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 >
How is Climate Change Related to Extreme Weather?
Unfortunately, extreme weather that used to be fairly rare, is now something that is becoming increasingly more normal and common in the world. Examples of extreme weather are extreme drought, deadly heatwaves, incredibly destructive wildfires, record-breaking hurricanes, relentless rain that leads to flooding, and also intense winter storms.
The heat is becoming more and more unbearable. The already hot places are getting even hotter than they were before. This extreme heat requires the need for more air conditioning, which can lead to blackouts and loss of power. Wildfires were already an issue before. Now, they burn longer and are much larger. The damage that is done is also much worse than it could be because of how dry and ead the land is from the heat. Since hurricane are energized with warm seawater, they are becoming much more intense and damaging. As stated above, the hotter places will get hotter. The same can be said the other way around; the wetter and colder places get more wet and colder. With the world warming, the ocean is also getting warmer. This causes the glaciers to melt and the sea levels to rise. As a result, there is more flooding.
To try and fix this, we need to stop burning fossil fuels and use electricity for energy instead. This electric must be accessible to everyone. Otherwise, having it wouldn’t help as much as it could and should.
Source: https://earthjustice.org/feature/how-cl … me-weather