Cherry blossoms along DC's Tidal Basin, April 2011 (Flickr's Robert Pos)

Now comes a team of scientists theorizing that with drastic warming of the globe, future decades could see blossom times not just a few days early but advanced by almost a month.

That could mean a bloom process that begins in January, rather than February, a blooming period in February instead of March, and a peak bloom in early March, instead of early April, the research suggests. [...]

According to the more dire global warming scenario the scientists used — one with unchecked global population growth — the District’s cherry trees could be blooming 29 days earlier by 2080 and 13 days earlier by 2050. A less severe scenario, with eventually declining population, had the trees blooming 10 days earlier by 2080 and five days earlier by 2050.

Dr. Amanda Staudt, National Wildlife Federation climate scientist, told DC’s WJLA the early cherry blossoms are a warning sign our climate is rapidly warming and limits on carbon pollution are needed:

Cherry blossoms are blooming earlier this year. Those are like little pink warning flags. [...]

We’re emitting carbon pollution into our atmosphere by burning coal, oil, and gas. This carbon pollution acts like a blanket for our atmosphere, keeping extra heat in.

You can watch the full video on WJLA’s website.

It’s not just DC. All across America, the winter and early spring of 2011-2012 will be remembered as extreme. According to NOAA:

• America had its 4th-warmest winter on record
• Massachusetts tied its warmest February on record
• California had its 2nd-driest winter on record

Right now, people in places like our nation’s capital are talking the surprisingly pleasant March weather. But a question lingers at the end of every conversation: If it’s this hot now, how hot will summer get?

Take Action

Email officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to let them know you support limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dr. Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and has been at the forefront of scientific efforts to understand climate change since his landmark 1988 Congressional testimony spelled out undeniable evidence that our climate is changing thanks to man-made carbon pollution. His TED Talk is essentially a short update of Al Gore’s 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, reminding us that despite new federal fuel efficiency standards and some state-level efforts to cap carbon pollution and invest in renewable energy, we still have no comprehensive national policy to confront climate change.

Dr. Amanda Staudt, National Wildlife Federation climate scientist, explains why Hansen’s talk is so important:

Jim Hansen spells out the climate change problem in the clearest of terms in his TED lecture. I’m impressed that he doesn’t shy away from warning about the really bad consequences of continuing to burn fossil fuels at today’s rates. And he doesn’t shy away from the moral implications of the choices our society is making now. It is so important that people understand the scientific and ethical dimensions of climate change.

So please do three things:

1. Watch Dr. Hansen’s 18 minute talk right now or download the podcast
2. Tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency you support limits on industrial carbon pollution
3. Email the link to this post to your friends or share it using the “like” & “tweet” buttons

If you can’t watch the clip, read a summary of Dr. Hansen’s talk from ClimateProgress.org.

Dr. Amanda Staudt is the lead author of the National Wildlife Federation’s series of scientific reports on how the climate crisis is fueling extreme weather.

Today, the insurance giant Munich Re releaseda comprehensive review that puts a number on the costs of the United States’ 2011 year of extreme weather.  In total, insured losses in the U.S. totaled $35.9 billion in 2011. This is $12 billion above the 2000 to 2010 average loss of $23.8 billion.  Below are some of the report’s other highlights.

You can view the entire Munich Re presentation here.

Image courtesy NOAA.gov

• In 2011 thunderstorm loses led to insured losses exceeding $25 billion. This is more than double the previous record. It was also the deadliest thunderstorm season in over 75 years.

Extreme Wildfires

• 2011 was the worst wildfire year on record in Texas due to persistent drought.
• In spring 2011, over 3 million acres burned in west Texas from 12 major fires with over 200 homes and businesses destroyed, $50 million insured loss.
• In September 2011, the Bastrop County Complex Fire near San Antonio destroyed over 1,600 homes causing insured losses of $530 million.

Extreme Mississippi River Flooding

• In 2011, heavy snowmelt, saturated soils, and over 20 inches of rain in a month lead to the worst flooding of the lower Mississippi River since 1927.
• Record river crests at Vicksburg and Natchez; Morganza Spillway opened in Louisiana to protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans from possible levee failures.
• The flooding caused extensive agricultural damage, property, and inland marine losses. The estimated economic losses are $2 billion and insured losses of $500 million.

And just in case you may think 2011 was an aberration, the report suggests that this is part of a trend that is consistent with the scientific predictions of mounting extreme events finding that:

• Average annual winter storm losses have almost doubled since the early 1980s.
• Average thunderstorm losses have increased fivefold since 1980.

Clearly, waiting any longer to limit the nation’s sources of carbon pollution is like adding fuel to the storms and extreme weather events that are costing our country dearly. There is some news good on that front.  In 2012, we can take action to start pushing back against these real world impacts of climate change.  Later this month, the EPA is expected to propose new carbon pollution limits on the nation’s power plants. Power plants are the nation’s single largest source of climate change causing air pollution pumping roughly 2.4B tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year.

Visit our Action Center and see how you can help!

Flooding in downtown Memphis, May 2011 (via Flickr's Chris Wieland)

As we head into the final months of 2011, you hear a lot of talk about how it may be remembered most for its extreme weather. But a new report is set to warn the intensity of this year’s floods, heat and drought aren’t freak occurrences - they’re the direct result of man-made climate change:

For a world already weary of weather catastrophes, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: More floods, more heat waves, more droughts and greater costs to deal with them.

A draft summary of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press says the extremes caused by global warming could eventually grow so severe that some locations become “increasingly marginal as places to live.”

The report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change marks a change in climate science, from focusing on subtle shifts in average temperatures to concentrating on the harder-to-analyze freak events that grab headlines, hurt economies and kill people.

“The extremes are a really noticeable aspect of climate change,” said Jerry Meehl, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “I think people realize that the extremes are where we are going to see a lot of the impacts of climate change.”

For all the talk about the cost of acting to cut carbon pollution, the report is a reminder that Washington’s failure so far to put America on the fast track to clean energy comes with high costs of its own. The new IPCC report is due out later this month, and you can be sure you’ll be seeing a lot more about it here at NWF’s Wildlife Promise.

Anne Thompson took an in-depth look at the issue last night on NBC Nightly News, concluding, “Today, no one can deny that extreme weather is here to stay”:

Dr. Amanda Staudt is the lead author of the National Wildlife Federation’s series of scientific reports on how the climate crisis is fueling extreme weather. Here’s her take on the reports:

Two things jump out at me about the new IPCC study and the segment on NBC. First, the longstanding reticence about connecting extreme weather events to climate change is clearly fading away. As more and more places have experienced record-setting extremes—from the flooding in Thailand to the drought and wildfires in Texas—there is increasing awareness that something is out of whack with our climate and that these events are increasingly hitting home.

Second, the conversation is quickly and necessarily shifting to what communities can do to reduce their vulnerability to such events. The IPCC reports devotes a lot of attention to what makes different places more or less vulnerable and how to prepare for and respond to these risks. As the costs of these extreme events continues to rise, these actions to adapt to climate change are becoming increasingly attractive.

To learn more about how global warming is affecting weather in your community, go to NWF.org/ExtremeWeather. And to learn more about the cost of inaction if we don’t cut carbon pollution now, read the NRDC report The Cost of Climate Change.

Flooded commuter parking lot in Reston, VA (September 2011 by Flickr's Courtlyn McHale)

As I stood in a torrential downpour waiting for my son’s bus to arrive, I couldn’t help but think how this was yet another sign of climate change hitting home.  Literally.

It was only his third day riding the bus home from school. My parental anxiety was already elevated.  And, now, we had to contend with a serious flash flooding situation. What if the bus was stranded somewhere? Or heaven forbid, swept away in a sudden flood?

This storm easily qualifies as one of the most extreme rainfall events recorded for Northern Virginia. The National Weather Service reports nearly 12” of rain fell this week in Reston, VA, where we live and where I work at the National Wildlife Federation’s headquarters.

On Thursday alone, Dulles International Airport (just a few miles west of Reston) recorded 6.44” of rainfall. There’s only one day when Dulles has recorded a larger rainfall total since measurements began in 1963 and that was when Hurricane Agnes came through the area in 1972. In fact, aside from Hurricane Agnes, Dulles has never seen daily rainfall totals exceed 6”.

Until now.

It’s eerie for me to watch extreme weather events hit my own community. I’ve written reports for NWF about how climate change is loading the dice in favor of more extreme rainfall events – the heavy downpours that have been natural fluctuations in the past are becoming more common in our warming climate. Warmer air can hold more moisture, so when it does rain, we’re more likely to get a deluge.

Thankfully my son made it home safely, but others faced major impacts across the DC area. Three people have lost their lives. Dozens of roads were closed, including the Beltway and I66 in Virginia.  Local governments are still tallying up the total damages.

As a parent, climate change means yet another thing to worry about for my kids. It used to be a more abstract worry: something that would affect them in the far-flung future.  But, yesterday made me realize that it is a much more concrete anxiety. Climate change means worrying about whether my son will make it home from school safely.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Learn more at NWF.org/GlobalWarming.