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 >
Sea Level rising
What are ways to help prevent sea level rising or what are ways to help defend our coastal towns and cities from it?
Good question. Greenhouse gases are a major contribution to rising sea levels. If we as humans become more conscious of our effect on climate change and begin cutting down our carbon footprint, sea levels won't rise as much. You could recycle more, grow your own food, take shorter showers, etc. Just simple things like these make a big difference. To defend coastal towns, setting up buffers would help protect the people living there. Some scientists have even begun creating something called "soft walls" which, according to Mach, are "shore-protecting techniques and technologies involving mostly natural materials". These would help soak up the incoming water.
We can not use as much fossil fuels and use renewable energy so it doesn’t impact the eco system
Good question. The biggest contributor to sea level rise is Greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gasses cause increased temperatures and land ice to melt making levels rise. However there are simple ways to do your part to lower your carbon footprint. First is to switch to solar or wind energy. With switching you can reduce your household emissions and save money on your energy bills. Another way is to turn off the lights when not being used. It may seem small but it makes a huge impact on lowering your carbon footprint. You could also use LED bulbs that use much less energy. Ways to defend sea level rising are flood walls. Flood walls will minimize damage from flooding and storms.
Sources:
https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/h … print-tips
Preventing Rising Sea Levels are probably one of the biggest threats to low lying countries like The Netherlands, and Denmark which have few mountains and (especially in The Netherlands Case) huge parts of there land are below sea level. Some ways we could defend our low lying cities and countries are building barriers which The Netherlands(again) are extremely experienced in doing. In other examples such as the San Fransisco Bay Area we could Damn off the Golden Gate and save much of the Bay from going under the waves. But for some other areas in the world unfortunately there are very few ways to actually defend against the rising sea levels. A few that come to mind are many Pacific Island nations and Bangladesh. Pacific Island Nations are usually situated on atolls that are only a few meters above the waves and even in a minor sea level change hundreds of thousands would be swept under the waves. Bangladesh though have a very similar situation to The Netherlands, is MUCH bigger and there is too little time to completely save the country where over 100 million people would be displaced by the waves and a huge humanitarian disaster would occur. Though there is some ways to mitigate the impact of the humanitarian crisis by preemptively evacuating their populations.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2019 … sing-tides