“This tendency to perceive floods, storms, and drought as ‘unprecedented’ is common. After all, it is human nature to view extreme conditions as out of the norm, given that our general frame of reference – such as a human lifespan – is relatively short.
The tree rings capture natural climatic variability before the world’s climate was significantly modified by human activity.”
“This whiplash is the kind of condition that we expect in a warmer climate,” he says. “Now, I’m not saying that the drought of last summer and the flooding of the spring is caused by climate change — these are perfectly natural conditions. But there’s pretty good science to suggest that the severity of the drought and the severity of the flooding is, to some extent, increased as a result of a warmer climate.”