“Changing climate” is behind a pattern of extreme weather events whipping the Northeast, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday as a blizzard was about to smack his state.
Cuomo noted the dangers of increasing severe weather events during a press conference about the potentially historic one set to drop feet of snow on Long Island.
“You’re getting a repeat pattern of these extreme weather situations, whether it’s Hurricane Sandy or seven feet of snow, and that’s part of the changing climate, I believe, that has brought this new extreme weather pattern and it’s something we have to adjust to,” Cuomo said, according to National Journal. “It’s something that is very costly. It’s also something that is very dangerous.”
The comment isn’t quite new ground for the prominent politician, who was New York’s chief executive during Hurricane Sandy. But he was less direct in placing blame at the time in 2012, saying only, “There has been a series of extreme weather incidents. That is not a political statement, that is a factual statement. Anyone who says there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns is denying reality.” (As Think Progress noted, the context of his statement was obvious.)
In addition to Cuomo, famed personality Bill Nye “The Science Guy” said Monday he wanted to “introduce” the idea that the blizzard could be connected to climate change.
On the other hand, BuzzFeed highlighted 27 tweets, most from random Twitter users, that implied the impending snow storm disproved global warming.
On the only hand that matters, scientists have said repeatedly that it is impossible to pin climate change to any one weather event.
