuel emissions,” he said.
Conservative politicians and the fossil fuel industry have challenged the belief that climate change is man-made. A 2010 poll showed the number of people in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. who doubt the assertion is growing.
Ludsin says – despite the current cold weather — Ohio has seen warming winter temperatures, which have caused dangerous algae blooms and low-oxygen ‘dead zones’ in lakes, and fewer yellow perch and walleye in Lake Erie.
State Rep. Mike Foley (D-Cleveland) recently introduced a resolution in the House which would make it the state’s official position that climate change is man-made, and that Ohio should do all it can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
“The degree of disruption and negative consequences that probably will occur if we don’t change our behavior are just enormous, and it scares the heck out of me,” Foley said.
Foley is convinced the country needs to discourage energy sources that contribute to greater amounts of greenhouse gases.
Ludsin warns, if action is not taken to reduce the emissions that spur climate change, Ohio could see devastating impacts to its ecosystem, as well as the economies that rely on its waterways for recreation. And he says the concerns are compounded by other environmental threats.
“Pollution from runoff off the landscape, habitat destruction, invasive species, and that’s when it becomes really scary, because the combination of these kinds of stressors can be even more potent than just if it was climate change alone,” Ludsin said.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, Ohio power plants and industrial facilities emitted nearly 150 million metric tons of carbon pollution in 2011, an amount equal to the annual pollution of more than 31 million cars.