A handout frame grab from video footage released via Twitter by Kali Harris shows an “SOS” flag hanging from a building during flash flooding in the Main Street of Ellicott City on May 27. (Kali Harris/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)Mike Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and a member of the Maryland Commission on Climate ChangeThe people of Ellicott City need more than thoughts and prayers. “How is this not climate change?” asked shopkeeper Mojan Bagha last week, surveying the devastation of his Oriental rug shop after the second 1,000-year flood struck Ellicott City in 22 months . But let’s step back: Suburban development, while a factor, cannot begin to explain the scope of the Ellicott City calamity. He ignores the avalanche of new data — from Cornell University and others and presented to the Maryland Climate Commission — showing that fracked gas probably is worse for the climate than coal.

Source: Washington Post June 08, 2018 19:57 UTC