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 today's population deals with adverse affects of climate change?
Watching the news as of late and gaining a better understanding about climate change and how it affects weather is very eye-opening and thought-provoking. Living in the south, in North Carolina, many coastal communities have been adversely affected by this climate change. Many of these communities are unprepared for the devastation that happens, sometimes in a very short period of time. If these events continue to worsen in the years to come as climate change and global warming increase, we can only hope that our communities, especially those that have been affected in the past will be better prepared and utilize resources effectively. My concern has significantly increased knowing that climate change is only progressing with the passage of time, it makes me wonder what the severity of hurricanes in the future will be, in comparison with that of the present and the past. The question comes to mind as to whether or not communities will be able to effectively rebuild after the effects of hurricanes. I hope that people take climate change seriously, but I am afraid those w ho are adversely effected by weather events will take it more seriously than those who have been adversely effected. Often times society takes on the mentality of "It will never happen to me" and because of this some people in our communities may not see weather events as a big concern.
Clayton, 15 North Carolina
Although I can't really relate directly cause I'm from Berkeley, I do agree that the fact that climate change in the world is creating so many extreme weather patterns is very eye-opening. It shows that the little things, when put in combination with all the other little things that the rest of the worldly population does, we realize that we are destroying the world, and we must stop, in order to at least slow down the destruction that climate change is indirectly causing.
I live very close to Berkeley and would suggest that extreme weather has and is already affecting Alameda County, where Berkeley is. Two examples I can think of include the drought we had for several years in a row and the related very high level of fire risk. Smoke from a nearby fire was so bad this year that our family had to buy some specialty masks to allow us to breathe safely. We wore these for about half a week before the air cleared enough to be safe. Another extreme weather condition is the constant rainfall this year, which is not typical. While we don’t have hurricanes or thunderstorms, we are experiencing weather changes with more severe weather in our own way.