How the Warming Arctic Helped Drive a Deep Freeze Into Texas

摘要

The Earth’s poles are warming faster than anywhere on the planet. While the consequences of that aren’t completely understood, it’s becoming apparent that many of the world’s extremeweather events owe the Arctic at least some of the credit.A blast of cold air that swept out of Canada in mid-February, moving across the Great Plains and deep into the South, has overburdened the electrical grid and triggered widespreadpower outages in Texas, which like many southern states relies predominantly on electric heating, according to the Energy Information Administration. It was the second time in sixmonths that extreme temperatures have brought grids to their knees-a heatwave across California in August caused a spike in energy demand for cooling equipment, forcing rollingblackouts for the first time since 2001.