Experts: Climate change is contributing to hotter summers in Arizona
Heat waves are nothing new in Phoenix, but climate experts said the heat waves are becoming hotter, and they’re happening more often. Every day in July so far has hit more than 110 degrees. For perspective: In 1974, we had a heatwave that lasted 18 days, but temperatures still dipped back down to the 70s overnight.
“All you have to do is look at the data,” said Kathy Jacobs, a professor at the University of Arizona. “This is the longest and most intense heatwave that Phoenix has ever experienced since records have been kept. This is not normal. This is abnormal.”
Jacobs said climate change is slowly increasing our earth’s temperature and leading to hotter summers. She warns if we don’t take action, the extreme weather will only continue. “Whenever we are burning coal or oil, we are seeing some emissions from that going out into the atmosphere and trapping heat,” she said.
Sandy Bahr, the director of the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, says the GOP-controlled legislature won’t even hear bills that address climate change. “There’s a denial of the science. They just are not willing to look at the research, acknowledge it and recognize that what we are seeing now is not normal. This is more intense than we have ever seen,” Bahr said.
Arizona’s Family reached out to the GOP State House about concerns over climate change. Spokesperson Andrew Wilder sent us this response:
“The hyper-politicization of summer heat being pushed by people with a radical-left partisan agenda is tiring and hardly worth acknowledging. Maybe they will explain what the state legislature could do specifically to prevent a summer heat wave like the one currently radiating upon the planet from that enormous nuclear fusion reactor found at the center of our solar system and measuring 1.3 million times the size of Earth. Or, perhaps they will ask Hobbs to issue an executive order to compel lower summer temperatures.”
Bahr said reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy and using cooler building materials can help reduce climate change.