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 >
Extreme Weather
Extreme weather events are getting more common, more expensive and harder to accurately predict. The cost per event has increased nearly 77% over the past five decades. July 2021's floods across Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands generated an estimated $43 billion in damages and killed 200 people.In Sudan in 2020, more than 700,000 people were displaced by the most severe storms since 1962. Floods in central China's Henan province killed dozens and displaced more than 250,000 and significantly disrupted economic activity. While extreme events have increased more than five times over the same number of decades, the cost of extreme events has increased nearly eight times globally since the 1970s. Also natural disasters can cause a lot of damage and require a lot of money to rebuild. Snow removal, rehabilitation and repair efforts and costs. For example, the city of Buffalo budgeted approximately $9 million for snow removal alone in 2014-2015. This just goes to show how extreme weather is affecting countries in huge ways. It is also admitting a lot of carbon. Jerry Brown recently proposed a $1 billion plan that will bring aid to the communities hit the hardest by the current statewide drought. This will create jobs locally. So extreme weather can stimulate economies while also costing the city, state and national governments great amounts. This is just one way that we can help improve the issues at hand. Again, Regardless of one’s personal views, there is no doubt that extreme weather can have profound effects on local, state and national economies. Economic harms from extreme weather and climate events have become more commonplace due to increasing temperatures, sea levels, and economic development in areas vulnerable to these events. In recent years, the United States has experienced, on average, more than one disaster that has caused over a billion dollars in damages each month. To put this in perspective, until this past decade, the country rarely experienced a year with more than a handful of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. Because of this it is crucial to come up with ways to help improve the effects of extreme weather.