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
This past summer of 2017, we've seen mass hurricanes destroying cities and towns all over the world. Climate change has had a major impact in the severity and happening of these hurricanes. According to "The Atlantic", climate change is being caused by mass emissions of CO2 and Methane. These gasses don't allow some of the sun's rays to bounce back into space which traps heat in the planetary system, raising the air temperature. This increase in temperature causes quicker evaporation. When excess amounts of water are evaporated into the atmosphere, more precipitation is released. Heavy rainfall is also caused by rising ocean temperatures. When the air is warmer, some of the heat is absorbed by the ocean, which causes the sea's upper layer temperatures to rocket. As the article by "The Atlantic" mentions, Texas was experiencing ocean waters around 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above average. This played a major role in the intensity of Hurricane Harvey.
If the US citizens and residents affected by the hurricanes were more educated about the causes of climate change, I believe t hey would take it more seriously. If they new that part of the reason these storms were so intense was because of climate change, I can predict they would take extreme measures to help lower the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.
This hurricane season has definitely increased my concern around climate change because it has shown us just a small part of what is to come if we don't start to prevent it.