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 and Its Impacts on U.S.
Global warming has many influences on extreme weather and climate events such as drought, heavy downpours, and hurricanes. Higher temperature caused higher rate of water loss of plants and eventually drought, which contributed to more than $10 billion loss to agriculture in the US. Also, heavy downpours increased nationally and caused an increase in flood in the Midwest and Northeast. From 1959 to 2005, floods caused 4,586 deaths and nearly $8 billion property damage in the US. Therefore, I think US citizens should definitely take climate change more seriously now, since it has a lot of negative impacts nationally. And there are more and more evidence shows that climate changes are actually caused by human activities. So it's really important for people to understand the result of global warming and to become more environmentally friendly.
If you want to learn more about extreme weather and its impact, here is an useful article: http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlig … me-weather