For as long as most Americans can remember, they have been enjoying a period of relative mild weather, and that may have lulled many into complacency and dulled their worries over global warming, according to a new study cited in the Washington Post.
And while that can be viewed even as a benefit from the warming of the planet, researchers are warning us that if things continue to be the same, as many as 90 percent of American residents will have to deal with oppressive summer heat by the end of this century.
Patrick Egan, lead author on the study, and a public policy professor at New York University said Americans should be more concerned about global warming and they are getting the wrong signal from the pleasant weather cycles we are now experiencing. “They’re getting the good parts and haven’t had to pay the price of the bad part,” continued Egan.
But it’s coming, according to the team, if steps are not taken immediately to reduce heat-trapping gasses.
Egan and Megan Mullin, an environmental policy professor at Duke University, developed a weather preference index, that looks at the movement of Americans based on their preference to the weather, and takes into account other factors such as employment re-locations.
The findings show that most Americans prefer warmer weather,with cities like Miami, San Diego and Phoenix topping the list of most desirable places to live, and cold-weather cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit near the bottom of the list.
According to the study, most Americans have experienced a warming of about one degree per decade during the winters over the last 40 years, and only one-seventh of a degree during the summer. That is lulling many into complacency concerning climate change, according to Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann, who was not a part of the study.
But not everyone is convinced looking at where people live is the best indicator of their weather preferences, and that most believe politics have a greater influence on the perception of global warming than weather preferences.
The study results have been published in the journal Nature.