Canberra - The head of a US weather agency says extreme climate-related events in the United States such as the Colorado wildfires have convinced many Americans that climate change is a reality.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco says many Americans previously saw climate change as a “nebulous concept” removed from them in time and geography.
But she told a university forum in Australia on Friday that perceptions are changing as the US sees “more and more examples of extreme weather and extreme climate-related events.”
Among them, she noted record-breaking wildfires in the West in the past two years, including in Colorado, where blazes have recently damaged or destroyed nearly 350 homes and killed two people.
Other examples she mentioned are a record warm spring and preseason hurricanes. - Sapa-AP