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Josie Taylor | May 17, 2021

For many years climate scientists have been warning us about climate change and more specifically, global warming. Were they right? To simply put it, yes. 

In 2012, a 108 page study was released written by scientists all around the world, including the US. They have so many predictions about what the next 20 years will hold for the environment. One section predicted more intense storms over the next two decades. Although it has only been nine years, that can already be seen. 2020 had a record number of severe storms, one of them being the derecho that hurt so many in Iowa.

In that same study, scientists predicted extreme changes in water cycles. They said that can mean that some places will have extreme increases in precipitation, where in other places will see an extreme decrease. That is already being seen here in Iowa. In 2020 there were floods, and in 2021 there is a drought.

Going back further, in 1973 climate scientists almost perfectly predicted the increase in overall global temperature by the year 2000. They were only off by about 0.4ºC. This same model did overestimate the amount of carbon concentration however. 

Climate scientists have been studying and adjusting their predictions for decades, and so far their predictions are fairly accurate. This makes climate projections happening right now seem more likely to be true. Right now climate scientists are predicting a much warmer world overall by 2050, and are expecting to see even more intense and deadly storms. In the US alone, it is predicted to hurt places that count on tourism from skiing to have warmer weather, and places like Florida may have more hurricanes. It is time to take projections seriously.