By Gene Kemmeter

The weather has been on a roller coaster this year, and the traditional seasons of the year seem to be definitely different than they have been in the past. Weather has always been the popular topic of discussion among people, but lately that discussion has certainly increased.

Look back at the past year. The beginning of the year was cold. Then came the snow in February and March. It just kept coming and coming. Chilly April showers produced May flooding, and the temperatures remained cold, forcing farmers in the area to delay planting.

June brought days of sunshine and the warmest temperatures of the year, along with hope that finally the farm fields would dry out. But the long-range forecast indicates the temperatures will probably be below average for much of the rest of the month.

The weather has left farmers weeks behind in planting their fields because of the rain, colder temperatures and flooding. In the last year, devastating wildfires have swept through the West. A plague of tornadoes spun through the South and the Plains states that were also hit by flooding.

A number of reports from U.S. and international agencies in the last months predicted such episodes will occur because of climate change, which will have an increasingly larger economic impact on the world and will cause more health issues the longer this nation and the world delay taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

One hundred ninety-five nations accepted the Paris Agreement in December 2015 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to pave the way toward combating climate change. But President Donald Trump withdrew from the Agreement after he became president, and the U.S. is the second-largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world, behind China.

Nearly all those nations agreed to rules last December to reduce the emissions by tracking them and communicating with others about their progress in the coming years and decades. But the action failed to commit them to taking more ambitious reductions in emissions needed to slow climate change.

Coastal cities are working to combat rising water levels, mainly by building barriers. Inundated communities want the federal government to finance their rebuilding rather than move. Politicians don’t want the U.S. to cut back on greenhouse gases, anticipating damage to the coal and petroleum economy, favoring instead the billions of dollars in expenses for disaster relief.

Wisconsin, like the rest of the Upper Midwest, won’t escape the changes. Temperatures are projected to rise, meaning existing crops will no longer grow in the heat. And rainfall will be less frequent, but subject to torrential downpours, triggering floods. That will impact local climate-dependent industries such as agriculture and outdoor tourism.

Even Trump’s business organization blames climate change for impacting its golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland. While Trump questions the idea of climate change as a threat, his business has asked the Irish government to grant a permit for a proposed sea wall to stop the Atlantic Ocean from eroding away part of the golf course.

The issue of climate change is a political hot potato. Support has picked up in recent years as predictions have been realized. But the deniers continue to maintain a lot of control over the issue. Will they finally relinquish that control when conditions around the world get much worse? Will they realize much of their wealth will be underwater or dried up?