Luddly Neddite
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- Sep 14, 2011
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New UA center aims to prepare Tucson, world for climate change
Meanwhile, coastal cities have fewer options.
Were going to have to adapt to more huge wildfires, prolonged heat waves, electricity brownouts, floods and severe droughts and other more extreme events in the future, thanks to climate change, says the director of a new University of Arizona research center that will try to help people do that.
Thats really how people experience climate change, says Kathy Jacobs, director of UAs new Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions. The idea that climate change impacts happen slowly and incrementally is really the wrong way to look at this.
People are confident in their ability to take off another layer of clothes or put on the thermostat. What is of greatest concern is extreme events, said Jacobs, a longtime Tucsonan who recently returned here after working four years as a scientist for the White House in Washington, D.C. People get caught by surprise all the time, but theres no need to be surprised. We can actually be prepared.
Meanwhile, coastal cities have fewer options.