2023 was another year in which global and regional temperatures broke multiple records, and distant heat-exacerbated wildfires degraded Iowa’s air quality. Scientists continue to find that warming temperatures in the global atmosphere and ocean, caused largely by greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel combustion, are interconnected and are a root cause of increasing regional weather disasters1. In Iowa, new evidence links a warmer Gulf of Mexico to wetter spring planting conditions and a warmer atmosphere to rapid drying that creates flash drought and intensified storm systems.2,3 Iowa has multiple opportunities to help mitigate these climate changes with technologies that will also stimulate the economy and produce high-paying jobs.Copyright 2023, The Author
