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 >
Composting from hurricane damage
Recently Florida was hit by Hurricane Irma, so there are tons of plant foliage that was knocked down by the wind. People are cleaning up and they're having all the ripped out trees removed, and they're setting all the branches out to the side of the road for pick up along with trash bags filled with leaves and other things. I've seen peoples yard lined completely with branches waiting for pickup. They could be using the bags of foliage and whatnot to be composting and they could even use it so even out their yards o fill in the spaces where the trees were ripped out.
This is a really important observation -- throwing vegetation in landfills will mean excess methane production, a powerful greenhouse gas
I know what your are getting at with the bag usage that it should be used for other things as well, but ask yourself if you were in this situation what would you do. Personally I would definitely try my hardest to conserve as much carbon footprint pints as much as I could, but I would also like to survive. Honestly i get what you are trying to point out and i totally agree but you are comparing virtual life with real life. Because right this second we are both on a computer or a device that is producing a ton of CO2 that is polluting the earth in a way
Fair point, Kyler.
It is important to recognize that people recovering from these storms are primarily trying to put their lives back together.
But I think it's also true that environmental concerns shouldn't just go out the window in these situations, It may take just a marginal amount of additional community-level effort to mitigate a large amount of the environmental fall-out.
One more thing though, Kyler. You asked jkorup "ask yourself if you were in this situation what would you do."
I think you missed the fact that jkorup *is* in this situation, reporting on personal observations in Florida following Irma.