To the Journal editor:

According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2023 will end up as the warmest year in terms of global average temperature since at least 1880 as the concentration of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that traps heat near the Earth’s surface reached an all time high level last year.

The WMO also reports the 9-year period from 2015 through 2023 will be the warmest decade since at least the 1880s. This recent warming has caused record high sea surface temperatures/sea level rise as well as record low Antarctic sea ice, according to the WMO.

The great majority of the most qualified scientists in my field of atmospheric science blame human-caused greenhouse gas emissions–much of which come from burning dirty fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal–for this steady increase in temperature.

A September 2022 WMO report stated that human-caused global warming/climate change has caused weather-related disasters like flooding and drought to increase fivefold over the last 50 years, resulting in an average of 115 fatalities and $200 million damage every day around the world.

The WMO warns that unless humans reduce the burning of the dirty fossil fuels as well as the deforestation responsible for this climate change, these disastrous impacts will only get worse in the future.

Of course, another advantage of moving away from fossil fuels is that the reduction in demand for oil will punish the economies of dangerous countries like Russia and Iran.

Unfortunately, if we don’t take the necessary action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow this dangerous climate change, significant weather-related impacts like the flooding that hit the Houghton area on Father’s Day 2018 as well as the lack of snow early this winter season that resulted in a brown Christmas and did not allow the Marquette Mountain ski hill to open until early January will become more likely.

To encourage our elected officials to take the necessary action to address human-caused climate change, I urge your readers to go to the Citizens’ Climate Lobby website at https://citizensclimatelobby.org/get-loud-take-action and follow the Write Congress link there to urge our Congressional Representatives to support policies like carbon pricing to encourage a transition to clean, renewable energy sources.

Readers can also contact our congressional representatives by visiting their websites or calling 202-224-6221 for U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, 202-224-4822 for U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and 202-225-4735 for Rep Bergman.

You can also visit citizensclimatelobby.org to sign up for future online actions.