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Record heat waves, subsequent fires and air pollution have left 15,000 dead in Russia. The worst flooding in the history of Pakistan has displaced over 2 million Pakistanis, and killed at least 1600. In China, floods and landslides have left 3000 people dead. Looked at separately, each nation has recently experienced a different tragedy that will take years to recover from. Taken as a whole, it seems that years of dire warnings and predictions about the consequences of unchecked climate change are becoming a reality with extreme weather wreaking havoc around the globe. Here in the US the East Coast has been plagued by heat-waves, and the South-West, as well as parts of Mexico, are experiencing the driest weather in 50 years, threatening crops and water supplies. Climate change deniers in the US have been very effective at muddling the public’s understanding of changing weather patterns. This past winter news networks devoted much air-time to unscientific debates about the validity of global warming as the East Coast was buried under record-levels of snow. Critics say the United States government has not helped to clarify matters, and has failed to step-up as an international leader in the fight against climate change, as well as taking an ambivalent stance at home.

Guest: Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, scientist with the Global Environment Program at Union of Concerned Scientists

Find out more at www.ucsusa.org