Hurricane Ophelia is headed toward Ireland and Britain. Although it started off as a Category 1, it quickly became a Category 3, breaking the record for the easternmost category 3 hurricane in history. However, it’s growing strength adds to the urgency for Britain and Ireland to prepare. While Ophelia is of a lower category than some of the other hurricanes we have suffered this season, it will still bring unusual forceful winds and rain for these countries. Both countries must prepare for the oncoming destruction.
There has been an unusual amount of hurricanes this season, and Ophelia is one of the strangest. Do you think this is a coincidence, or a sign of climate change?
What do you think political leaders could do to further help their citizens after natural disasters? How could we better prepare?
15 comments:
The best the leaders can do is to evacuate nearby towns that Hurricane Orphena going to hit. the article said that the hurricane won't be as bad only having wind speeds up to 80 miles but, it's best to prepare a full evacuation in case things get bad. It says they've been getting a lot of hurricanes lately with this being the 10th time that a hurricane is going to hit.
I'm not really sure that these strange hurricanes are a result of climate change because in the Atlantic, there are strange wind patterns that can suddenly course of direction. Climate change does not lead to more and vicious hurricanes. States like California will never experience hurricanes because of the wind patterns. I mean just because there is a violent storm, one can't just blame climate change for it because there are subtle storms and violent storms all the time. The environmentalists might simply be overreacting when they immediately come to a conclusion that the hurricane was due to climate change. The people could better prepare by notifying the citizens to evacuate into a safe house that protects the citizens from these kinds of natural disasters. In addition, the government should provide subsidies for the people to combat the disaster. Even though this disaster was unavoidable, people could still be transferred to a safe location that will limit the number of lives lost. I think the that the government is able to play a key role in assisting and allowing this to happen effectively and smoothly.
I personally believe that the increase in odd weather has been a result of climate change. Hurricanes begin in warm oceans, and global warming has increased the amount of warm water evaporation. Contrary to Stephen's claim, there are articles about how climate change influences hurricane patterns. Everything in the atmosphere now is impacted by the fact that the temperatures have risen, especially including extra water vapor in the air (flooding is a more dangerous factor than winds). http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/us/climate-change-hurricanes-harvey-and-irma/index.html
I think this is definitely a result of climate change. Although there are many factors contributing to a hurricane, I think that the recurring events of hurricanes that are supposed to be anomalies is a result of climate change. The main two points that environmentalists make about the dangers of climate change is the flooding of coastal cities and the increasingly erratic weather, such as large hurricanes or record setting droughts. One season of unusual hurricanes is not enough to definitively say that climate change is a fact, but with the recent event over the past decade, it cannot be a coincidence.
Hello Aech and Lucas. I'm sure you all learned about catastrophic events that killed many dinosaurs in the past. Was that a result of global warming? I don't think so. It is just natural disasters that come in cycles. You can't possibly have forever peaceful seasons with no unusual wind activity. The Earth doesn't roll that way. Thus, I believe it is indeed a coincidence. There is always possibilities for everything.
I agree with Aech and Luca's stance on climate change. While it's true that the KT extinction was caused by a meteor's collision with the surface of the Earth (as scientists have found evidence of thus far), other periods of mass extinction, such as the ice age, were caused by gradual climate shifts, accompanied by extreme weather patterns, as we see today. Objectively, the evidence provided by climate scientists points to a dramatic and sudden increase in CO2 and SO4 emissions that contribute to the rise in global temperatures and melting ice caps. The imbalance in the atmospheric water vapor that Aech points out is accompanied by an shift in ocean temperature creates these hurricanes and tropical storms to erupt in areas where they weren't historically present.
It's imperative that local coastal governments and central governments recognize the detriments of climate change and extreme weather patterns and help fund preparation, impact, and reconstruction of affected areas.
I believe that these natural disasters are due to climate change. While I understand that there are many different things and factors that take part in hurricanes, I think that there have been so many natural disasters and it has something to do with climate change. While natural disasters are sometimes difficult to predict, I think that it's important to notify and make the public aware of the current state to the best of their ability; this will enable people to evacuate and prepare for what is to come. I think the government should try to do a full evacuation of the expected area and transport the people with their important belongings to a safe place.
Ultimately, since we cannot experiment to determine causation, we can never for certain say that climate change causes anything. However, we do know that the climate is changing, and perhaps there is a correlation with natural disasters. Even though we are not sure if we can prevent those things, there is no reason to use that as an excuse to not try to deal with climate change, which could help prevent future issues and is a responsibility that is within our ability to manage. It is better safe than sorry, and it can easily be argued that spending to mitigate the effects of climate change is a good investment.
I am going to agree with Michael and partially with Stephen. What you believe or feel might have caused the recent increase in category 4 and 5 hurricanes is not necessarily what caused it, whether it be climate change or any other explanation. However, a causal relationship between such correlations as average sea surface temperature increase and global average temperature increase and/or increase in number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes can in fact be shown in a peer reviewed scientific paper. For a bit of research on the subject, here are quotes from a few papers on the subject: "Changes in Tropical Cyclone Number, Duration, and Intensity in a Warming Environment" by Webster et al from the journal Science says, "We examined the number of tropical cyclones and cyclone days as well as tropical cyclone intensity over the past 35 years, in an environment of increasing sea surface temperature. A large increase was seen in the number and proportion of hurricanes reaching categories 4 and 5" (Webster et al, 1844), "Large contribution of sea surface warming to recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity" by Saunders & Lea from the journal Nature says, "The results also indicate that local sea surface warming was responsible for [about] 40% of the increase in hurricane activity relative to the 1950–2000 average between 1996 and 2005" (Saunders & Lea, 557), and "Atlantic hurricanes and natural variability in 2005" by Trenberth & Shea from the journal Geophysical Research Letters says, "The 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season (1 June to 30 November) was the most active on record by several measures, surpassing the very active season of 2004... About 0.45°C of the [tropical North Atlantic sea surface temperature] anomaly is common to global SST and is thus linked to global warming" (Trenberth & Shea, 1). This is the bare minimum for providing evidence for my assertion that sea surface temperature increase can cause increase in powerful hurricanes, so to people on both the left and the right, please remember that climate change is a scientific issue before it is a political one. Your gut feeling is irrelevant on the topic; what is written in the papers is all that matters. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the last couple of category 4 and 5 hurricanes weren't caused by climate change; I'm simply saying that correlation does not imply causation, and that you must prove causation through reliable and valid sources. I, too, feel that climate change is a major factor in the recent hurricanes, but I have very little to base any assertion on the subject so I will refrain from making a claim on their cause. Unless anyone here can provide evidence for their assertions, I beg that you do the same. (PDFs for the sources given will be provided upon request, though a few should be publicly accessible online. Also, I can provide a link to an incredible series on the topic of climate change from which I've derived much of my knowledge on the subject.)
I believe that the cause in increase in category 4 and 5 hurricanes is very likely to be climate change. Even though Stephen used evidence of catastrophic events that killed the dinosaurs in the past to justify his position, many of these catastrophes were caused by outside factors. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor that caused an immense amount of climate change. There is definitely a correlation between climate change and the rise in these hurricanes. The warming of water is most likely causing abnormal wind patterns and in turn these hurricanes.
I like your vision Peter.
OK, I have no idea what dinosaurs have to do with anything. I do know however that because of how unpredictable weather is even modern science can not perfectly determine the cause of extreme weather events. While we can not determine whether climate change caused these extreme storms but it is fairly clear that the warming and expanding ocean has made these storms more catastrophic as the warmer ocean water has provided more fuel for the tropical storms and hurricanes (I'm not going to take the time to explain how hurricanes work, you can look it up) and higher sea levels have exposed previously safe areas to flooding (of course this is also do to some poor building practices).
This IS climate change. I do not understand how people think that about 4/5 hurricanes in less than three months is just a coincidence. We need to take more action in protecting our planet because it is the only one we have.
@gabby.godoy Based on what peer reviewed paper? I agree that I don't understand people who claim it's just coincidence, but that doesn't mean the only other explanation is climate change. There's already plenty of proof to indicate that we should reduce carbon emissions and invest in nuclear and other alternative fuels; so why make a reactionary claim that it has to be climate change? Climate change is not a political issue; it's a scientific issue, and as with any scientific issue, you need to prove it either through researching it through papers in peer reviewed journals (i.e. Nature, Science, etc.) or, if you have the qualifications and resources, writing a paper for peer review yourself. Seeing as none of us here have a PhD in climatology or other related fields, that leaves the first option to have an honest and factual debate on an issue such as climate change. Honestly, I think the fact that both sides of the debate usually fail to realize this is what gives deniers of the science of climate change an extremely unfair advantage, so I think we'd see a lot more progress if we could move this issue back into the realm of science and not politics. What we should do is a question for political debate, but what's actually happening is purely science. I really think both sides need to understand this.
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