Experts warn of rapid climate change in NC as White House moves to boost fossil fuels

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order intended to "unleash American energy" — particularly oil, natural gas and coal. Fossil fuels are the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for over 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. And that change is already being felt in North Carolina.

The president’s executive order titled “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach,” attempts to roll back what he calls ideologically motivated climate change policies. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ten highest global temperatures since 1850 have all been in the past decade, and the impacts in North Carolina are being felt. Currently, we experience 2-3 weeks of plus 95-degree days per year. According to experts, over the next 50 years, that number is likely to approach 8 weeks. 

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill biology professor John Bruno has been monitoring this trend for years, focusing on the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.

"By the end of the century, Raleigh will essentially have the climate of Jacksonville," says Bruno. "Of course, it depends a lot on the choices we make as a society, what our governments do in the coming decades. You know whether we have the climate of Charleston, South Carolina, or Tallahassee, somewhere down south, that climate's moving up for us." 

Bruno adds that the shift is already being seen in nature, with subtropical plant species and trees taking root here, and in the animal kingdom with the recent arrivals of armadillos — now found in more than two dozen North Carolina counties — and manatee sightings in Wilmington. He says in monitoring the earth’s temperatures, one thing is becoming clearer.

"So we're not just warming the Earth, but the rate of warming is accelerating measurably, statistically, in just the last five or 10 years," he says. "The temperature of the deep sea, ocean surface temperature, air temperature, the rate of glacial loss, sea ice loss in the Arctic, everything's just getting worse faster than we anticipated." 

Bruno says strong legislation in Washington is needed, pointing to the Endangered Species Act as an example. He hopes that similar federal action will eventually slow down these warming trends.