In the Northern Hemisphere in 2017 and 2018 brought several destructive hurricanes to the shores of North America, the Caribbean, and throughout the Pacific rim. Such extreme weather events are predicted to get more common and more severe with increasing climate change.
Several participating classes in the ISCFC were or are in the path of these storms and we hope for the best for them, their families and communities.
We would love to hear from students affected directly and indirectly by extreme weather events, and also any students who have been following the news this summer.
What are your thoughts about the connection between climate change and extreme weather events? Has this hurricane season increased your concern about climate change or not? Do you think that US citizens and residents (and others in the region) will take climate change more seriously now?
Extreme Weather >
Cape Town drought
In 2018, Cape Town, South Africa experienced a severe water shortage after a few years of droughts. The city almost reached what was called “Day Zero”, when the dam levels were close enough to 0% of full capacity, that extreme water restriction almost had to be implemented. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “human-caused climate change” was the cause of this. The unfortunate thing is, South Africa has very low annual CO2 emissions compared to other, larger countries such as the United States and China. This just shows that the consequences of our actions, and our own greenhouse gas emissions are not limited to ourselves, and can greatly harm other countries.