Stormy weather

Floods, droughts, hurricanes and disease outbreaks -- an expert explains why climate changes give us yet another reason to find terror in the skies.

By Suzy Hansen

Oct 23, 2001 | Hurricane Mitch, the Oakland, Calif., fire of 1991 and the Chicago heat wave of 1995 are just a few of the environmental disasters that, in the last 10 years, have claimed lives and made for frightening news reports. These weather catastrophes seem to happen regularly, yet they invariably prompt nagging questions: "Is this normal? Has it ever been this hot?" If you ask a climate scientist, he will say no. To proponents of the greenhouse effect theory, at least, the last decade unleashed a dazzlingly deadly display of extreme weather events -- which is just what happens when you turn the heat up on Mother Nature.

A reporter for the Washington Post, Outside magazine and GQ, Bob Reiss believes it will only get worse. His new book, "The Coming Storm: Extreme Weather and Our Terrifying Future," examines the scientific and political conflict that's been raging since signs of the greenhouse effect appeared in the late 1980s. Reiss also lays out what it's like to live in these aggravated conditions; in heart-thumping detail, he recounts personal experiences with some of the most notorious disasters of the last 15 years -- a Nashville picnic ravaged by a tornado, a series of storms that cost billions in Europe, a drought in Sudan that practically caused a hunger riot and the potential flooding of an entire island nation.

Subtler, more insidious effects threaten us, too, and Reiss drives that point home. Most people will probably be lucky enough not to cross paths with a Midwestern tornado or to be vacationing in the Carolinas during an August hurricane. Yet, Reiss writes, "Maybe when you're sixty-five, and you get a heart attack on a hot night, it will never occur to you that at three a.m., temperatures wouldn't have been as hot if the climate hadn't changed."

Reiss spoke to Salon from his home in New York.

Extreme weather means more terrifying hurricanes and tornadoes and fires than we usually see. But what can we expect such conditions to do to our daily life?

While doing research 12 or 13 years ago, I met Jim Hansen, the scientist who in 1988 predicted the greenhouse effect before Congress. I went over to the window with him and looked out on Broadway in New York City and said, "If what you're saying about the greenhouse effect is true, is anything going to look different down there in 20 years?" He looked for a while and was quiet and didn't say anything for a couple seconds. Then he said, "Well, there will be more traffic." I, of course, didn't think he heard the question right. Then he explained, "The West Side Highway [which runs along the Hudson River] will be under water. And there will be tape across the windows across the street because of high winds. And the same birds won't be there. The trees in the median strip will change." Then he said, "There will be more police cars." Why? "Well, you know what happens to crime when the heat goes up."

And so far, over the last 10 years, we've had 10 of the hottest years on record.

Didn't he also say that restaurants would have signs in their windows that read, "Water by request only."

Under the greenhouse effect, extreme weather increases. Depending on where you are in terms of the hydrological cycle, you get more of whatever you're prone to get. New York can get droughts, the droughts can get more severe and you'll have signs in restaurants saying "Water by request only."

When did he say this will happen?

Within 20 or 30 years. And remember we had this conversation in 1988 or 1989.

Does he still believe these things?

Yes, he still believes everything. I talked to him a few months ago and he said he wouldn't change anything that he said then.

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