2012 was a year of extreme weather: massive floods, torrential rains, a super-typhoon and record drought. These and other extreme weather events were consistent with what most scientists predict will be the “new normal” as the world’s climate continues to change.
2012 Brings Public Focus on Climate Change
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Heavy rains in southeastern Brazil caused a dam in the town of Campo de Goytacazes to burst and flood the area, January, 2012. (Melissa Martins Casa Grande)
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Days of heavy rainfall in what is typically one of the driest months of the year in Australia forced 13,000 people to evacuate their homes, March 2012.
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Cattle decompose under the Saharan sun outside the town of Ayoun el Atrous in Mauritania. The food and nutrition crisis facing countries in West Africa’s drought-prone Sahel region continued to deteriorate at an alarming rate, May 2012.
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Two weeks worth of rain fell in one day in Manlia, submerging half of the Philippines capital, July 2012.