Climate will be hotter and wetter

Miami, May 5 (RHC)-- In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its updated figures for U.S. climate averages, with the “new normal” one degree hotter than it was just 20 years ago. 

The data also shows the U.S. is much wetter in the eastern and central parts of the country and drier in the West.  The rising temperatures mean that places like Fairbanks, in Alaska, are no longer classified as a sub-Arctic climate, but are now considered part of a “warm summer continental zone.”

In other climate news, in France, a new bill aimed at addressing the nation’s response to the climate crisis passed its first vote this week.  The bill includes a ban on short domestic flights when there is an alternative train route, restrictions on landlords renting out poorly insulated properties, and making “ecocide” a punishable crime. 

But climate groups say the measures are still too weak.  Jean-François Julliard of Greenpeace France said: “It’s a law that could have been sufficient if it had been passed 15 years ago, when the climate emergency was less pressing.  Today, in 2021, that law will unfortunately not be sufficient to effectively tackle global warming.  It is far from ambitious enough, far from allowing to reach the target the government has set itself, namely reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.”