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 Are Rising Temperatures Affecting People In The U.S.?
As carbon emissions accumulate in the atmosphere, temperatures rise, and will continue rising unless we try to reduce the amount of pollution we create. Already, some effects of global warming have begun to show, and with them come problems we aren’t yet prepared to face. Extreme weather is one of the more dangerous effects of global warming. Places in the U.S. such as Arizona, regions with high temperatures to begin with, have begun to feel the effects of pollution in the atmosphere in a very costly way. Wildfires have become much more common in the area, rampaging through large expanses of dry grasses and dead wood, using flash fuels to become more deadly than ever. On one occasion, a fire in Yarnell, AZ was so large and dangerous a team of excellently trained firefighters, known to some as “the Navy SEALs of their profession”, were called in to fight the blaze in the hopes they could save civilians’ homes and lives. Unfortunately, with such dangerous conditions, the firefighters couldn’t even save their own, as the wildfire overtook nineteen of the brave twenty firef ighters dispatched to the scene. The Wikipedia article on the Yarnell Hill Fire says, “It was the greatest loss of life for firefighters in a wildfire since 1933, the deadliest wildfire of any kind since 1991, and the greatest loss of firefighters in the United States since the September 11 attacks.”
An article by Rolling Stone claims that, “The problem will only get worse as extremist Republicans and conservative Democrats foster a climate of malign neglect.” In fact, some of these politicians remain persistent even in the face of overwhelming facts. Despite the recent increase in the intensity of these wildfires, Congressmen such as House Speaker John Boehner, ‘dismissed the reported proposal as "absolutely crazy."’ As strange as this may sound, according to the article many other politicians join him in continuing to attempt to rob eco-friendly causes of much-needed funds to help fight global warming. I, for one, believe that this needs to change. I can see that global warming is a serious threat, and even if some people continue to deny this, I will try my best to help reduce my carbon footprint in the hopes that I may save lives in other parts of the world, and suggest that others should to the same.