Unprecedented hot weather in temperate climate the United States has taken the people unawares and made life difficult. It is the effect of climate change Americans are experiencing. From spell of scorching heat to tornadoes to heavy thundershowers as well as flood and draught have been occurring in many parts of the vast country.
Missouri Army National Guard soldiers fortified a levee with sandbags in Clarksville, Mo. In some towns, residents smiled as they saw the water creep back down the walls of homes and makeshift barricades. Frantic sandbagging efforts stopped in places like Quincy, Ill., and Winfield, Mo. But for many it was a temporary reprieve as they braced for another crest of water.
An apparent tornado hit a Mississippi shopping mall as a line of severe storms swept across the Southeast and was headed to the Mid-Atlantic today. Portions of Alabama remained under tornado watches until early Thursday evening as the storm moved east over the Mississippi Valley. The system was due to bring severe storms and wind to southern Virginia today. The storm was due in New England by Saturday, the Weather Channel reported.
Nobody could ever seriously accuse the Bush administration of being too aggressive when it comes to enforcing the nation's environmental laws. But it was partly on those grounds that a federal court last week struck down the Clean Air Interstate Rule, a regulation aimed at reducing soot and smog and one of the few creative initiatives to emerge from the Environmental Protection Agency in the last seven years.
Nine of the 10 US urban areas that release the most greenhouse gases per person lie east of the Mississippi River, a study showed on Thursday. "A north-south divide is also apparent," said the report issued by two think tanks, the New York-based Regional Plan Association and the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Seven of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases are in the south, including two cities each in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky, it said.
