We鈥檝e just been hit by consecutive snowstorms that have caused widespread damage and financial losses. And the forecast is that similar weather will prevail until the end of February.
Is this a consequence of climate change? Most likely, as these are the kind of events that climate scientists have been warning us for years: more extreme and more frequent weather events.
It鈥檚 not only us, of course. We do not hear much from South America here, but the Chilean government, for instance, has already spent more than $250 million this summer dealing with floods in the north, where it is not supposed to rain, and forest fires in the south. And summer is far from over.
A similar situation is affecting Australia, the world鈥檚 largest coal exporter, but they finally seem to be doing something about it. In an unprecedented decision, an Australian court just rejected an application for a new open-cut coal mine because of its potential contribution to greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming. A wise decision that the fossil-fuel companies should pay attention to.
With the high potential for infrastructure damage and all the extra expenses that sa国际传媒 Hydro is incurring because of the weather, which taxpayers will end up paying, suing the fossil-fuel companies for their fair share seems like the right decision to make. Moreover, these companies knew years ago that something like this was likely to happen.
J.G. Miranda
Victoria
