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 >
Ice and Snow
Since the 1960s, Earth's atmosphere has seen a skyrocket in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. The levels climb higher and higher every year. All of this extra CO2 in the atmosphere absorbs infrared heat, trapping it in the atmosphere and raising Earth's temperature. The rising temperatures that we have experienced for half a century have shown themselves through drastic impacts on the amounts of ice and snow on Earth's surface.
Climate change has a large impact on the snow and ice on Earth. The higher air temperature melts snow and thaws ice, while also making winters too warm for significant new snowfall and freezing. One example of a lack of snow and ice, provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is the Alaskan Permafrost. Permafrost is a combination of either dirt or rock mixed with ice that typically stays frozen for 2 years or more. However, over the past 40 years, 14 out of 15 monitoring stations in Alaska have reported substantial increases in Permafrost temperature and earlier Permafrost melt. These changes are most prominent in northern Alaska, and are mainly caused by long-term influence from higher air temperatures. This is not an isolated problem. Many of the same patterns have been seen throughout Arctic sea ice, Antarctic sea ice, glaciers, lake ice cover, ice sheets, snowpack, and much more.
The loss of ice and snow is impactful to our lives because of the shelter snow provides for vegetation and wildlife, dwindling water supply for many regions on Earth, and a disruption of cultural lifestyles. In addition, this has global consequences, as snow and ice affect sea level, ocean currents, air temperatures, and storm patterns. Without intervention, the constantly disappearing snow and ice will soon become a problem too big to solve, and will begin amplifying the effects of climate change that we already see. The best way to keep the ice and snow we have is to limit CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions that cause the water loss. By keeping the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere stable, and even reducing the concentration (by planting trees, for example), we can replenish the stores of ice and snow that are so essential to our life on Earth.
Source for my research: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/snow-ice