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DES MOINES—Iowa’s signature summer humidity is not just an annoyance, it’s a costly reminder that climate change is real and needs to be addressed, a group of Iowa scientists said Wednesday.

Gene Takle, director of Iowa State University’s climate science program and one of the architects of the 7th annual Iowa Climate Statement told a Statehouse news conference that “absolute humidity” — measured by dew-point temperature — has increased statewide by 8 percent to 23 percent since 1971 and scientists have “good evidence” the rise is because of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that likely will increase in the future.

The statement was released with the endorsement of 190 science faculty, researchers and educators from 39 Iowa colleges and universities.

Takle, a professor of geological and atmospheric sciences in the ISU Department of Agronomy, said the conditions relate to the increase of springtime moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico that settle along eastern Iowa, resulting in higher humidity readings measured across all seasons at all long-term monitoring stations in Iowa.