MADISON, Wis. — Among the slew of executive actions President Trump signed Monday, there is one that may impact our climate.
The Paris Climate Agreement is an agreement between countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of avoiding human interference in climate change.
When speaking with UW-Madison climate expert, Jack Williams, he shares with he has taught climate change courses for over a decade and says he has seen a major shift in how climate change is viewed.
“Public opinion and awareness has really shifted on this. And so, there is this interesting disconnect between public awareness, which people are mostly now convinced that climate change is happening. They’re seeing the impact in their lives or seeing their insurance bills go up versus the, you know, the political leadership and sometimes the disinformation campaigns that go on around this,” Williams said.
Williams attributes recent major weather events across the country to climate change.
“Rainfall intensity, and these extreme events of droughts and floods has been linked to climate change…weather extremes like hurricanes and floods. Those have a link to human caused climate change,” he said.
He fears that by the U.S. Pulling out of the agreement and there being less of an effort to combat climate change could impact Wisconsin.
“We’re all affected by each other’s actions. And so here in Wisconsin, we have been fortunate to date that we have not had the devastating fires of, say, California. We are seeing warmer winters, warmer summers. We’re seeing an increasing, frequency of big rain events with more than an inch and a day that that those bigger rain events are intensifying in the state.”