How Did Climate Change Really Cause This Catastrophe?

First, global climate change is a serious problem because it increases natural disasters. If you have ever watched the news in your lifetime, you know that this issue is becoming more frequent and worse over time. “Globally, the number of reported weather-related

In the essay, “Global Warming is Eroding Glacial Ice,” Andrew C. Revkin argues that global warming is the primary cause for many of the world’s natural disasters; including flash floods, climate change, and the melting of the polar ice caps. He includes multiple accounts of expert testimony as well as a multitude amount of facts and statistics to support his theory that global warming is a threat to the world. However, in the essay “Cold Comfort for ‘Global Warming’,” Phillip Stott makes the complete opposite argument. He argues that global warming is nothing to be worried about and the melting of the polar icecaps is caused by the interglacial period we are currently in. After reading both of these essays and doing

Climate change is one of the leading global and political problems we face today. Recently, Texas experienced the worst flooding from a major hurricane in their history. Aside from Harvey in the United States, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal also had dangerous monsoons that caused massive loss of life and property. Although there have been fewer hurricanes in the last decade they have become significantly stronger causing more devastation wherever they make landfall. While Harvey gained strength just before landfall it stalled over Houston causing massive flooding before returning to the Gulf again. Climate change remains a divisive political issue, with a significant percentage of Republicans saying they don’t believe the scientific consensus that man-made industrial emissions are accelerating the rise of global warming due to climate

In the science article, “What we can say about the Louisiana floods and climate change”, Chris Mooney explains that Louisiana is always at risk of floods, naturally, but climate change is exacerbating that risk. He explains how heavy rainfall is influenced by a moister atmosphere, which is a relatively direct consequence of human-induced warming to explain how climate change aided to the floods. He also stated that there’s no question if climate change is playing a role but what the role is. Finally he says the floods weren’t “caused” by climate change but it’s the type of event you would expect to see on a more warming planet. The purpose of this article is to help give some sort of explanation as to why the floods in Louisiana

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have been some of the few drastic weather cases in America in the year of 2017. Though many agree with this fact, many struggle with the ideas as to why this phenomenon happened and what could have been prevented. Some individuals like Michael E. Mann believe that climate change is the problem; others like Alan Reynolds completely disagree. Michael E. Mann, author of the article "It’s a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly", discusses why Hurricane Harvey was far deadlier due to the human cause of climate change. Alan Reynolds dismisses Mann 's claim in his article "Don 't Blame Hurricane Irma and Harvey on Climate Change" and insists that climate change is not the reason for the high impacts

Additionally, "when the worst hurricane in American history roared into the port of Galveston, Texas, destroying thousands of buildings and killing an estimated 6,000-12,000 people. Harvey, thus far, has accounted for less than 100 fatalities. "(page 3). This shows that Texas was destroyed before by hurricane that caused 6,000 to 12,000 deaths while hurricane harvey only caused less than 100 deaths, which they are trying to say that climate change didn’t cause hurricane harvey. However, I believe that hurricane harvey was caused because of the climate

Greshko explains that this hurricane season has been so active because atmospheric conditions and surface seas temperatures have been warmer than normal. There have been other major hurricanes to make landfall on the continental US over the years but this season has still been unusual with two category 4 storms hitting land in a small space of time. It seems as though the longer it goes, the more severe it gets. Finally, Greshko concludes this article by talking about the cause of this catastrophic hurricane season being climate change. The climate plays a big role in weather and the warmer conditions will make for much worse tropical storms in the Atlantic. In the future individual will drop more precipitation in the future, since warmer air can hold more water vapor. The warmer temperatures are a result of human activity an if the climate continues to warm up then its predicted that storm surges will become much worse.

In the science article, “What we can see about the Louisiana flood and climate change” by Chris Mooney, he discusses that Louisiana is always at a risk for floods, but climate change is increasing that risk. In this articles he argues that climate change has already shown increased rainfall in many parts of the world which can be part of the problem of flooding. But he also does argue that climate change had nothing to do with the floodings, although it is an effect climate change may cause. Overall in this article he goes back in forth with facts and statements on how this could’ve or couldn’t have been a climate change cause.

Climate change is also having an effect on the rain, snow, and the hurricanes. The strength of hurricanes are getting more and more powerful each year. According to a study done by, "Signs of Climate Change", in the 1950 hurricanes were between and category 2-3

Hurricane Sandy was one of the most catastrophic hurricanes of 2012. I do think that climate change made the hurricane more intense because of the increase in water vapor due to warm temperature. Warmer atmosphere and oceans increased the effects of hurricane Sandy, because of the high level of sea. It changes the frequency and strength of the hurricane.

Disasters occur naturally, but climate change causes them to be more violent and more unpredictable. Climate change also makes it more likely that a natural disaster will happen. “The kind of surge related flooding that Superstorm Sandy brought to parts of New York City is about 50 percent more likely than it was in 1950” (Borenstein). Flooding on coast lines can be caused by the melting of the polar ice caps. The thing that causes the polar ice caps to melt is the rising temperature of the atmosphere. The melting of the polar ice caps is bad because it raises the level of the ocean. When the level of the ocean is raised it can cause less land to be by the ocean. Another way the rising temperatures of the Earth is catastrophic is the harm it does to some national parks. There are several national parks that are getting hit the hardest. A couple that are affected are Glacier National Park, and Joshua Tree National Park. “Across the West, bark beetles, which thrive on warmer winters, are infesting more and more pine trees, turning once-green hillsides into fire hazards” (Duncan). This is a problem because trees are major producers of oxygen, and they help take the carbon monoxide, that we breath, out of the air. Even though there is a lot of evidence that climate change is man made, there are still people who deny it and say that it occurs

Scientists are not sure that climate change directly affects the extremity of weather, but it is clear it helps the impacts. Andrew Freedman is a senior science writer for Climate Central, an independent research organization. He studies climate change. Hurricane Sandy clashed with the east coast in 2012. Three factors that could have effected it: sea level rise, non regular warm sea surface temperatures, and unusual weather pattern. Natural causes still predominately are main forces for situations like these. Global warming has increased the severity. Hurricane Sandy starts questions about Climate change impacting storms and weather patterns, and how vulnerable the east coast is. This is credible because it was written by an independent research

In the years ahead, climate change will have a significant impact on every aspect of the daily lives of all human beings -- possibly greater even than war. Shifting precipitation patterns and ocean currents could change where and how food crops grow. If icecaps melt and low-lying areas are flooded, as is predicted, entire populations could be forced to move to higher ground. The tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, provided vivid examples of what large-scale climactic catastrophes entail.

The question still remains, how does climate change actually affect these hurricanes? Global warming is known for causing higher ocean temperatures; It is predicted temperature would rise by 3° to 5°C (34° to 41° Fahrenheit) by the year 2100. Respectively, the number of hurricanes may also flourish expeditiously since hurricanes are formed when there is warm bodies of water. With the increase in temperature, ice would likewise melt worldwide from sources such as: mountain glaciers, polar ice caps, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and the Arctic sea ice. In fact, scientists anticipate sea levels to rise by at least 25 meters (82 feet) by the year 2100. Consequently, when there is a rising sea level, it is known to cause a more

This article discusses how catastrophic storms were very extreme this year, in line with climate change predictions. It mentions an article from Lancet Magazine that states" the volume of rain and flooding occurring over the past few weeks is "unprecedented and difficult to comprehend". Hurricane Harvey was Huston’s third 500-year flood in the last three years. Even though this is happening the odds of a hurricane hitting the east coast are still the same as 100 years ago. There is still disagreement in their scientific community whether or not global warming has contributed directly to these recent catastrophic weather events. It’s really impossible to say, but one thing is for sure, “the planet will be fine no matter what we human do". Theirs