I think all of us were greatly saddened to hear about the July 4 heavy rain and catastrophic flooding event in central Texas that killed a number of girls at Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River. Unfortunately, extreme weather events like this are becoming more common due to the global warming/climate change that the great majority of the most qualified scientists in my field of atmospheric science blame on the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat near our planet’s surface. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports the concentration of carbon dioxide reached an all time high 430.5 parts per million in May 2025 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. (NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory shows the current atmospheric concentrations of several greenhouse gases at https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has conclusively determined that human activity (burning fossil fuels, deforestation and land use changes) is the cause of these increasing concentrations.

The World Meteorological Organization reports 2024 was the warmest year and 2015-2024 was the warmest 10-year period in terms of global average temperature since at least the 1880s. NOAA indicates May 2025 was the second warmest fifth month of any year on record, trailing only May 2024 by about 0.15 degree.

Rick Spinrad, the former NOAA administrator, has stated: “We must recognize that these are clear signals of the damage carbon dioxide pollution is doing to the climate system, and take rapid action to reduce fossil fuel use as quickly as we can.” In addition to the global warming, NOAA reports there were 27 weather-related disasters in the U.S. that caused at least $1 billion in damage in 2024 (one less than the record 28 in 2023). This recent surge in weather extremes is in line with a September 2022 World Meteorological Organization report stating that human-caused global warming/climate change has caused weather-related disasters to increase fivefold over the last 50 years. 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, increasing the probability of events like the flooding that struck the Houghton area on Father’s Day 2018.

This warming climate will also exacerbate the spread of dangerous diseases like COVID-19, increasing the probability of more deadly pandemics in the future. The rising health care and economic costs associated with dealing with diseases like COVID-19 will greatly increase federal budget deficits. 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.

The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022 to help reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030. The IRA was do this by providing incentives to use more clean energy and investing in green technology to boost manufacturing. According to an article published in Time Magazine, the IRA in 2023 enabled over 2 million families to claim $2 billion in credits for residential home improvements to boost sustainability, such as installing heat pumps or more efficient air conditioners. More than one million families claimed over $6 billion in credits for residential clean-energy investments like solar electricity generation and battery storage.

Unfortunately, the second Trump Administration and Congress recently passed a FY2025 reconciliation bill that will eliminate the positive impacts the IRA would have had on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I urge your readers to contact congressional representatives by visiting their websites or calling 202-224-6221 for Senator Peters, 202-224-4822 for Senator Slotkin and 202-225-4735 for U.S. Rep. Bergman and tell them to support a return of the policies included in the IRA to help slow this dangerous climate change.