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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Climatologist: Flooding the Result of Climate Change

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Thursday, May 19, 2011   

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Connecticut rivers have been high this spring, but nothing like the record-breaking, devastating flooding of the Mississippi River. Some climatologists point to climate change as a direct cause of these extreme weather events.

Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says the environment in which all these storms are occurring is different than it was, for instance, 30 years ago.

"When we look at the statistics, we find that the very heavy rains are increasing at a substantial rate. In general, it has become wetter in the U.S., especially east of the Rockies."

The increase in the earth's temperature has led to an even bigger increase in the amount of water vapor over the oceans, he explains, contributing to massive storms.

The time is past when all these storms could be attributed just to natural cycles, Trenberth says.

"You can't simply blame this all on natural variability. Natural variability is certainly playing a role, but equally, climate change that we humans have something to do with is also playing a role."

The devastation along the Mississippi, and also the death and destruction from an unusually high number of tornadoes across the South, should prompt lawmakers to take action, he says.

"Ironically, many of the states that have been most affected by the flooding and the tornadoes have representatives in Congress who have voted against legislation relating to climate change, such as bills affecting the Environmental Protection Agency and its ability to regulate greenhouse gases."



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