Some people may ask, what is the relationship between extreme weather and global warming? I can affirm the two components are indeed related to each other. Many extreme weather events have taken place all around the world, and recent data has shown extreme is more frequent and severe than ever before. As we know, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing each year. Carbon dioxide emissions do not only increase the temperature of the earth, but it also causes extreme weather events to occur more frequently in forms of prolonged droughts, heat waves, storms, and heavy snowfall. People use fossil fuels as an energy resource, and in doing so, more carbon dioxide is released into the air contributing to extreme weather events. For example, the rise of sea levels, which is the result of glaciers melting because ocean temperatures have increased, or the high temperatures evaporating the water in the air causing rainstorms and floods to occur more often.
The graph above is the Global Temperature change from 1880 to 2016. The data shows how the temperatures have increased each year, as well as when record-breaking temperatures occurred. There is no evidence that the temperature will decrease in the future if people keep harming the environment. What can we do now in order to reduce the temperature? A simple solution would be to reduce energy consumption. For example, people should take public transportation or walk to their destination. The earth needs everyone to protect it. If people do not change their lifestyle and get out of their comfort zone, the earth will get worse every year. If everyone makes one small decision in order to protect the environment, the city will get better too. It is the most effective way to prevent the extreme weather that takes place in our world.
Besides affecting the environment, extreme weather events can cause direct loss of property and human life. The graph above shows the number of natural loss events that took place in the United States, and how that number of natural events has increased each year. This is a result of Global warming. The earth is the only place we can live; we should protect it, not to harm it. Therefore, if people want to reduce the natural events, everyone should do more in order to save our earth, such as doing more geo-scientific research so we can have a better understanding of how to efficaciously prevent the environment from becoming worse and reduce the damage of these natural events.
Finally, we can see the relationship between extreme weather and global warming. If people keep harming the earth, the extreme weather will continue to increase and it will cause a lot of damage to every human being on earth. People should find a way to reduce the increasing temperatures in our earth in order to reduce the extreme weather patterns. Therefore, everyone has the responsibility to protect our earth.
One Response
This post is very informative and I agree that global warming is related/causing extreme weather to occur more frequently and violently. Last hurricane season, we saw 6 major hurricanes that absolutely devastated and destroyed the Caribbean Islands, Puerto Rico and parts of the United States. It ranked as the 5th most active season since records began in 1851, it had the highest total accumulated cyclone energy and the highest number of major hurricanes since 2005. All ten of the season’s hurricanes occurred in a row, the greatest number of consecutive hurricanes in the satellite era, and tied for the greatest number of consecutive hurricanes ever observed in the Atlantic basin. It was by far the costliest season on record, with a total of at least $282.16 billion (USD) in damages, about $100 billion higher than the 2005 season. The season is also one of only six years on record to feature multiple Category 5 hurricanes, and only the second after 2007 to feature two hurricanes making landfall at that intensity.
This past winter season and even into early spring, was also very extreme and featured many snowstorms/nor’easters. In late December, a strong Arctic air mass, due to the weakening of the Northern Polar vortex, came down the core of the cold was centered in the Upper Midwest, Interior Northeast, and Eastern Canada. Temperatures were 10 to 20°F below average for that time of year. New Years Eve at Times Square had a temperature of 11°F (not including wind chill), and it was the second coldest day on record. On January 4th, 2018, a major blizzard hit the east coast dumping almost 2 feet of snow and the storm underwent what meteorologist call “Bombogenesis”. But what had everyone in shock was when 4 nor’easters occurred in almost every week in March. These nor’easters caused many travels delays, deaths, loss of property, beach erosion, coastal flooding and heavy amounts of snowfall. These extreme weather events are only a few that occur during a year. If global warming is not addressed, then these extreme weather events may continue to occur and only get worse.