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
Weather not only in the U.S but all around the world has been changing. There have been floods, droughts, and heatwaves. All of these have had a huge impact on the world we know today. Floods are when a certain area of land gets overpowered by an extreme amount of water. A drought is when land lacks a certain amount of water which causes it to dry up. Heatwaves are very common, especially in California. It’s when the temperature levels of certain places rise to extreme temperatures.
I agree with your sentiment, I as someone who lives in a place known for its droughts has been trying to keep on eye on our weather. I believe that we also need to look at what is causing these changes. The most obvious answer being the climate crisis. This crisis has brought about sea level rise which can be connected to the melting of the ice caps but more importantly thermal expansion. This thermal expansion is creating a large group of warm water known as "The blob." The blob is around a thousand miles wide and 300 feet deep. This blob is part of the reason for the droughts. The rise in temperature and having a dry winter has affected the amount of snow fall. This can overtime affect our water reserves and is currently affecting the growth of plants like the sequoia tree which saplings depend on the slow melting nature of snow to grow.