Photo by CR Artist, Flickr.

Listen to this week’s radio segment here or read the transcript below. This week’s episode links the extreme weather events of 2012 to climate change.

Climate experts from every  Big Ten universities signed a letter linking the extreme weather events this year to climate change.

This is the Iowa Environmental Focus.

The faculty, including University of Iowa’s professor Greg Carmichael, co-authored a statement saying that there is a strong probability that extreme weather events such as Iowa’s warm spring and summer drought are influenced by climate change.

In addition to the droughts and warm temperatures, the professors have also linked the increase in flooding and tornadoes to climate change.

Their reasoning is that climate change can alter the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, which can increase the probability of extreme weather.

We should increase in the use of renewable energy and fuel-efficient transportation to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and to lower the rate of climate change.

For more information on climate change, visit IowaEnvironmentalFocus.org.

From the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, I’m Jerry Schnoor.