CLIMATE CHANGE
What does Climate Change mean for the QC? — by Julia VanHouten
Despite talks of renewable energy, purchases of electric vehicles, and reducing our personal carbon footprints, our industries are emitting greenhouse gases at a rate that far exceeds our goal to stay under 1.5 °C of warming. This, coupled with the fact our new administration is unlikely to make strides to prevent the continuation of global warming, we must be equipped with the knowledge of the changes coming to our communities so we may be better prepared and more resilient. This is what our Quad Cities Flood Resiliency Alliance seeks to do. I n the last meeting, held at the Riverdale City Hall in Iowa on November 21, 2024, speaker Ray Wolf, a local retired meteorologist and climatologist, discussed current trends in precipitation and trends to be expected. He also asked a few compelling questions like “how does climate change a ect the frequency and intensity of a given hazard?”The short answer is that warmer air can hold more water. Below is a graph depicting the changing precipitation of the 20th century compared to today created by NOAA.
According to NOAA, the climate has warmed by approximately 1-degree Celsius since 1900 and we are already seeing disastrous weather events and record temperatures happening every year. As the climate continues to warm, weather events are going to increase in intensity and frequency.
The graph above shows that catastrophic weather events that cause over a billion dollars’ worth of damage are increasing in frequency as compared to earlier years. This is in part why insurance rates are going up. Another question Ray Wolf asked is: To what degree did a warmer and wetter climate contribute to a given disaster? For example, Hurricane Helene still would have happened regardless of climate change; however, it’s the e ects of climate change that made Helene so intense and destructive.
6 eddy Magazine | www.riveraction.org
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