“For everybody who thinks it’s warming, I can find somebody who thinks it isn’t.”
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WHAT CLIMATE CHANGE MEANS FOR KENTUCKY
- In Kentucky, there were close to 6,800 hospital admissions for asthma in 2011, with an average charge of more than $13,500 for each stay.
- Severe storms and flooding in Kentucky in summer 2012 impacted 369 residences and required an estimated $9.5 million in federal assistance.
- Due to ongoing drought in 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated 26 counties as primary natural disaster areas in Kentucky.
- Sea level rise, dangerous storm surges, and intense hurricanes already pose serious threats to coastal cities in the Southeast, and climate change will intensify these impacts. The Southeast experienced two billion-dollar extreme weather events in 2012. Decreased water availability is very likely to affect the region’s economy as well as its natural systems. By the end of this century, much of the Southeast will experience more than 100 days above 90°F, which in the absence of adaptive actions is expected to lead to more heat-stress related illness and deaths, decreased agricultural production, and negative impacts on fish and wildlife. Warmer temperatures accelerate formation of smog in urban areas, exacerbating respiratory problems such as asthma.
