A White House blog and video last week identified the polar vortex—a huge system of moving swirling air that generally contains the polar air and circulates over the North Pole—that spread extreme cold weather over Canada and much of the US as possibly having been caused by global warming. President Barack Obama’s science adviser John Holdren says in the video that “no single weather episode can either prove or disprove climate change”. But a “growing body of evidence suggests that the kind of extreme cold being experienced ... is a pattern that we can expect to see with increasing frequency as global warming continues”.
The Arctic polar vortex keeps the cold air confined to the area. But the unusual cold, symbolised by sights of the Niagara Falls freezing partially over as the mercury plummeted below -50 degree centrigrade in parts of North America and eastern Europe, has sparked off speculations about whether the weather event is attributable to climate change. Similar debates were also kindled in recent years after the visitation of devastating hurricanes and tornados. But an inconclusive debate does no favour to mankind’s acknowledgement of a grim reality—global warming. The truth is polar ice caps are melting and scientists claim that Arctic temperatures have risen much more than other regions of the world.
Addressing the problem of global warming, rather than guessing whether specific events of unusual weather are caused by it, is the need of the hour. Also, the US government’s acknowledgment of the harmful effects of global warming isn’t enough. Highly industrialised countries such as the US need to shoulder greater responsibility and take steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, considering they are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
